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Team Roles and Workflow

FTC teams work best when students know who owns each area and how work moves from idea to tested robot.

Common team roles

These roles can be held by one student or shared across several students.

  • Strategy and game analysis: studies the game, scoring options, and match priorities
  • Mechanical: designs, builds, and repairs robot mechanisms
  • Electrical: wires the robot, manages battery health, and keeps electronics organized
  • Programming: writes and tests robot code
  • Drive team: operates the robot and communicates during matches
  • Documentation and outreach: tracks progress, organizes team materials, and supports presentations or outreach work

A simple weekly workflow

  1. Review the current goal.
  2. Decide what must be designed, built, or tested that week.
  3. Split work by role.
  4. Rejoin for integration and testing.
  5. Record issues, fixes, and next steps.
  • Keep one short priority list for the week
  • Test small changes before combining everything
  • Write down failures, not just successes
  • Use photos and short notes to track design changes
  • End meetings with clear owners for the next tasks

Student-friendly rule of thumb

If no one clearly owns a task, it probably will not get done well. If no one tests a task, it probably is not finished.

Helpful references