Group 6 Operating Agreement
Team Members & Roles:
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Ashley Hughes-Project Manager
Austin Chiluski-Research Manger
Derek Wiley-Formal Report Manager
Jessica Brown-Webpage Manager
Taylor Carlberg-Presentation Manager
Mission Statement:
As a company, Consulteestadors, Inc. has adopted a mission to not only thoroughly
answer all questions of our clients, but to also extend said clients’ knowledge of data mining
and warehousing in order to augment their company business practices.
Assignment Objective:
As a team, our objective is to fully complete the assignment in the hopes of
accomplishing the same objectives an actual consulting company would. We plan on
accomplishing this by completing an efficient amount of research into the topic of data mining.
The research will involve finding out exactly what data mining is, is used for, and concerns
about it. All of these topics will be researched in the context of businesses. After we complete
our research, we will generate a report, website, and video presentation to publicize our
findings.
All of us have completed research assignments before, but this one asks us to present in
a business format the results. As we complete the assignment, we will keep the following
concepts in mind:
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Purpose: develop communication skills related to business practices
Meaning to team: generate a know how so that we can use the skills learned
from this assignment in future career practices
Interpretation of instructions: research data mining in a business context in
order to generate a formal report, website, and oral presentation
We will research (all in a context related to business)
o Data mining definition
o Data mining uses
o Data mining abuses
o Data mining concerns
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Presentation of Findings:
o Formal Report
o Website
o Video Presentation
Equipment Needed:
o Computer
o Internet
o Student website server
o Video camera
o Video editing program
o Group Participation
Preparation and Quality:
Quality, according to Google is “the standard of something as measured against other
things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something” and/or “a distinctive attribute
or characteristic possessed by someone or something.” A quality submission should have all
the required elements, it should go into depth for each part, and include all correct information.
The submission must be neat and organized, and there should be obvious effort that was put
into it. A submission should be reviewed by the team at least two classes before it is due, to
ensure that it includes all the necessary parts and is up to standard with the project. The team
should occasionally look at works in progress to make sure we are all on the same page. Also if
a team member has questions about his/her part, then the team can also look at works in
progress to help out. Best versions of the submission should also be looked at carefully before
submitting.
Decision Making:
As a group, there will be many important decisions that will need to be pertinent to
success. Considering that our team members will be dedicating a lot of time and energy to this
project as well as others, it is important to us to collectively make decisions that will lead our
group to great success in hopes of getting a good grade. Our team has brought our ideas
together and decided upon using a democratic process to figuring out different decisions. This
is very important to our success as working together is a key part of this project. Without a
properly functioning team, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Upon deciding on a
consensus/ democratic process, we have deemed that although choices will be made
collectively, team roles will have a big impact on what way our votes sway. As the team
member assigned to a certain topic, we expect them to have great knowledge on their particular
field which will help in finding the best path to take. After meeting together and listening to
the team member responsible for that certain area, their thoughts on the best actions in their
role areas will be taken into consideration by all team members to ultimately decide with a
collective vote among the group. The choice will be decided with a majority rules process and
will help to keep our group working as functionally as possible.
Work Breakdown Structure:
PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
Our team has been instructed to design a software consulting website. This part of our
project should be accomplished fairly easily although it takes the effort of each individual to
create a single team group page. After already completing a web page earlier in the semester,
each of our team members should have decent experience as well as a firm grasp of the concept
than earlier this year. If any member begins to struggle in this part of the project other
members should advise the struggling member to help achieve maximum accuracy and
thoroughness for the web page task. Creating a personal biography and a description of ones
work experience should be of low difficulty as opposed to linking and posting the web pages
collectively which should be low to moderate difficulty.
A team member’s description of their group role should be an easy task. Every member
should know their role and should be able to talk about their position comfortably amongst
their peers. As for the consulting firms name and logo we will meet and discuss the possible
choices in class. This part should be decided very quickly, but we will need full cooperation
with all members. Photos of yourself for the individual/team web page should be easily
accessed and not present a problem due to the fact that all members have Facebook. If they do
not have a presentable photograph already another member will make time to assist the
individual without one and produce an acceptable photo that meets group standards.
For the Operating Agreement assignment everyone in our team should already know
their roles for completing the task. We have distributed parts of this Operating Agreement
using the point system. Every member is responsible for a minimum of 5 points and a
maximum of completing 15 points.
Finding three research websites that provide the best information about data mining
and warehousing should be a quick task. For this part I’ll recommend using Google scholar or
Galileo. Once everyone has access to these sites, finding credible information pertaining to the
topics will not be a problem. Kennesaw State University regularly provides the password to
Galileo to ensure an ease of access. If a team member struggles with this assignment we will
help each other out.
ROLES
When we assigned project roles to the team members we based the roles on strengths
and weaknesses of the member compared to a role. For the Project manager role we elected
Ashley Hughes. Ashley is a great communicator and utilizes e-mail and her phone to make sure
everyone is aware of their responsibilities. There has already been a meeting time and schedule
standard established by her. Ashley has already taken full initiative in making sure all members
are aware of their responsibilities and has worked diligently on completing the Operating
Agreement.
