Before you begin working on a team project, develop a team action plan to establish a framework that will hold your team members accountable for their work.

After reading the project assignment sheet and meeting your team, decide upon answers for the following questions:

■ Will you have a team leader? If so, who? Why is that person qualified to be the team leader? What are that person’s responsibilities? How will you proceed if the team leader is unable to meet those responsibilities?

■ What will be each team member’s role? What is each team member’s qualification for that role?

■ How are you dividing your work? Why did you choose to divide the work the way you did?

■ What are the tasks your team needs to accomplish?

For each task in the assignment, identify a concrete deliverable (What do you need to hand in?), a concrete measure for success (How will your team decide if you completed that task well?), and a work schedule (When does each task need to be done?)

■ How will you resolve disagreements that may arise while working on the project? How will your team make decisions: By majority? By consensus?

■ When and where will you hold meetings? Decide whether you can hold meetings if all team members are not present. How will you inform team members of what occurred at meetings if they were not present?

■ Define what “absence” means for your team. Are all absences equal? How should a team member who’s going to be absent let the team know? How far in advance does your team need to know about an absence? How many absences from one team member will be too many? What are the consequences of too many absences?

■ Create a policy dealing with people who don’t attend class during your preparation days or during your presentation; people who don’t attend meetings outside class; people who miss deadlines, don’t do their work at all or in a timely manner, or who consistently turn in incomplete or poor-quality work. What penalties will you apply? (Some ideas:

you might consider loss of points, grade reductions, failure, a team firing, or a team intervention.)

■ Will you report problem members to your instructor?

If so, at what point? What role do you want your instructor to have in dealing with problem members?

After your team determines and agrees on an action plan, the team’s secretary should send your answers in an e-mail to your instructor, who will keep the document on file in case a problem arises.