Self Assessment of Team Projects

Each team member working on a semester project is to evaluate his or her self 
and fellow team members on the amount of overall contribution to the project.

You are to perform this assessment in confidence, without talking to other 
team members, and are to send me email or deliver a hard copy document that
contains the following:

  1.  Percentage breakdown of effort on project

      Examine the time and effort each team member of the project
      spent over the course of the semester, in the areas of:

      a. background preparation needed to get up to speed
      b. contribution to initial specification
      c. contribution to mid-semester report
      d. contribution to final presentation
      e. contribution to final report

      While it would be ideal if there was an equal percentage
      contribution, it wouldn't occur in practice.  You also need 
      to consider if all team members started with the same background.
      For example, if you did a project related to Object-Oriented Design
      Patterns, and three of four team members knew about patterns and
      had used them in development while one member was new to the concept,
      it would be unfair to say that that new member didn't contribute
      an equal amount.  If someone has to spend 2-3 weeks getting up to
      speed on a technology, that represents their effort towards an
      overall team project.  Just because that is not counted in the final
      or interim documents that are developed, doesn't mean that the person
      did not do his/her fair share.  The key is whether everyone put in the
      "same" effort and time commitment towards the project.  You don't want
      to penalize someone that needed to acquire background.  Likewise, if 
      you feel that a team member did 10% and you and the rest of the team
      did 90% (e.g., 10%, 40%, 50% for a three person team), you must be
      honest in your self-assessment.

  2.  Documentation/lines of code/percentage breakdown on the prototyping

      This is a complement to 1., and focuses on the amount of documentation,
      lines of code, and effort on the prototyping.

      a. Which UML diagrams were you primarly responsible for consturcting?
      b. Which files/classes were you primarily responsible for? Count lines
         of code using wc on unix or some other facility.  
      c. Which files/classes were you secondarily responsible for? Count lines
         of code using wc on unix or some other facility.  
      d. Overall, estimate you precentage contribution in documentation and
         prototyping.

  3.  Grading estimate for yourself and your team members.  If you were
      grading each other on a scale of 1 to 100, what grades would you 
      assign?
      a. Give yourself one grade for non-code that includes specification, 
         midterm report, final report, and presentation.
      b. Give yourself one grade for documentation (UML), code, testing, etc.

  4.  Grading estimate on your overall project - again use a 1 to 100 scale.

  5.  Any other confidential comments you wish to share about the team 
      experience and your project in particular.  I am particularly interested
      in your view of the team as a cohesive (desirable) or disjoint (undesirable)
      unit over the course of the semester.

This information, provided in confidence, is ADVISORY only.  I may take it
into consideration or I may not in your final project grade.  I don't want
people to team up and try to get another person on the team.  I am looking
for candid and honest assessment.

For example, I used this approach with a team where one of the members honestly
indicated that they didn't carry the load and did about 10%-20% of the work in
a three person team.  He self-graded himself at either a B- or C+ if I recall.
This was echoed in a nice and constructive way by the other team members self
assessment.  

Try to be constructive and fair in the process - as you leave UConn to take jobs,
you'll be surprised how much assessment will play a role in your future careers.

Suggestions for Final Report

Finally, here are some helpful suggestions that may be useful in putting
together the conclusion section of your report:

  A. What you did as a individual/team on your project this semester.
     Did you do all you expected to do?  What was left to do that you 
     meant to do? Did you do more than you expected to do?

  B. What is left/remaining to do on your project.
     Classify as:  Easy changes - bells and whistles
                   Major changes - need another student or more

  C. A Rundown of the team oriented experience.
     Here, focus on what went well, what went wrong, where you had trouble, etc.

These are reflective comments about the process and team-oriented experience
(point A and C), as well as an outline of future work.

Hand in Requirements
In addition to hard copies of your final report and powerpoint presentation,
please also hand in electronic copies of them.  Also, hand in an electronic
copy of any UML project that you created and prototype software.