FAST

Faculty & Academic-Support Software Team

FAST is a University of Waterloo initiative to bridge the gaps between our many talented development teams.

By establishing a "community of practice" focused on project standards, trust-building, and open communication, we hope to solidify support for locally-developed and locally-supported projects and initiatives.

Contact

To get in touch with the FAST group you can email the co-chairs Mirko Vucicievich & Steve Weber

Team Goals

Not a Development Team, but a Team of Developers

• Establish consistent communication

  FAST offers an online communication channel as well as a full-day monthly meeting where members gather to share their work, request help, and discuss topics related to software development on campus.

  By working togher more frequently, we actively improve cross-campus relationships between all development teams.

• Expand & share knowledge

  By sharing expertise and domain-specific knowledge between the talented individuals distributed accoss campus, every team gets access to the deepest wells of expertience available at the University.

• Reduce duplication of effort

  By working together more frequently and opening communications, we increase the likelihood of reusing and recycling resources and processes while reducing the frequency of teams re-treading old ground.

• Develop best practices

  While FAST is not designed to govern over the practices of local development, we hope to collaborate to establish agreeable and simple-to-follow standards to improve supportability and sustainability of local projects.

• Help eliminate single points of failure

  By establshing trust, building standards, and increasing the visibility of projects, we hope to make it possible for FAST to provide emergency support to important projects in the event of critical absences or errors.