For the Web Manager role we elected Jessica Brown. Jessica let her skills required for
this role known to other members. She has worked on designing web pages before. The web
page layout should be accomplished by her quite easily and with little to no obstacles. If she
finds herself in a jam, Ashley has expressed her ability to assist Jessica when need be. Jessica
already knows how and where to find a web page template with which to work. Once this is
created all members will meet with her simultaneously and begin working on our own web
pages with the same layout that Jessica has provided.
The Research Coordinator responsibility was accepted by Austin. This job requires
extensive online and library research to provide the highest grade of research that is up to par
with group standards. Austin will be in charge of making sure that all resources are credible
and relevant to the assignment. If a team member submits work to me that is an unacceptable
resource he will have to make adjustments to their work and spend time to find a more
appropriate alternative. Austin’s work will mostly be conducted at the university’s library or at
home. All members must do their own research ultimately but can seek council if need be. At
the end of a member’s research Austin will check the authenticity of their citations and
references to ensure a maximum output of credibility.
Our Presentation Coordinator is Taylor. His role is to choose when and where we will
film for our research presentation. Taylor is also involved in the editing of the presentation.
This role will require Taylor to express his role as a group leader. All group members are
already aware that they must take part in the filming presentation and have their own original
speaking roles.
The formal report is a major part of the whole team assignment. We needed someone
who is good with Microsoft Word and can communicate well amongst the Research
Coordinator. Derek was chosen for this role. Creating an outline with research provided by
Austin will be one of the first priorities taken by Derek. The Research Coordinator must
provide Derek with all the information that he needs and will work with him as much as he can
to ensure team success. The Formal Report Coordinator will also be putting together sections
of the written report submitted by other team members. Being strong communicator and
talented report manager, Derek holds this role.
Attendance Policy/ Schedule:
Based on the free time of each member, we have collectively decided that Monday and
Wednesdays will be our meeting days. On these days, we will meet between three to five
o’clock depending on how much needs to get done. At the very least we will meet on one of
those days for at least thirty minutes to catch up and bring all of our research together. Along
with these meeting times outside of school, our team will use our in class time wisely to gain an
advantage with this little bit of extra time. As this project can mostly be done by ourselves, we
plan to use most of our free time to work on our assigned topics. Since we will be working very
hard on this project, we feel that every team member should have equal contributions and no
room for slackers will be tolerated. On our assigned meeting days we will all be present with
reasonable excuses acceptable. All team members will be held accountable and if slacking is
present, the teacher will be notified or these actions will be presented on our team member
analysis worksheet.
As a group, we have decided to set a strict guideline on all of the due dates along with
due dates assigned by the teacher. To use our time effectively, at least one to two class days
prior to class due dates, all members will turn in their independent work to the team member in
charge of that particular that role. This will be done to give the role member responsible proper
time to revise and put the work together as they see fit. After this process, before the due date
our group will meet and go over the project to make any further corrections that are needed.
This team work will effectively put our team in properly functioning roles and ease the process
of turning in our assignments.
Each section of the assignment is due to the related manager one week before the assignment is
due. Then, the related manager must have the final draft finished by the class before the due date so that
the team can look over it together and make suggestions/changes as needed. The internal and overall
due dates for each assignment are as follows:
Assignment
Date due to Manager
Date due to Team
Date due to Professor
Webpage
Sunday, October 20th
Friday, October 25th
Team Progress Report
Sunday, November 3rd
Partner Team
Submission
Sunday, November 10th
Wednesday, October
23rd
Wednesday, November
6th
Wednesday, November
13th
Partner Team Review
Weekend of November
16th (group effort-we
will split sections to
review)
Formal Report
Wednesday, November
13th
Wednesday, November
27th (have script ready
by this date)
Presentation
Weekend of November
16th (we will get
together and revise/go
over revisions as a
group)
Sunday, November 17th
Friday, November 29th
(we need to record the
weekend of this date)
Friday, November 8th
Friday, November 15th
(our copy due to
partner-team 15)
Monday, November
18th (team’s revised
copy due to partnerteam 15)
Wednesday, November
20th
Wednesday, December
4th
Non Performance:
While working on the project, we understand that everyone has other obligations and
other things going on in their lives. For this project, we need everyone’s contributions and
attention to their parts as well as others. If no effort is given from a team member or if
communication is lost between someone on the team, we will send out and email/text first just
to get in touch and see if they are still in class/still a part of the project. If we still haven’t
heard anything, we will send out another email including Professor Perry, and after that if
there is still no response, we will ask to have that team member removed from the group. If a
team member stays in communication but just doesn’t meet the standards of completing the
assignments or their quality of work isn’t up to par with everyone else’s, we will politely tell
them that we need more effort and help them if they need it. If the effort is still missing, then
we will try to distribute the unfinished parts or the part of the project that still needs work to
the other team mates and give that person a lower score on the team member rating at the end
of the project. Positive/Negative reinforcement will be used throughout the project. If a team
member is active, turns in their assignments and is helpful throughout the project, we will do
our best to acknowledge it and praise it the best we way we can. If a team member is not active
or is turning in unfinished/under-par work then we will let them know we need more effort or
their team member rating will be lower. We will do this so it is not a shock to them in the end
when they get a lower score.