Week 7: Coordinating at Scale
Why independently-designed subsystems clash, and the role allocation and shared conventions that make a team's factory coherent.
14 September 2026
Outline#
- Multiplayer and the inefficiency of differing solutions — what goes wrong when several people design the same subsystem independently: this week is the pivot from individual technique to team process.
- Role allocation — splitting a shared base into owned zones or subsystems so decisions have one clear owner.
- Management — lightweight coordination habits that scale to a small team: shared belt colour conventions, train stop naming, and agreeing on bus contents before anyone starts building.
Teaching team
- Professor T. Trupen — convenor