Team Charter

A team charter outlines your team's objectives, processes, expectations, and key milestones. It serves as a roadmap for your project and helps ensure everyone is aligned and working towards common goals. As always, remembers the 7 Cs of Communication as you write your Team Charter!

Teams and Team Charter

Watch this video to learn about team formation and how team charters can be beneficial.

Step-by-Step Guide

  1. Preparation:

    • Make a copy of the provided team charter template. If you followed the GitHub Project setup instructions, a copy of the template will be available on your project's Wiki page.
    • Schedule a meeting with your team to collaboratively fill out the charter. Allocate enough time to discuss each section thoroughly (approximately 2-3 hours).
    • Before the meeting, individually review the template and think about each section in the context of your project.

  2. Filling Out the Charter:

    • Goal:

      • Clearly define your team's overall goal. This should be a concise statement summarizing what your team aims to achieve with the project. Don't overcomplicate it. Keep it simple and straightforward.
      • Examples:
        • "Our goal is to create an engaging and interactive online learning platform for middle school students focusing on STEM subjects. The platform will incorporate gamified learning experiences, adaptive learning pathways, and collaborative tools to enhance student engagement and improve learning outcomes."
        • "Our goal is to develop an innovative web application that simplifies personal budgeting and financial tracking for young adults. We aim to create a user-friendly interface with unique features that distinguish our app from existing market options."

    • Project Information:

      • Include all relevant links to your project proposal, repository, and planning documents. Project scope, requirements, designs, and other details must be clearly defined in one of these documents.

    • Processes:

      • Decide on and specify your meeting schedule, communication tools, document sharing platforms, and task management methods.

      Here are some recommendations:

      • Weekly Team Meeting: Schedule a weekly meeting for your team to discuss progress, challenges, and next steps. This meeting should be held at the same time each week and attended by all team members.

      • Communication Tools: Use your favorite communication tools to stay in touch with your team.

      • Document Sharing Platform: Google Drive is a great option for sharing project documents. Create a shared folder for your project and add all team members as collaborators.

      • Task Management Method: Use GitHub Projects to manage your project tasks. Create a project board for your project and add all team members as collaborators.

    • Expectations:

      • Clearly outline the responsibilities of the sprint lead and other team members. Include specific tasks and behaviors expected from each role.

    • Key Dates and Milestones:

      • List important dates, deadlines, and milestones for your project. Ensure these are specific and agreed upon by all team members.

    • Weekly Sprint Report Schedule:

      • Establish a rotation schedule for the sprint lead role. Make sure every team member knows when they will be responsible for leading the sprint and submitting the report.

  3. Collaborative Discussion:

    • During the meeting, discuss each section of the charter thoroughly.
    • Encourage all team members to contribute their ideas and opinions.
    • Aim for consensus but be prepared to make decisions if there are differing opinions.

  4. Finalization:

    • After filling out all sections, review the charter together to ensure everyone agrees and understands the contents.
    • Make any necessary adjustments based on the team's feedback.
    • Once finalized, remove the instruction section from the document.

  5. Regular Review:

    • Periodically revisit the charter throughout the project to ensure it remains relevant and effective. Make updates as your project evolves.

The team charter is a living document. It should reflect your team's evolving needs and circumstances. Regular communication and flexibility are key to maintaining an effective charter.

Evaluation Rubric

Completeness

  • Exceptional (5 points): The charter thoroughly addresses all required sections with comprehensive details. The team's goal, project information, processes, expectations, key dates, and sprint report schedule are all explicitly and thoughtfully defined.
  • Proficient (4 points): The charter covers all sections with adequate details. Minor elements may be missing or less developed, but the overall document is well-constructed and informative.
  • Adequate (3 points): The charter includes most sections but lacks detail in some areas. Some elements may be briefly mentioned without sufficient elaboration.
  • Needs Improvement (2 points): The charter is missing significant details in multiple sections. Key elements are either too vague or not addressed adequately.
  • Unsatisfactory (1 point): The charter fails to address several critical sections or is largely incomplete, lacking sufficient detail to guide the team effectively.

Writing Quality (Adherence to the 7 Cs of Communication)

  • Exceptional (5 points): The charter exemplifies exceptional writing quality, adhering to clarity, conciseness, concreteness, correctness, coherence, completeness, and courtesy. The document is engaging, well-organized, and free of errors.
  • Proficient (4 points): The charter demonstrates good writing quality, adhering to most of the 7 Cs. It is clear and coherent, with minor errors or lapses in one or two of the 7 Cs.
  • Adequate (3 points): The charter adheres to basic standards of the 7 Cs but may have issues with conciseness, concreteness, or minor grammatical errors. The writing is functional but not exemplary.
  • Needs Improvement (2 points): The charter has several issues in clarity, coherence, or correctness. Writing quality detracts from the document's effectiveness, with multiple errors or structural issues.
  • Unsatisfactory (1 point): The charter demonstrates poor writing quality, lacking in several aspects of the 7 Cs. The document is difficult to understand, poorly organized, and contains numerous errors.

Total Possible Points: 10

Submitting Your Work

Your work must be submitted Anchor for degree credit and to Gradescope for grading.

  1. Export a pdf of your Team Charter document.
  2. One member of the team should upload the Team Charter document to Gradescope via the appropriate submission link for the course. That team member must be sure to select the rest of the team members when submitting.
  3. All members of the team must uplod a copy of the pdf to Anchor using the form below.