Project Roles and Tools
Common
Project Manager (PM)
The project manager, or PM, is responsible for planning and seeing a project from its initiation to its completion. A PM generally has to have strong leadership and communication skills, as well as the ability to keep others motivated and on track. Some other roles may include overseeing the scope of the project, planning out resources, time management, and monitoring progress throughout the project.
Tech Lead (Maintainer)
Commonly known as the repository maintainer, the tech lead's job is to handle incoming pull requests and merge them appropriately. Their job is to handle the state of the repo and make sure that everything goes smoothly. Be prepared for merge conflicts if necessary.
Others you may want to assign
Front end developer
Back end developer
"Full stack" developer
Database Administrator (DBA)
Useful if you are working with a complex data schema, with fixtures/seeders to load data
Other Specialist
This role will likely be used if you are working with foreign technologies or complex topics, such as D3, front end plugins, machine learning, etc.
Kanban Boards
Kanban literally means billboard in Japanese. For software purposes, it's a board to keep track of logistics and production. It's highly recommended that you make a Kanban board, and luckily, Trello is a great (and free) tool for making them. Recommended sections:
Backlog (or icebox)
On deck (next to do)
Sprint (referring to a software sprint)
Done
Normally, there would be a section for testing, but since the development cycle in this class is one week, the section will likely be empty most of the time. However, feel free to add it if you'd like.
Other Handy Tools
Private Slack channels
Wireframing (see previous notes)
User stories (see previous notes)
Classmates (for testing your app, or creating new users)
Heroku (for deployment)
Other Notes
Communicate FREQUENTLY. You're a team
Keep wireframes and user stories short and low-fi, in case you need to pivot
Work on APIs and essential functionality first
Working software is the priority
Know what everyone's working on so that work does not conflict
Deploy early and often
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