Grading
Think of the grading system like running a small company together. You earn points in two main ways: salary and price.
Salary
Paid for completing assigned project tasks (the tutor plays the “boss” here).
Price
Paid for delivering valuable features (the tutor acts as the “customer” who decides what your work is worth).
The salary for each task is fixed from the start, but the price for features will be decided during the semester based on their value. Just like in real life, the boss and the customer decide how much they’re willing to pay – and your team decides if it’s worth doing the job.
Each task has a minimum viable product (MVP) point value plus extra points for higher quality. But beware: only reaching MVP is not enough to pass – you need to go beyond the bare minimum. Larger teams are like bigger companies: more employees mean more resources, but also higher expectations to earn the same grade. Tasks are grouped into four milestones, and they’re usually interdependent – you can’t deliver the MVP of a later task without first hitting the MVP of earlier ones. Higher-quality work early on often makes later tasks faster, easier, and more valuable, just like a solid foundation makes building the next floor simpler.
The tutor gives points to the team as a whole. Then, the team divides these points among members according to each person’s contribution – but there’s a personal point cap for every task. This means you can’t give one person an oversized share just because others did less; any leftover points simply vanish. If a teammate drops out, their points can be redistributed among the active members, but the same personal limits still apply.
It’s a bit like splitting profits in a business: you earn together, share fairly, build on each other’s work, and can’t pay anyone more than the contract allows – no matter how much is left in the pot.
Point to Grade Conversion¶
Your final grade is determined by your total personal points at the end of the semester. Points are always whole numbers, with normal rounding rules applied (e.g., .5 rounds up, .499 rounds down). The table below shows how points convert to grades:
| Grade | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 95 | |
| 4 | 75 | 94 |
| 3 | 55 | 74 |
| 2 | 35 | 54 |
| 1 | 34 |
Salary for Tasks¶
Below is a full breakdown of all tasks in the project, grouped by milestone. For each task you can see the MVP points (earned for meeting the basic requirements), the quality points (earned for going beyond the minimum), the total possible points, and the maximum any one person can receive from that task. Remember: tasks often depend on each other — you can’t complete later MVPs without earlier ones, and higher quality in early tasks will make later work easier and more rewarding.
| MVP points | Quality points | Total points | Max points per person | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 120 per team | 240 per team | 360 per team | 86 per person |
Excellent has to excel!
To get an "excellent" (5) grade, you need to do at least some of the extra features. There is no maximum limit on how many extra features you can do.
Team building¶
| Task name | MVP points | Quality points | Total points | Max points per person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team is formed and organized | 6 | 12 | 18 | 4 |
| Project is selected | 6 | 12 | 18 | 4 |
| Responsibilities are assigned within team | 6 | 18 | 24 | 6 |
Planning¶
| Task name | MVP points | Quality points | Total points | Max points per person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Features are defined | 12 | 30 | 42 | 10 |
| Features are sorted by priority | 12 | 24 | 36 | 9 |
| Features' cost and price are estimated | 12 | 30 | 42 | 10 |
Development¶
| Task name | MVP points | Quality points | Total points | Max points per person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| System is working | 24 | 42 | 66 | 16 |
| Bug fixing | 18 | 36 | 54 | 13 |
Quality Assurance¶
| Task name | MVP points | Quality points | Total points | Max points per person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| User documentation | 12 | 18 | 30 | 7 |
| Developer documentation | 12 | 18 | 30 | 7 |
Price of Features¶
For additional feature development, the points work entirely on the “price” principle: you agree with the tutor in advance on what feature to build, and the tutor sets how many points it’s worth. Each feature is priced individually, with an average value of around 30 points per feature (for the team), and together these can add up to a maximum of 164 points (for the team). This means your team can choose which extra features to take on, balancing the potential reward against the time and effort they will cost.