Seabase I Case Study

Module I

On Monday, Oct. 11, the CS team meets, with Bob absent:

Minutes of Oct. 11 CS Team meeting

They discuss ideas about "how to stay on track", using the to-do lists and risk documents. They also brainstormed, coming up with some drawings, two rough requirements, and an edited timeline.

The to-do list includes an item "learn Matlab/simulink", as well as the need to clarify the meanings of various crane terms.

JoAnn and Bob attend the Oct. 13 Team Leaders meeting:

Minutes of Oct. 13 Team leaders meeting

They receive answers to their crane-related questions.

JoAnn's email on Wednesday, October 13, requests an early meeting, and provides minutes of the leaders meeting (with some accomplishments), among other things:

Hi Ken and Bob:

I think we need to meet this week. Can we meet on friday 
instead of waiting until monday?

Bob, Ken and I met this monday in the conference room in fisher 
CS department as planned and I'm sorry I haven't done minutes yet from it.

We were expecting to meet every monday at noon in that 
room and welcome your input, can you meet then?

I got some faculty input that helps me at least to 
understand going forward and want to share it in meeting, maybe friday?

could be meeting during class time on thursday (tomorrow).

Bob, We had some edits for the timeline.

See you in half an hour.

Ken and Bob respond on Thursday:

i'm not going to be able to make it to class today. i have two tests tonight
that were scheduled at the same time so i need to make one up during the teachers
office hours (our class time). can we meet tomorrow around 1230?
-Ken

I cannot make it tomorrow, I have a Project Management meeting from 12p-2p
tomorrow, then class from 2-3 and a meeting after that.
-Bob

So an early meeting does not happen:

Ken and Bob: Looks like meeting monday at noon is it then. See you in CS
department conference room on monday at noon.

--JoAnn

(NO meeting friday)
  1. Note: JoAnn's request to meet in emails she sends out.
    • JoAnn is surely justified in wanting to get things moving. Does it seem that she is "pressing" Bob? Ken?
    • Do you see JoAnn as a villain, or a good manager? Explain.
    • How are Bob and Ken responding?
    • What effect does JoAnn's saying she's "sorry" have, if any?
  2. Note: The first entry on the Oct. 11 to-do list is "learn MatLab".
    • Has this come up before?
    • How is the progress on this task?
    • Who is responsible for this task?
  3. There appears to be confusion remaining about crane parts.
    • Where was this discussed earlier?
    • What could the CS students do to avoid this confusion?

From the emails and notes, we can see JoAnn "pressing" her team (esp. Bob) to get some things happening, but the results are limited.

Possible class activity: Have the students read through this interchange on their own time, and develop written responses to the questions (and any others you might think of). Then, in class use these short responses to discuss Leader/Team relations as they see them here; or have them draw on own experience in group work-in classes, coops, jobs etc. Try to elicit ways they have dealt with this all-too-common problem in the past, and have others suggest options.

Especially, try to bring out responsibility in group work. Getting students to understand/appreciate JoAnn's position will "set them up" for the turnaround in the next module.

There is research available (some on the web) on what it means to be a "team" vs. a "group". Either instructor could provide a short article or, if time permits, have students research topic and report results back to class orally.

The language JoAnn uses would be interesting to examine as well. She is being very accommodating with her team. This is an opportunity to think about assertive language, and (maybe) how it is often reflected in gender issues. Difficult area, but implicit in the transcripts, and certainly "out there in the real world".

The team is still struggling with definitions (crane parts like luff, slew, etc; and associated functions). Good entry into importance of getting this done early, and documenting it clearly.

  • This was already explained in Module E. Why the need for another explanation? Was the original explanation not recorded?
  • Also could lead to more discussion of "another language" ("ME-ese"), and another opportunity to point out that, as CS, they need to develop facility with/ strategies for doing this "translation".