As part of the undergraduate curriculum at my school, each student needed to complete two semesters of IPRO (Interprofessional Project). The whole idea behind this project was for us to learn how to work with people of different majors. Typically, in your third and fourth year of your major, the people that you would work with are, for example, other biomedical engineers or chemical engineers or whatever your major may be. IPRO made sure that we broadened our scope and were able to work with people of other majors while completing the project. For one of my semesters of IPRO, our project was about reusable diapers and how single use diapers can quickly fill up a landfill. For this project, I worked with a chemistry major, a finance major, and a computer science major. Everyone had completely different majors but we were able to complete this project without clashing and learned a lot about each other and what we each could provide for the project. 

In terms of group size, I prefer working with groups that are smaller since it is easier to delegate tasks and make sure that each person is doing their share of work. Sometimes with larger groups, it is harder to make sure that everyone is doing their work and getting things done in a timely manner. Working in small groups does have a disadvantage since it means that more tasks will need to be split among a smaller number of people.

Personally, I enjoy working in a larger project team. As you've said, "people can have different backgrounds and areas of expertise" and I think that really adds value when working in a project-setting. The biggest advantage is that these different backgrounds and areas of expertise can contribute to people creating different ways to solve the same problem. This can also lead to conflict, however as long as it is constructive, task-based conflict this allows people to flush out ideas and have the strongest solutions float to the top. In a medical device company, a project team has vested interest in seeing the project perform as well as possible and having many different viewpoints approach the same problem can allow the best solutions and paths forward to be followed, which is something that is highlighted by a larger project team.

Thanks,

Matt

I think having ore backgrounds allows more input, which could be healthy in the progression of the project for the group. Distributing tasks amongst smaller groups within a larger one can also benefit the project I believe, as it can allow more ideas to flow and bounce around. Different viewpoints are a key element in success, as it allows a larger spectrum of ideas, problems, etc. to be inspected and analyzed. 

However, it is important to establish boundaries and hierarchy in any sort of group, to have a clear idea of where the expected progression should be headed, as well as to allow for some accountability on individuals in the group. Larger groups need manager(s) to help keep them on track, especially in larger scale projects.

I prefer work in larger groups as it allows my knowledge to expand, especially when working with people of different backgrounds. I am allowed to express more and learn about potential positive and negatives of different aspects of the project. Likewise, working with a larger group allows more networking opportunities, which could be helpful in any future work, from occupational/career projects to personal (such as a resume). 

@terril_vallikalam I had a similar experience my sophomore year of college where I did research over the summer in a multidisciplinary group from all different majors. As with your experience there was not any clashing of the team members and indeed having many different backgrounds helped the project as a whole. I will kind of disagree with what you said about larger groups being harder to manage as long as you have a system in place to do this. What we did was that we split up the project into discreet parts and also split the 15 man team into several smaller groups. This worked well since we had the best of both worlds, smaller groups that can be more easily managed and can work on the smaller parts of the project together but our overall team had enough people where we could accomplish a lot in a shorter time. Each smaller team also had a leader to keep them on track and to speak with the other leaders throughout the day and we had daily meetings of the whole group to make sure everyone knew what everyone else was working on for the day. All in all I feel like this kind of system made working in a large group efficient and enjoyable.

I would like to be involved in a small-group project. In my opinion,  a small project group could be much more effective for the communication within the team. Since the team members might know each other in a small group, it could be easier for them to deliver the information. Also, compared with the big size project team, a smaller team could have a clear division of their responsibilities, everyone could be in charge of the specific work and this will improve the efficiency of the whole team. For the project manager, it could be easier to monitor everyone’s working process in a smaller team. At the same time, the project manager could have more time to know everyone in a smaller team then assign the appropriate work for the team member with different abilities. 

In my opinion,  people with different backgrounds could be helpful for the whole project. Since people with different backgrounds might have different opinions and ideals. The final products will be more complete if those different ideals can be involved in. Also, I would like to work with people from different backgrounds since they will broaden my mind.

I would prefer to work in a smaller team. I often find that in larger teams work can become unevenly placed resulting in some people working longer or shorter on their assigned areas. Additionally, when information is flowing through fewer hands the chance of a miscommunication is less common and work flow is overall increased. When there are too people on a project it can result in delays of the project schedule. Additionally, a team with multiple areas of expertise is preferred as conclusions are reached quicker in my experience. If everyone has the same background or is very like-minded, you'll often find similar solutions are reached which can be a pain when you need an out-of-the-box idea to move past an obstacle.

