Decision making and Organization

[Jeff Hardman]

I am a bit of a 'youngin' when it comes to FSAE and the program here at U of I, but I made a big leap into getting involved today. The situation looks like this: we have a number of students who are going to be designing for the car as their senior design project, some of which will be done as early as this summer and others (such as myself) who will be here until the '06 competition rolls around. Along with this, our advisor has come up with a list of projects that we would like to accomplish between now and then. The problem is that in an initial survey of our interests there are a large number of people who would like to tackle the flashy projects and a serious lack of interest in other less fancy, but ultimately crucial projects. I volunteered to set up and take charge of the meeting at which we divvy up the projects and build the timeframe and goals for them.

I might be in a bit of a unique situation here, as in reading past posts it seems that most other schools have a different overall structure. However I'm going to throw this out there anyway. What I would like to know is:

>How has your team resolved these sorts of conflicts? (where there is too much interest in one project and not enough in another)

>How do you come up with your goals, and what are some main goals to achieve?

>How do you prioritize the different goals and projects into a schedule?

Thank you in advance for any insights that you may have on one or all of these areas. I'm meeting up a few other members that took the plunge this weekend to talk over these issues, and hopefully get a hold of the vets too (guys like Sam Z. if he reads this http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif )
Thanks again,

-Jeff

[Jeff Hardman]

I am a bit of a 'youngin' when it comes to FSAE and the program here at U of I, but I made a big leap into getting involved today. The situation looks like this: we have a number of students who are going to be designing for the car as their senior design project, some of which will be done as early as this summer and others (such as myself) who will be here until the '06 competition rolls around. Along with this, our advisor has come up with a list of projects that we would like to accomplish between now and then. The problem is that in an initial survey of our interests there are a large number of people who would like to tackle the flashy projects and a serious lack of interest in other less fancy, but ultimately crucial projects. I volunteered to set up and take charge of the meeting at which we divvy up the projects and build the timeframe and goals for them.

I might be in a bit of a unique situation here, as in reading past posts it seems that most other schools have a different overall structure. However I'm going to throw this out there anyway. What I would like to know is:

>How has your team resolved these sorts of conflicts? (where there is too much interest in one project and not enough in another)

>How do you come up with your goals, and what are some main goals to achieve?

>How do you prioritize the different goals and projects into a schedule?

Thank you in advance for any insights that you may have on one or all of these areas. I'm meeting up a few other members that took the plunge this weekend to talk over these issues, and hopefully get a hold of the vets too (guys like Sam Z. if he reads this http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif )
Thanks again,

-Jeff

[gug]

Adelaide also treats FSAE as a senior design project.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> &gt;How has your team resolved these sorts of conflicts? (where there is too much interest in one project and not enough in another) </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

we just basically asked people to help out with different projects till the design teams were balanced. we were lucky i guess. if that doesnt work, you might want to try handing out all the little jobs too, things like: organising transport to and from the event, accomodation, organising a trailer, writing the design report, presentation event, organising driver selection, etc., etc. maybe after handing out enough of those jobs people will start to realise that this project is about competing a car, rather than designing the best suspension system, and will thus do the work that is required rather than the work they want to do. of course, it might just disillusion them and you'll get half the team dropping out...


an idea that the Adelaide team has taken on this year (im kinda alumni now) is to have the car built first. then everyone with their untested ideas can go off and research their stuff and then generate bolt on parts (and if their idea is bigger than a bolt on part i think it will be put in the bag for next year).

i think its a good strategy, and it will help them bring a properly tested car to the competition, while keeping all the members who want to try out their crazy ideas happy.

as im sure Sam and anyone else will tell you, the biggest goal you should have (if you are aiming to do well at the comp.) is to get in several months of testing.


one thing you should watch out for. when people believe one area of the car is a certain person or group of people's job, it can cause problems. if that area isn't ready by the deadline, some people will use the excuse "its that person's part" to avoid helping finish the part. our team thankfully avoided that, but i could easily see it happening when the car is a senior design project.

good luck. there is a great paper written on organising a FSAE team, its on a webpage somewhere that i can't remember. someone will probably post it up here, or you could search the forum for it. its worth reading.

[Jeff Hardman]

Thanks for the help gug, I will bring these ideas up. On the subject of the paper, I found the link to the one i think you're talking about, its definitely been a help.

-Jeff

[Big D]

Ummm, care to post that link? I'm interested http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Jeff Hardman]

Here's the link:
http://www.sae.org/students/fsae_organizingteam01.htm