Working within a Team

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Planning
   1. Planning Process
   2. Communication
   3. Concept Report
   4. Types of Meetings
   5. Characteristics of a good meeting
   6. Team roles
   7. The Basis of Effective Teams
   8. Meeting Documentation
   9. Notice of Meeting
   10. Agenda
   11. Agenda Example
   12. Minutes
   13. Project Schedule
   14. Quality Plan
   15. Summary
   16. SAQ 1
   17. SAQ 2
   18. SAQ 3
   19. SAQ 4
   20. SAQ 5

Meeting Documentation

To actually start working on the development of the project, you will need to agree with your team members what the overall goal is, who is going to do which part and when, and how the parts are to be developed so that they can be combined later.

To get all of this information, and in agreement among 3-4 people, you must communicate!

Informal discussions happen all the time - you may well have several of these with your team mates when writing up the Concept Study Report for your group project. At this stage though, you need a more official, formal discussion so that all issues are noted.

When dealing with formal meetings, there is a specific procedure to be followed:

1. Let everyone involved know that you are requesting a meeting for a particular reason, and give them the date, time and location for this. This is known as a Notice of Meeting and can take the form of a memo, letter, poster and/or email communication.

2. Before the meeting starts (sometimes given at the same time as the Notice of Meeting), you need to let all those invited to attend the meeting what it is that's to be discussed and the order that these items will be mentioned in. Known as an Agenda, this lets everyone prepare for the meeting in advance so that they can bring up any important points at the relevant time.

3. During the meeting itself, it is important that all points raised are noted so that a summary of the full meeting is recorded. These are the Minutes and they should show what was discussed, more especially what was agreed (or ruled out), and any action points - a note of something that has to be carried out, by whom, and usually with a deadline.

When working in groups you should try to take turns in chairing the meetings as well as the duties of the minutes taker.

Next: Notice of Meeting