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Offseason · Week 8 of 8

Build Season Prep

SCRUM, sprint planning, Git workflow for build season, and AdvantageKit intro.

Build season starts at kickoff. Six weeks to build and program a competition robot. This week is about knowing how the team operates so you can contribute from day one.

SCRUM for FRC

2974 uses a simplified SCRUM process during build season. Sprints are usually 3–5 days (aligned with build sessions). Tasks are tracked as GitHub Issues.

Sprint
A short work cycle
Usually 3–5 days. Start with planning (what will we finish?), end with a review (what did we accomplish?).
Backlog
All the work to do
GitHub Issues for every programming task. Feature, bug, documentation — everything gets an issue.
Standup
Daily 5-min check-in
Three questions: What did you do? What will you do? Anything blocking you? Keep it short.
Code Freeze
No new features before comp
48h before competition, only bug fixes. New features introduce new bugs. Ship stable code.

Build Season Git Workflow

terminal — build season branch rules
# main = deployed code. Never break main.
# dev = integration branch (features merge here first)
# feature/* = your work

# Start a task
git checkout dev
git pull
git checkout -b feature/auto-align-vision

# Finish and merge
git push origin feature/auto-align-vision
# Open PR → dev (NOT main)
# Get review → merge → test on robot
# When dev is stable → merge dev → main

AdvantageKit — Logging

AdvantageKit is a logging framework used by top FRC teams. It records all sensor inputs, so you can replay a match log and debug exactly what happened — like a flight data recorder for the robot.

Why this matters at competition: When the robot does something weird in a match, you have 6 minutes between matches to fix it. AdvantageScope + match logs let you replay exactly what the robot saw and did, instead of guessing.

Build Season Checklist

Before KickoffStatus
WPILib installed and updated✓ Do this now
Added to WaltonRobotics GitHub orgAsk Hrehaan/Sohan
Git workflow practiced (PRs, reviews)Complete O1 assignment
Can write a basic subsystem from scratchComplete O7 capstone
Understand command-based architectureComplete O3

Knowledge Check