I prefer to work on a team in which each member has a different background. Working on this kind of a team broadens my perspective and allows me to look at things from all the angles. Additionally, I have found that in these situations an effective solution is always developed. I have never found it difficult to agree on final conclusions in these kinds of teams. As a member part of a project team it is important to have the ability to compromise and communicate effectively. In my experience, the team members that I have worked with all exhibit these skills and as such we are able to come to solutions easily. Regarding team size, I would prefer to work on a smaller project team than a larger one. I think some team members feel they have more accountability in a smaller team compared to a large one. Additionally, it is possible smaller teams might be more flexible when it comes to scheduling since there are scheduling conflict potentials. That being said, it is important to make sure there is enough representation to cover all elements of the design phase. A team with too little members is worse than a large team if there are not enough people to cover all elements of the project. 

Personally, I believe that the size of the team should depend on the project at hand. While having a diverse team is crucial to complete a successful project, and recruiting a large team may add diversity, it may not be necessary for some projects. Some projects require very specific skill sets and could be completed in a similar amount of time regardless of the size of the team. 

I enjoy working with large teams because i'm interested in learning and exploring different cultures and backgrounds. There could definitely be some conflicts regarding final decisions about a product, and that is why it is crucial to have periodic team meetings to make sure everybody that is working on the project is on the same page. 

From experience, working in smaller groups have been more successful in communication although it can be more taxing due to heavy workload being distributed amongst less people which is the opposite with larger groups. 

Larger groups is more time efficient due to the workload being distributed, along with more people who have different backgrounds, expertises, and can be less demanding. The downfall I’ve found in large groups is communication and cohesiveness since there are so many people participating in one idea. There are pros and cons to both having a large or smaller group,  but I think depending on the type of project would depend on the group size, and which would suit the project best. 

I like working in small team groups as a person with low industry experience. It allows for greater accountability, autonomy, and flexibility in a project. Small groups also move at a faster pace than a larger one, and it is easier to learn from your team members. Since there’s not a lot of team members, team members natural coach and mentor each other. One of my favorite advantages as a newly hire is that high performers are more likely to be noticed. However, I think working in large teams is unavoidable in the industry. Most companies want large size teams due to time efficiency. That is why I would also like to work in large teams as well. I think that people with different backgrounds and expertise is a great addition to the team. Even though there might be a lot of disagreements due to the different point of views, a unanimous consensus should be reached with proper communication. Moreover, there is a lot to learn from other people, and there will be an increased creativity and innovation.

I find it extremely valuable working with people from different backgrounds. They all come in with a new perspective and can provide their expertise when needed. However, large groups are equivalent to having too many cooks in the kitchen and can sometimes offer too many opinions that conflict with one another so having a concise group of people from different background is more effective in my opinion. Each individual acts as a representative from their function without requiring other individuals to get involved and complicate the process. 

smaller team size will limit the fresh ideas can be put into the project but it also means less conflict between group members and less complex commanding troubles. large group size will create problems of communication and hard to get decision. 

i don't think different background will create difficulty to make final decisions. i think finial decisions will be made by project leader not by group member. engineer's job is to get the project done and different background is just give the team more path lead to get the project done and the function of the product. 

I feel working in a smaller team better suits more project types. Often time with large teams everyone's vision for the goal of the project becomes blurred as there are many opportunities to get lost in translation. Additionally, large teams leaves the opportunity for a uneven distribution of work. Compared to a smaller team there would normally be enough tasks to be spread out appropriately. Of course this may result in the smaller team being slightly more burdened than a larger team, but I have found the end product is better when few minds are focused on the end goal. Finally, opinions are great when tackling a problem however a discussion can become too crowded with different voices pulling the project in different directions. Fewer voices still allows for productive discussion while preventing unnecessary confusion and difficult ideas.

I think that it is easier to come to a final decision when working with a small group. This because in a smaller group there are less people to weigh in on the final option. Additionally, it is known that group members tend to have more accountability in smaller groups than larger groups. In larger groups, it is arguably harder to divide up work among so many members. In smaller groups, it easier to assign clear deliverables to each member and keep track of project progress. In larger groups, it is more difficult to keep track of each member since there are so many. It is also more difficult to schedule meetings in larger groups because there are more schedules that need to be taken into account. There is greater flexibility with smaller groups. Often times, smaller groups also tend to have better relationships with one another. It is harder for people to fade into the background since there are only a few members.