A number of project teams are working on similar projects. For example, an application for budgeting is surprisingly popular this semester. I’d like to offer everyone an opportunity to combine teams so that you can build a more complete and better tested web application. More specifically, combining teams should provide some economy of scale because not every team will be required to implement features like user authentication individually.

If you’re interested in this possibility, please discuss with others working on similar projects (I can send you a list if necessary) and let me know by next Friday, 20 March, if you’d like to combine your teams. Be sure to CC all the potential teammates on any communication with me. If approved, your new team will need to put together an updated project proposal that outlines what additional features you will implement. In most cases, these features will simply be those originally proposed by each team – the revised proposal simply consolidates them in a single document. (I expect the revised proposal could be completed in less than an hour or work.)

Finally, I will be adding a peer evaluation component to the project. While I am still working out the details, I expect the peer evaluations to serve as a “multiplier” on individuals’ scores – i.e., someone who has done half as much work as their teammates will earn half as many points whereas someone who has done more work than their teammates might receive a slight boost. I mention this because 1) the existing project description does not mention a peer evaluation and 2) I expect everyone to contribute significantly to their project and peer evaluations are a way to ensure that this happens. Please let me know if you have any questions.