How is MetaTeam used?
This page give a high-level explanation of how you can start using MetaTeam. For a more detailed look please see: Getting Started.
MetaTeam is a Web application that is hosted on your company's server. You and your team access MetaTeam using Internet Explorer or Firefox, just as you would any other Web application.
Once you have MetaTeam running at your organization, you can either start creating user accounts and teams, or you can start by reviewing the dictionaries and customizing them to match your organization's norms.
Most organizations will want to start a production copy of MetaTeam by customizing dictionaries, adding tips and otherwise making MetaTeam their own. However, before you decide to put MetaTeam into production you will want to take it for a test drive. For that you need to understand how MetaTeam is structured.
Although it supports matrix organizations, MetaTeam is in fact hierarchical. Teams contain projects and groups. Projects contain groups. Groups may also be independent or a part of a person's personal space. MetaTeam is all about the way these structures are organized and how they are related in your company. As part of getting started with MetaTeam you will need to choose a team, project or group to model.
MetaTeam keeps several dictionaries. Each dictionary populates one or more drop-down menus used as part of creating or editing parts of your team model. For instance, the "Types of citations" dictionary includes the following entries:
- Dedication
- Effort
- Merit
- Selfless
These values let you categorize your citations for members' work. You may customize these words, and in fact the contents of all the dictionaries, to use the terms most suited to your organization.
Your next step is to add user accounts. Each team member will need an account. To create accounts you will need to give each person a username and a password. When team members log in the first time they should change their passwords to keep their accounts private.
MetaTeam supports as many teams as your organization has. Each person may be a member of as many teams as needed.
Once your team members all have accounts you are ready to create your first team. Creating a team is easy; all you need is a name.
When you have created a team, you can begin fleshing it out by adding members, roles, a charter, etc. At this point your best bet is to introduce your team members to MetaTeam and solicit their help in creating the structures of the team.
As an example, if you determine that there needs to be a "Snacks Committee" within the team (likely! :-) you might:
- Create a group called Snacks Committee
- Add a member of the team to the group
- Assign a role to the team member, making sure that role has the special responsibilities needed to add members, etc.
- Have that member fill out the group with other members, roles, goals, responsibilities, etc.
And off you go.
In a nutshell, and at a high level, this is the way you use MetaTeam.