Southeast University · Department of CSE
NextGen AI Venture Studio
CSE474 · Roles and Responsibilities
| Company Overview | |
|---|---|
| Company: | NextGen AI Venture Studio: the whole class runs as one software firm and venture studio. |
| Chairman & Principal Client: | The course teacher. Gives requirements, approves sprint payouts and audits every transaction. |
| Executive Board (Team 0): | 3 students: CFO, CTO and CHRO. They are not part of any squad. Their semester project is building the studio's ERP and Stock Exchange software and running the 6 squads with it. |
| Product Squads: | 6 squads (Squad 1 to Squad 6), each with 1 Project Manager and 4 Developers. Developers are drawn by lottery, one from each of Tier A, B, C and D, so friends do not end up in the same squad. |
| Class Size: | 33 students: 3 executives, 6 PMs and 24 developers. |
| Two-Tier Economy: |
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| Simulation Score: | 50% normalized Team Valuation + 50% Individual Wallet Balance. |
| Organisation Structure | ||
|---|---|---|
| Role | Count | Reports To |
| Chairman & Principal Client (Teacher) | 1 | - |
| CFO: Chief Financial Officer & Venture Capitalist | 1 | Chairman |
| CTO: Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect | 1 | Chairman |
| CHRO: Chief HR Officer & Agile Coach | 1 | Chairman |
| PM: Project Manager | 6 | Executive Board |
| Developer (Tier A, B, C, D) | 24 | PM of their squad |
| Chairman & Principal Client (Teacher) | |
|---|---|
| Requirements: | Acts as the client: sets requirements and changes them mid-sprint. |
| Sprint Funding: | Funds the ৳150,000 pool at the end of each sprint and approves the CFO's ranking. |
| Audit & Override: | Reviews the transaction ledger. Penalizes the CFO, CTO or CHRO for collusion or for bugs they failed to catch, and grants bonus funds to any squad or student. |
| Chaos Events: | Triggers real-life software crises during labs, for example:
|
| CFO: Chief Financial Officer & Venture Capitalist | |
|---|---|
| Role: | Runs the studio's central bank and stock exchange, not only the accounts. |
| Sprint Payout: | Ranks the 6 squads 1st to 6th at the end of each sprint and disburses the pool. Keeps a 5% tax/commission on every payout in the CFO wallet (for example ৳2,000 out of ৳40,000). |
| Emergency Loans: | Lends to a squad that is running out of money before it goes bankrupt (for example ৳20,000) at 15% interest. Principal and interest are collected the next sprint. The interest goes to the CFO wallet. |
| Venture Investing: | At the start of each sprint, may buy a 10% stake in one or two squads with personal wallet money. Receives a 10% dividend whenever that squad earns revenue. If the squad sinks, so does the investment. |
| Penalty Collection: | Receives a 20% incentive on penalties for missed deadlines and budget overruns. |
| CTO: Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect | |
|---|---|
| Tech Score: | Gives each squad a Tech Score for code and architecture quality. |
| Code Audit: | Checks all 6 squads' repositories every lab. Each valid bad code, bad merge request or security hole fines the squad ৳2,000, of which ৳1,000 goes to the CTO wallet. If the CTO misses a problem and the teacher finds it, the CTO is fined. |
| Paid Consultancy: | A squad stuck on code or architecture can buy a 15-minute session for ৳4,000. 50% goes to the CTO wallet. |
| Boilerplate Store: | May build and sell ready-made templates and deployment scripts to the squads. |
| Bug Bounty Arena: | Runs the testing lab, where squads hunt bugs in each other's products (see Fees and Penalties). |
| CHRO: Chief HR Officer & Agile Coach | |
|---|---|
| HR/Agile Score: | Gives each squad an HR/Agile Score for teamwork and agile practice. |
| Payroll Approval: | Each lab, the PM proposes how the squad's ৳10,000 salary is split among its 5 members by work done. The CHRO verifies the proposal and approves it. |
| Slacker Fine: | Checks commits and the issue board every lab. A member with no commits or a missed standup is fined ৳2,000, and ৳500 of it goes to the CHRO wallet as a bounty. |
| Hiring, Firing & Swaps: | Processes a PM's request to fire a member or swap members between squads, for a fee of ৳5,000. 20% of the fee goes to the CHRO wallet. |
| PM: Project Manager | |
|---|---|
| Planning: | Divides the squad's work and maintains the issue board. |
| Payroll Proposal: | Each lab, recommends how the squad's ৳10,000 salary is split among members by performance, for CHRO approval. |
| People: | May ask the CHRO to fire or swap a member who does not work. |
| Leadership Bonus: | Earns a 10% leadership bonus when the squad finishes in the top 3. |
| Developer (Tier A, B, C, D) | |
|---|---|
| Delivery: | Builds the tasks the PM assigns, with regular commits and merge requests. |
| Testing: | Hunts bugs in other squads' products during the testing lab. |
| Salary: | Paid each lab from the squad's bank by performance tier (see Payroll Tiers). |
| Financial Engine | |
|---|---|
| Starting Capital: | ৳100,000 in each squad's bank. |
| Weekly Burn Rate: | ৳10,000 leaves each squad's bank every lab as salary to its members' wallets. |
| Sprint Funding: | A zero-sum pool of ৳150,000 at the end of each sprint, paid by rank. No two squads receive the same amount. |
| Squad Status: | Bullish, Stable or Bankrupt Risk, from the squad's valuation and balance. |
| Sprint Payout | |
|---|---|
| Rank | Funding |
| 1st | ৳50,000 |
| 2nd | ৳35,000 |
| 3rd | ৳25,000 |
| 4th | ৳20,000 |
| 5th | ৳15,000 |
| 6th | ৳5,000 |
| Total | ৳150,000 |
| Payroll Tiers | |
|---|---|
| Tier | Salary per Lab |
| Star Performer | ৳3,500 |
| Regular | ৳2,000 |
| Underperformer | ৳1,000 |
| Slacker / Absent | ৳0 |
| Fees and Penalties | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Event | Amount | Paid By | Goes To |
| Sprint payout tax | 5% | Receiving squad | CFO |
| Emergency loan interest | 15% | Borrowing squad | CFO |
| Equity dividend | 10% of revenue | Squad the CFO invested in | CFO |
| Deadline miss / budget overrun | Set by Chairman | Squad | 20% to CFO |
| Code smell / bad merge request | ৳2,000 | Squad | ৳1,000 to CTO |
| CTO consultancy (15 min) | ৳4,000 | Squad | 50% to CTO |
| Slacker fine | ৳2,000 | Member / squad | ৳500 to CHRO |
| Fire / swap a member | ৳5,000 | Squad | 20% to CHRO |
| Critical bug found | ৳5,000 | Squad with the bug | Hunter squad |
| Major bug found | ৳3,000 | Squad with the bug | Hunter squad |
| Blind QA (fewer than 3 bugs found) | ৳15,000 | Squad | - |
| Rules |
|---|
| Every transaction is recorded with a timestamp in the ledger, and the Chairman audits it. |
| Executives who collude with a squad, or miss a problem the Chairman later finds, are penalized. |