Hi!

Welcome to (or back to) Blueprint! As the VP SWEs, we’re very excited to get to work with you guys and get these projects going! As we dive into the onboarding process, we’d like to outline some goals that we’ve set for the upcoming year in terms of the software side of the club. These goals aim to help streamline different processes within the projects for this year and for years to come (especially since we have projects that are projected to span past this 1 year).

  1. Organization & Documentation
    1. Detailed Tickets: Each task, no matter how small, should have a comprehensive ticket. This will save time with possible issues surrounding developers not understanding requirements fully and minimize the risk of miscommunication.
    2. Documentation: Please try to document as much as you can. This includes things like taking meeting minutes, onboarding processes, etc.. We should be able to go into your Notion page or Github Repository and be able to follow along with your progress asynchronously. Also please try to document any process you encounter as a PL, both technical and non-technical, as it will be very helpful for PLs in future years.
  2. Regular Check-Ins
    1. Check-In Meetings: We will be more regularly meeting (ex. every two weeks) and discussing the team’s progress, essentially just ensuring that everything is going smoothly and on schedule.
    2. Transparent Communication: Building on the exec team’s Blueprint-wide goal, we want to encourage open communication club-wide. This means that should you face any issue or obstacle, you can reach out to either of us or anyone else on the exec team for help. Our inboxes are always open for you!
    3. Ask Lots of Questions: If you’re unsure about something or want to confirm if its the best way to proceed, we strongly encourage you to reach out to us on Discord. The best way for all of us to navigate this year and build the best possible software is to confirm our knowledge and communicate.
  3. Team-Building
    1. In-Person Collaboration: People are at the core of everything that we do here at Blueprint. We believe the best products come from building a good relationships with our NPOs and co-workers, and understanding their challenges on a deep level. This year, every team must have at least one in-person meeting each week where team members can share their updates, plan for future sprints, and help each other overcome blockers. Meetings must be held at the St. George campus. Let’s help each other grow as engineers and as people!
    2. Activities: Try to organize team-bonding sessions and activities to build that sense of community within your team. It’s essential that you help foster a team environment where every member feels motivated and valued. This can be something as simple as meeting together at a cafe for a chill coding session or something larger. Feel free to let us know about any activity ideas that you have, we’re always looking for more ways to keep everyone engaged!

We completely understand if you still have some unanswered questions. Fortunately, there is a lot of useful documentation from previous cohorts, and we recommend checking out some of the other docs in PL Hub as they may provide some answers. If your question is more niche, feel free to reach out to us (the VP SWEs) and we’d be happy to help! We believe that with our collective efforts towards achieving these goals, we can strengthen the foundation of Blueprint for years to come. Once again, welcome aboard, and we look forward to working with you guys!

Best,

Ivan and Nauhar