CSE 370: Software Engineering Principles

W06 Team Activity: Case Study Discussion

Overview

Meet with your team and follow this outline to discuss this week's case study.

Instructions

(Before the meeting) Prepare yourself

Before meeting with your team, you need to:

If you have not read the case study you will not be able to participate with your team.

Begin with prayer

The lead student should ask someone to pray to begin the meeting.

Review the case study basics

Discuss the following:

  1. Why was setting up a new warehouse in Los Angeles so much harder for Frank's team than setting up one in the Cincinnati area?
  2. When Frank looked at the estimate, what did he do to squeeze time out of the schedule?
  3. What was Sylvia's role, and how did Frank ultimately address the problem of Sylvia leaving?
  4. What impact did the electrician supplier problem pose for the team?
  5. What was the problem with the warehouse software management system when they tried to install it at the new warehouse?

Identify Christlike attributes

Disciples of Jesus Christ

As a team, discuss the following:

  1. Are there any people or actions in this case study that exemplify the way the Savior would act in that circumstance?
    • If so, do you think acting this way was difficult for that person?
  2. Are there any people in this case study that behave contrary to the teachings of the Savior?
    • If so, how could that person have achieved their overall goal in a different way?

Dig a little deeper

Answer the following questions:

  1. How was Brooks' law manifest in this project? What impact did it have on the project?
    2. After you have answered the question, expand this box.

    After Sylvia left the company, they had hard time replacing her. During this time, the project became late for various reasons, including the fact that they had lost Sylvia. To solve the problem, the added a new person, Julio to the team. This is a perfect example of Brooks' law, because they added an additional person to the late project.

    The impact to the project was that, just as Brook's law would predict, it slowed down the development. Julio had to come up to speed on the new project, and it took time away from the other engineers to help train him.

  2. Describe the culture of psychological safety that existed on Frank's team when he first shared the timeline for the project. Did people feel comfortable speaking up? Why or why not?
    3. After you have answered the question, expand this box.

    It appears that Frank's team generally had a good culture of psychological safety. Before making a commitment to Daniel, Frank wanted to counsel with his team about it. They felt free to share their honest estimates with him. In addition, when Frank told his team that he had changed the estimate, Jimmy felt comfortable telling Frank that this was not the estimate they had agreed on, rather than Jimmy just being quiet about it.

    Interestingly, it is likely that Frank's decision not to honor the team's estimate will likely damage the culture of psychological safety moving forward, because the team may not feel that their responses were taken seriously.

Analyze the case

Answer the following questions:

  1. When Sylvia left the company, Frank was faced with an Iron Triangle dilemma. Describe the three parts of the Iron Triangle in this context. Which of the three did Frank try to adjust and was he successful?
    2. After you have answered the question, expand this box.

    In this case, the three parts of the Iron Triangle are:

    • Scope / Quality: The project had a fixed plan for the requirements that were included, and they didn't want to remove any.
    • Time / Schedule: The project was on a strict schedule with a firm deadline that they did not want to adjust.
    • Cost / Resources: In this case, the cost of the project can be thought of in terms of the resources, or the number of employees on the team. By losing an engineer, the were reducing the amount of resources, so this would impact the other parts of the triangle.

    Frank tried to get away with not sacrificing any parts of the triangle to accommodate the loss of resources, and this is a key reason that the project ultimately failed.

  2. Were there any situations in this case study where communication was not as open and honest as it could have been? What was the ultimate impact of this?
    3. After you have answered the question, expand this box.

    There are several places in the case where communication could have been improved. Here are some examples:

    • At first, Frank tried to represent to Daniel the honest estimate of the team, but he ultimately caved. Daniel got what he thought he wanted (the team to commit to finishing the project in three months), but ultimately the truth was that the project could not reasonably be done in three months.
    • Frank could have been more open with the details about the reasons the team made the estimates they did.
    • There could have been more open dialogue with the warehouse software management system vendor to eliminate the ultimate issues where the older version of the system could not be used.
    • There could have been more earlier conversations about the team's inability to find a new frontend engineer. This could have helped them get Julio, or another person on the team earlier.
    • Did your group identify any others?

Conclude

As you finish your meeting, select a person to be the lead student for your next meeting.

Submission

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