Task 2.3

Now it's Semester 2, 2010 and blogging begins again. This time for FIT2027 System Design & Implementation (SDAI).

For this task, I have been asked to answer a few questions. Questions regarding the nature of my team such as do i have a good team and why? What is required to be done as a group in order to be effective? how will team make decisions? how will you work together and how will you communicate?

Firstly, I believe that i have a good team. The reason being that it was my first choice team and i was glad everyone agreed to be part of my team. I consider my team to be a group of smart individuals who come up with bright ideas and have the relevant business as well as I.T skills required to do a good job for this unit. My team comprises of 4 people: Archana, Abdur Rehman, Farhanah and Kavinesh.

Moving on, I think as a group we need to be very frank with each other and be very helpful to each other so everyone feels comfortable in the team environment. Based on my experience of working with my team, we always look to divide work according to a person's level of ability and at same time provide guidance if they are stuck in some part of the task assigned to them. This requires each member of our team to be patient, considerate and compromise whenever possible.

For instance if one member has some other commitments or other priorities he needs to give attention, we postpone our meetings to a reasonable extent to accomodate their needs. Basically we have a good rapport with each other since we know each other and we know each one of us are responsible people who will do their work.

In order to be an effective team, we need to have good time management skills and be committed to doing the work for the unit. By time management skills i mean proper planning of how much each individual member can realistically give to do their parts, be available for group meetings and research to give valuable input to the team's final work. Because the amount of tasks to do for this unit can be tough at times so self motivation or motivation from team members is required and luckily my group members have those characteristics. Confidence in each one's ability and knowing strengths and weaknesses of each individuals helps to divide work appropriately, which means less conflicts and wastage of time.

The team will make decisions based on majority votes. We usually consult everyone about a decision in our meeting and first know about our member's opinion regarding a particular topic. Then we have a voting process and majority votes wins the argument and everyone respects the decision. The hardest decision so far our team had to make was this one situation when we voted and it was a draw. 50% agreed and 50% disagreed. We ended up convincing each individual of the team to change their opinion to make the majority votes win. This situation was about adding another group member or not to have 4 members or 5 members. Members agreed because it would have brought new ideas and workload would be reduced whereas members disagreed since it would lead to more conflicts and co-ordiantion problems especially since all members did not know the standard of work that the added member does. In the end after a thorough discussion our new voting results were 75% disagreed and 25% agreed.

Our group would usually communicate over the phone, via SMS messages and e-mails. We would book discussion rooms or work in labs that are less crowded to have more focus and discuss in peace. We would have meetings on days when everyone were not so busy with other commitments and when it was required to meet a deadline soon.

So far everything has gone smooth with my group and i am truly grateful to have such a group... :)