It was a three men team, with the other two from India. As I was not able to fully comprehend their English, we decided to communicate through emails after the initial meeting. Mr. A was assigned as the leader and it was decided that we would send our part of codes to him after we have completed so that he would be able to join them together and submit the final copy.
However, after the first submission, Mr. A went missing, that is all my emails that I sent him had no reply, calling him directed me to his voicemail. So I decided to start the project with Mr. B instead and get the ball rolling. We split the project into two parts with each of us doing our own part and sent each other our codes for peer marking.
As the deadline drew near, to my surprise, I realised that he was unable to perform the task given to him due to unknown reasons. so I had to take over his part as well and complete the project on my own. The funny thing is, it seems that Mr. A's email account is only active when the deadline draws near. Just before I was going to send him my final copy of the code, he replied my mail and asked me where is the code? I held back my emotions and did as he asked.
This carried on all the way till recess week, with about five weeks of solo work. It was during this recess week that I had to leave Singapore for various reasons for a couple of days and the mini projects did not stop coming. Therefore I sent out emails pleading them to complete the project to their best ability before I left.
When I came back, to my surprise nothing was done and the reason they gave was as follows:
Mr. A : No time for it, My Co-Curriculum Activities(CCA) took up all of my time.
Mr. B : Sorry I tried but I do not know how to do.
It was like the day before the deadline and nothing was done. I could no longer hold back my anger and I gave Mr. A a sentence, "So you came to Singapore to do CCA?" Immediately my hand phone rang and all I heard was "!$#@%@%*", therefore I ignored him and hang up the call.
My question is : How would you resolve this conflict, taking into considerations of the time-limit, complexity of the project and a constanly ringing hand phone?
P.S !$#@%@% is some vulgar language which I do not understand. Thank You.
Hi Malcolm,
ReplyDeleteBeing in the same course as you and going through the same project, I have to agree that the scope given to us was really huge. With the huge amount of code, figuring out the syntax error was indeed frustrating with intensity magnified when doing it alone.
Here are some of the ways I suggest to solve the conflict. Firstly I think that there was too little face to face meeting. Of course, a face to face meeting would not ensure that everything turn up well but it would probably lower the chance of getting excuses like “I don’t know how to do” or “I have no time for the project”. It would take real courage for someone to tell that to you face to face than through communication channels like emails or smses where they feel that they are protected hence more defensive behind these communication channels. It would probably make them try harder before coming up with an excuse.
Secondly, given that the time limit and the complexity of the project, the more your group should meet up to solve those problems together as a Chinese proverb says “The wisdom of the masses exceeds that of the wisest individual”, meaning in your situation three brains are definitely better than one. Even if your group members are unwilling to help, you can still ask for help or hint from your course mates or the lecturer.
Thirdly, as we are still amateur in programming, splitting up the project into parts might not seem to be a good method, reason being programming codes that worked alone may not work when combined together without good cooperation on both sides.
Finally, this would be the last resort which is to approach the lecturer for help on your ‘helpful’ group members. However, this would mean that the conflict may not be solved or may even deepen due to 3rd party intervention. In the real world, one would not be able to solve all conflicts and problems, at least solve one of it, which is your heavy project workload.
Glad that you still managed it alone. =)
Hi Malcolm,
ReplyDeleteI understand that it must had been a very difficult position to you, especially if everyone seems to ignore the project. I had been in your position too.
I think instead of communicating through email, you could try to meet up with them to discuss the progress of the project, even if it was a short meeting. It is to make sure that everyone is clear with what they have to do and also for the assurance of their commitment.
After a face-to-face meeting, you could continue the discussion through email and reminded them to complete the assigned tasks before the next meeting.
I still think that meeting is very important, especially if the project is complicated. Communication through email is just to assist us in clearing things that was not settled in the meeting.
Hope it helps! :)
Pearls of wisdom from Yi Cun. I agree with him completely. One more thing though- did you start the project with a clear understanding of each person's workload and agree to deadlines? THis is a must and it must be done in writing and tabled like what we are doing with our wiki so that there can be no instances of selective memory. Also the supervisor must be kept informed from the start.
ReplyDeleteAs it was a series of mini project, the deadlines were like by the end of every week. and there is simply no way of contacting "CCA boy" and i did meet up with the other member for a few times. And it didn't really help much with split workload between the two of us, in the end i'll still have to cover his part due to the tight deadline.
ReplyDelete