MGMT 240: Intro to Information Systems
Sample Group Contract

The purpose of the Group Contract is to help your group work more effectively by managing everyone's expectations and tracking performance. By far, the biggest problems I've seen with student groups stem from a lack of explicitness in roles, responsibilities, and communication. For example, some people like to get started on the work early in the term, some prefer to live on the edge and wait until the last minute. While each of these strategies has different results, the turmoil comes from the conflicting styles and persists because group members fail to work out the conflict.

Please note: if you are having a problem with a particular group member, you or your group should approach this individual and respectfully voice your concerns. Provide this group member is opportunities for improvement, assign alternate parts of the project for which this person may feel more comfortable. I expect you to work through minor difficulties on your own. If problems persist, you need to let me know about it quickly...

As part of Milestone 2, your group must develop a set of performance measures that must be met by each member. At the middle of the semester and again at the end of the semester, you will each grade each other on the basis of performance on these measures. You must have between 4 and 8 measures, equally weighted. Fewer than four would be meaningless, more than 8 would be unmanageable. For each measure, you must also attach numbers to specific behaviors, as the first two sample measures illustrate.

What follows is only a suggestion, please feel free to explore this area as a group and devise your own criteria.

The following are some evaluation criteria that a more general in nature:

1. I will show up to all meetings ready to work. If something important comes up that forces me to miss a meeting after I've agreed to it, I will email or phone at least one group member who will be at that meeting to let them know I will miss it. I will catch up on what was discussed BEFORE the next meeting; I will not take up time during the next meeting to catch up.
   
   Sample Measures:
   • 10 -- attended all meetings, on time, ready to work,
   • 7 -- attended all meetings but often wasn't ready to work, or was late
   • 5 -- missed over 20% of the meetings and typically wasn't ready to work
   • 3 -- missed over 50% of the meetings and was never ready to work
   • 1 -- missed all the meetings.
     

   
   

2. I will explicitly (either verbally with group members or through email) agree to task deadlines and I will complete my individual assignments by those deadlines. If I can't complete my task by the deadline because of schedule disruptions, I will call at least one group member to explain the problem and will commit to a new deadline with that person. If I can't complete my task because it proves to be more difficult or complex than I originally thought, I will call at least one group member to ask for help. At the next meeting I will explain why I couldn't finish the task and, with the group's help, reorganize the task and set a new deadline.
   
   Sample Measures:
   • 10 -- consistently agreed to reasonable deadlines, completed tasks satisfactorily and on time,
   • 7 -- mostly agreed to reasonable deadlines, completed most tasks satisfactorily and on time,
   • 5 -- usually avoided making deadlines, completed about half the tasks satisfactorily and on time,
   • 3 -- avoided making reasonable deadlines, consistently failed to complete tasks satisfactorily and on time.
   • 1 -- completed no tasks satisfactorily and on time.

   
   

3. I will listen sympathetically to the problems my group members have with completing tasks, and will always think to offer solutions or "work arounds" to help work get done. This, of course, works well until a group member consistently fabricates excuses why work has not been completed.
   
   
4. I will volunteer for task assignments rather than avoid them. I do this because I realize that the more work I get to do properly, the more I will learn about the subject, and the better off I'll be.
   
   
5. Keeping #4 in mind, I will not take on more than my fair share of work thus keeping others from getting involved, nor will I be unnecessarily dictatorial in telling others what to do.
   

Of course, some of you may be happy with more specific criteria by which to measure the contributions of your fellow group members. In this case, here are a few that are more tangible and concrete in nature:

I will do my best to make every contribution that I can to the content and the organization of both the paper and the presentation.

Sample Measures:

• 10 -- was a strong contributor to the paper and presentation, performed research and interviews nessary to complete the paper and presentation, played an important role in organizing both the paper and the presentation
• 7 -- mostly agreed to reasonable contributions, completed most assigned tasks, could have been more helpful
• 5 -- usually avoided making a contribution, completed about half the designated tasks
• 3 -- avoided making contributions, consistently failed to complete tasks that were assigned
• 1 -- What? You were a member of our group? Are you serious?

I will keep in touch with the contacts at the company and my fellow group members, and will take good notes during any meetings with our organizational contact.

Sample Measures:

• 10 -- was an excellent communicator, performed followup after interviews, was able to get the necessary information from our contacts, and have detailed notes from our meetings that help to answer questions that seem to pop up at the last mintue before the paper is due.
• 7 -- was a good communicator, but did not take many notes, important points made during meetings were not recorded
• 5 -- seemed rather hit or miss with following up with communications and taking notes that were useful to the group
• 3 -- rarely returns e-mails or follows up after interviews to clarify details, etc
• 1 -- Hey, I remember you - the rest of us thought you dropped this course weeks ago!

My contributions to the project paper and presentation will be of high quality such that they clearly fit into the intended context and do not require rewriting by the other group members.

Sample Measures:

• 10 -- sections of the paper, research summaries, and other materials contributed to the project and presentation fit right in, did not require any editing, and were professionally prepared.
• 7 -- materials contributed to the paper and presentation were usually of high quality, some minor editing was required here and there for spelling, grammar, or technical content.
• 5 -- materials contributed to the paper and presentation needed frequent editing to make it fit within the intended context, or contained many spelling, grammar, and technical errors.
• 3 -- hard to tell what contributed materials really mean, where they fit within the paper, and required extensive rewriting by other group members in order to add value to the paper and presentation
• 1 -- sorry, we don't accept portions of the paper written in crayon!

I will submit my designated parts of the paper and presentation to my fellow group members in a timely manner. In addition, I will be sure to meet other interim goals created by the group

Sample Measures:

• 10 -- all tasks and designated parts to be integrated into the paper and presentation were consistently submitted on time and made available to all group member.
• 7 -- materials contributed to the paper and presentation were usually on time, minor time delays were encountered that, but did not delay the progress of others.
• 5 -- materials contributed to the paper and presentation were frequently late, and these parts of the project delayed the progress of other group members on subsequent parts of the paper and presentation.
• 3 -- materials contributed to the paper and presentation were rarely on time, this pattern became so pronounced that others had to take on your work load in order to meet deadlines for the paper and presentation.
• 1 -- have you been living in a cave? even a stopped watch is on time twice a day!

The following are generally poor performance measures as they tend to focus on different roles for different people and may place larger burdens on one group member than on another. Criteria such as those listed below are not recommended:

1. I will keep notes for all the meetings and distribute them via email to group members.
2. I will conduct the majority of the interviews with managers.
3. I will write and edit at least half of the paper.
4. I will schedule and run the meetings.
5. I will figure out which tasks we need to do during this project.
6. I will produce the milestones.
   

These are examples, you may choose whichever measures you and your group believe will help make you most effective. As you discuss and agree to them, keep in mind that you will have to apply a 1-10 ranking to each one (see Peer Evaluation Form). In addition to helping your group become more effective, you'll discover during the course that a big part of software development lies in creating measurable performance measures. So make sure your performance measures are reasonably objective measures. It would be a good idea, too, to have everyone fill out a "practice" Peer Evaluation Form about halfway through the project, just so people can hear how you perceive their performance. Sometimes you'd be surprised!