Project Notes

Neil Ernst

2025-09-04

Team Roles

Key PR reviewer. This person is ready to give a second opinion on someone’s PR. They do a sanity check on the submission to make sure their system is still in sync. This role is probably also in charge of tracking deadlines, due dates, and meetings.
Editor. May be combined with first role. The editor is in charge of ensuring the document has a single ‘voice’, and has enough familiarity with technical writing, English peculiarities, and Markdown to make small changes and edits.
Tool wrangler. Takes charge of the reverse engineering tools that the team could use. Proficient in using an IDE, happy to download strange tools and explore how they work.
Code facilitator. This person has the most technical knowledge of the system. If the project works in C++, she has written enough C++ to be familiar with the language idioms. This person also knows how to build the system and run the tests.

Hitchhikers and Couch Potatoes

Hitchhikers are

never to blame
never around
do sloppy work that costs your group time
usually good at convincing people they want to do work
rely on your group to be self-sacrificing

The nicer you are, the more the hitchhiker takes from you, and the less he learns.

Couch potatoes are more interested in hanging with friends or watching tv than contributing to the project. They may be apologetic and usually are very friendly.

Approaches

Mirroring: Reflect back the dysfunction of the hitchhiker. Never accept excuses or blame from a hitchhiker. “Show you have a bottom line: there are limits to the behavior you will accept.”
Set limits and expectations high and early.
Keep a record for bosses, supervisors, professors to check what is happening.
It is not your responsibility for someone else failing the course.
Don’t just cooperate, but delegate.

References

“Turning Student Groups into Effective Teams”, Barbara Oakley, Rebecca Brent, Richard M. Felder, Imad Elhajj, Journal of Student Centered Learning 2(1) 2004