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Team Canvas Template

This worksheet helps intern teams align on responsibilities, working rituals, and tools before a project kicks off. Fill it out together in your first planning session and revisit whenever expectations change.

1. Team Purpose

Briefly describe the mission of your team and what success looks like for the project.

flowchart TD
    Idea[Project idea] --> Plan[Define goals]
    Plan --> Build[Develop features]
    Build --> Review[Demo & feedback]
    Review --> Iterate[Iterate and improve]

2. Key Roles & Responsibilities

Role Primary Responsibilities Backup Person
Product Owner Prioritizes features, gathers feedback from stakeholders
Tech Lead Oversees architecture, mentors developers
QA Lead Defines acceptance tests and ensures product quality
Designer Creates UI/UX assets and design guidelines
... ... ...

Fill in the table with the names of team members and who will cover when someone is unavailable.

3. Working Rituals

Document the recurring meetings or checkpoints that keep everyone in sync. Example rituals include:

  • Daily Stand‑up – 10 minute sync each morning to share progress and blockers.
  • Weekly Planning – Review backlog, prioritize tasks, and update the board.
  • Demo Day – Show completed work to stakeholders and gather feedback.
  • Retrospective – Discuss what went well, what didn’t, and actions for improvement.

Adjust timing and frequency to your team’s needs.

4. Tools & Information Radiators

List the primary tools used for collaboration and how they connect. Include links where possible.

Purpose Tool Link/Notes
Code hosting GitHub Repository URL
Task tracking Kanban board (e.g., Jira, Trello) Board link
Chat Slack or Teams Channel names
Documentation Wiki or shared docs Location
CI/CD Build pipelines How to check status

Visualization of how these tools interact:

graph LR
    Code(GitHub) --> CI[CI/CD]
    CI --> Deploy[Deployment]
    Code --> Docs[Documentation]
    Code --> Tasks[Kanban Board]
    Chat --- Code
    Chat --- Tasks

5. Communication Guidelines

  • Use threads in chat to keep discussions organized.
  • Record action items in your task board immediately after meetings.
  • Prefer asynchronous updates when blockers or progress can’t wait until the next stand‑up.

6. Decision Log

Keep a simple log of significant decisions so newcomers understand the project history.

Date Decision Rationale
YYYY‑MM‑DD

7. Review Cadence

Agree on how often the team will revisit this canvas—typically once per sprint or whenever major milestones shift.

Completing this canvas creates shared clarity on who does what, how you work together, and which tools you rely on. Store the file in your project repo so everyone can refer back to it and update it as your project evolves.