Group Portrait

Tips 1
You need to use a smaller f-stop if you're doing group photos in order to get everyone in focus. The 1.8 maximum aperture is more useful for portraits with a lone subject, as you can focus on the eyes and achieve much more creative results by experimenting with the shallow depth of field (if that is indeed your goal

Tips 2
I usually start my aperture out at f/8 for a relatively small group. I heard that when shooting larger groups, try to match aperture 1:1 w/ group. For instance, if you have 11 people in the group, f/11 is a good rule of thumb.
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Well, it's been a few months and I've learned some more about this and I have to agree with your statement, I did a shoot recently where at the end everyone got in the picture (10 teenage girls) and I shot it at f/11, everyone came out sharp. You just need powerful lighting, either strobes or flashes but you need strong lighting when you close it down to f/11 or have everyone hold very still with the camera on a tripod and slow down your shutter and crank up the ISO to where you can capture the image with the available light, then you might need to spend more time on PP but this is mainly a problem indoors in a studio setting when not enough lighting is available.
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Yes I agree but if you want to be safe f/8-f/11 works good in most group portraits and unless I had a need to blur the background I wouldn't bother with shallow depth of field for a group portrait, specially if you want to cut down on your PP which is very important to me due to the fact I only do this very part time, not my full time job.

Tips 3 Take Multiple Shots
One of the best ways to avoid the problems of not everyone looking just right in a shot is to take multiple photos quickly. I often switch my camera into continuous shooting mode when taking group shots and shoot in short bursts of shots. I find that the first shot is often no good but that the one or two directly after it often give a group that looks a little less posed and more relaxed.

Similarly – shoot some frames off before everyone is ready – sometimes the organization of a group shot can be quite comical with people tell each other where to go and jostling for position.
Also mix up the framing of your shots a little if you have a zoom lens by taking some shots that are at a wide focal length and some that are more tightly framed.

Tips 4