INFO3600 Capstone Projects Week

This lab and week Group work terminology based on Big-5 – Cf. XP roles and methods First user stories Research Grading for Week 5 and 6 assessments

Research Academic literature

Identifying seminal work Google Scholar – Careful choice of terms eg plagiarism detection – Older work with many citations What is many? – Newer work in strong venues What Is strong? How to determine what is strong? – Google Scholar metrics Top publications - Human Computer Interaction Top publications - Computational Linguistics – CORE Portal CORE Portal

Research into commercial offerings Google – Reviews – Product descriptions – Blogs in the area Ask your client – Find out the right vocabulary – Find out what your client cares about – Think laterally about various dimensions of the project

How to share out the work? Identify at least one academic topic for each team member to explore And one commercial topic Replicate as well so you can compare results On your personal Bitbucket page, make a link to your own research results On a group BB page, contribute to a summary – Probably best done as a group (or in subgroups then the whole group)

About working in groups And learning how to do it more effectively

Why is this here? Provides vocabulary which aids communication and thinking Enables you to report challenges faced and strategies used to overcome them Use these terms in reports Connect them to XP terms, roles and processes

Why group learning? Group Work Success Factors Learning Individual Learning Motivation Cognition Learn to Work in teams Collaborative Learning Values Social Capital

Learning group work skills is very important Reflected in accreditation requirements Reflected in University’s generic attributes Project and Team Skills (Level 3) Level 3: Small project proficiency. Proficiently applies standard project management tools & methods for assigned project activities on a small team scale.

Problems for groups Establishing common ground Social loafing (free-riding) Increased rudeness/aggression Tend to focus on task/production at the cost of catering to psychological needs Tend to focus on action at the cost of reflection  Frustration with quality of interaction  Feel collaboration overhead too high Groups producing solutions very quickly are often the least stable

Big Five Theory Team Effectiveness Salas, Eduardo, Dana E. Sims, and C. Shawn Burke. "Is there a “Big Five” in teamwork?." Small group research 36.5 (2005):

3. Back-up Behavior 2. Mutual Performance Monitoring 4. Adaptibility Goal: Team Effectiveness 1. Team Leadership 5. Team Orientation S2. Mutual Trust S1. Shared Mental Models S3. Closed Loop Communication Support

Team leadership Ability to direct and coordinate the activities of other team members, assess team performance, assign tasks, develop team knowledge, skills, and abilities, motivate team members, plan and organize, and establish a positive atmosphere.

Mutual performance monitoring The ability to develop common understandings of the team environment and apply appropriate task strategies to accurately monitor team mate performance.

Backup behaviour Ability to anticipate other team members’ needs through accurate knowledge about their responsibilities. This includes the ability to shift workload among members to achieve balance during high periods of workload or pressure.

Adaptability Ability to adjust strategies based on information gathered from the environment through the use of backup behaviour and reallocation of intra- team resources. Altering a course of action or team repertoire in response to changing conditions (internal or external).

Team orientation Propensity to take other’s behaviour into account during group interaction and the belief in the importance of team goal’s over individual members’ goals.

Three Support Elements

Shared mental models An organizing knowledge structure of the relationships among the task the team is engaged in and how the team members will interact.

Mutual trust The shared belief that team members will perform their roles and protect the interests of their teammates.

Closed-loop communication The exchange of information between a sender and a receiver irrespective of the medium. Easy case: 3-step communication

Priority tasks for this week Based on tutor feedback, refine, improve, complete targets for this week. Select first target stories, with client agreement that they are the top priority, with allocation of work to each team member Research foundations ready to share with the client and to seek advice on what they would like you to research