# Managing teams

## The teams

A team consists out of minimum three students, at least one coach and a partner. There's always exceptions, but this is how it usually works:

1. A **student** should only participate in one team. They can however, help out other teams now and then — but they are not responsible for that team.
2. A **coach** can manage one or two teams. This depends on the size / complexity of the project, and their own availability.
3. A **partner** can have several projects running, but should be available for key moments (client meetings, answering mails, feedback sessions, demo day).
4. A **team** can have one or two coaches, depending on their availability. There's always one coach *available*.
5. The **organisation** has as many teams/projects/students/coaches they can handle. Start small, dream big!

### Students

One project has one team of students, full-time. The amount of students required is defined per project by the partner and the amount they're paying for.

The minimum amount of students in a team is three. At least one of them should be rather experienced, to make sure you can have some level of quality and they can learn from each other.

### Coaches

The baseline is; a team of students should never be "alone". There should always be a coach *available* that is up-to-date, and knows the partner they're working for. 

A coach can choose to coach half- or full-time. A half-time coach should be paired with an other half-time coach — so the **teams will never be coachless**. Half-time coaches should make sure one of both is always *available* to the team(s).

### Availability 

Availability means being there for key moments, when the team needs you.

* Welcoming the team on the first day
* Scoping projects
* Attending client meetings
* Doing (virtual) standups
* Having retrospects
* Client communication
* Feedback sessions
* Providing help & structure
* Etc.

Depending on the size of the team and how hard the project is, a coach can handle one or two teams.

#### Big or hard projects

* **Scope**\
  Think a big or complicated web-application — or a medium project with a lot of students with different skills (for example hardware mixed with software or for instance exhaustive research / creativity required).
* **Size**\
  Usually has a lot of students (more than 8 team members)
* **Coach**\
  Needs a full-time coach, or two half-time coaches. This requires a lot of availability. A mini project on the side is possible but not required (for instance an easy website or a very experienced team with a student-coach).

#### Easy projects

* **Scope**\
  Think a website, maybe with an integration with a fixed design. A project that is well-defined or easy to scope along the way.
* **Size**\
  Minimum three students
* **Coach**\
  There is always a coach *available* to manage the smaller team and the client, but probably won't be occupied the entire time. This means it is possible that a coach (or two half-time coaches) is managing two small projects at the same time. This does mean that this coach is *available* for both teams for their tasks — see "[The job](https://help.osoc.be/global/coaches/the-coaching-job)" under coaches.