Chapter 11 The Project Team

A project team is a group of individuals working interdependently to accomplish the project objective. Teamwork is the cooperative effort by members of a team to accomplish this common goal. 

Acquiring the Project Team

Project teams

What expertise, experience, or skills needed

How many of each type are required

When they will be needed

Acquire entire team for smaller projects

Assemble team members as needed for larger projects

Greatest constraint is the availability of the right resources at the right time

May have to negotiate for resources

Keep team as small as feasible（easier to control）

【•In many projects, people who have never worked together are assigned to the same project team.

•A personal relationship between two people takes time to develop and teams evolve over time through various stages of development.

•One of the first things that project manager must do is to obtain and put together a project team. There are a number of considerations to take into account when assembling a team:

•What expertise, experience, or skills are needed for the project

•How many of each type of expert are required

•When they will be needed

•Acquire entire team at the beginning for smaller projects

•Assemble team members as needed for larger projects

•Usually, the greatest constraint when acquiring a project team is the availability of the right resources at the right time.

•In larger organizations, the project manager may have to negotiate for resources

•Project teams should be kept as small as feasible throughout the project】

Project Team Development

【•B.W. Tuckman has defined four stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, and performing
•The figure on this slide illustrates those different stages of team development.】

 Forming

 Initial stage

 Individuals get acquainted

 Positive expectations

 Little work accomplished

 Depend on direction and structure

 Lots of questions

 What purpose?

 Who are others?

 What are they like?
【•The figure on this slide illustrates the levels of work performance and sense of team for the four different stages of team development. Notice how the sense of team generally weakens and then strengthens again as team members learn to work with one another.

•Forming  is the initial stage of the team development process. It involves the transition from individual to team member.

•Individuals get acquainted.

•Team members generally have positive expectations going into this stage.

•The group begins to establish an identity and attempts to define and plan the tasks that need to be done. Little actual work is accomplished.

•Members depend on the project manager to provide direction and structure.

•Feelings characteristic of this stage include excitement, anticipation, suspicion, anxiety, and hesitancy.

•Individuals do a lot of questioning in the forming stage:

•What is our purpose?

•Who are the other team members?

•What are they like?

•The project manager must clearly communicate the project objective and create a vision of the successful result of the project and the benefits it will provide.

•Project constraints regarding the work scope, quality levels, budget, and schedule must be stated.

•Establishing structure is another task the project manager must perform in this phase. This includes defining initial processes and procedures for team operation and addressing such items as communication channels, approvals, and paperwork.】

 Storming

Second stage

Start to apply their skills to work

Tasks may be larger than anticipated

Increasing dissatisfaction with dependence

Test the limits and flexibility of the team

  Conflict emerges and tension increases

  Motivation and morale are low

  Members express individuality 


【The second stage of team development is known as storming.

•Members start to apply their skills to work on their assigned tasks, and work begins to progress slowly.

•Tasks may be more extensive or difficult than anticipated.

•Team members feel increasing dissatisfaction with dependence on the direction or authority of the project manager.

•Team members begin to test the limits and flexibility of the project manager and the ground rules.

•Conflict emerges and tensions increase.

•Motivation and morale are low in this stage.

•Members express their individuality as opposed to team allegiance.

•The storming stage is characterized by feelings of frustration, anger, and hostility.

•The project manager still needs to give a lot of directions, but can be less directive than in the forming stage.

•The project manager should not become defensive or take issues personally.

•This is the time for the project manager to provide an understanding and supportive environment.】

Norming

Third stage

Relationships have settled

Interpersonal conflicts resolved

Team has accepted its operating environment

Control and decision making are transferred to the project team

Cohesion begins to develop

Trust begins to develop

Team members give and ask for feedback

Feeling of camaraderie emerges

【After struggling through the storming stage, the project team moves into the norming  stage of development.

•Relationships have become settled by this stage.

•Interpersonal conflicts have been resolved.

•The project team has accepted its operating environment.

•Control and decision making are transferred from the project manager to the project team.

•Cohesion begins to develop.

•Trust begins to develop in this stage.

•Team members give and ask for feedback from each other.

•A feeling of camaraderie emerges.

•The project manager minimizes his or her directing role and takes on a more supportive role.

•Work performance accelerates and productivity increases.】

Performing（ solving）

Fourth stage

High commitment to achieve project objective

High level of work performance

Communication is open

Collaboration and willingness to help each other

Team feels fully empowered

Project manager fully delegates responsibility and authority

Project manager is mentor

Make the first task easy to success 

【The fourth and final stage of team development and growth is the performing stage.

•The team is highly committed and eager to achieve the project objective.

•The level of work performance is high.

•Communication is finally very open.

•Members frequently collaborate and willingly help each other.

•The team feels fully empowered.

•The project manager fully delegates responsibility and authority.

•The project manager concentrates on project performance with respect to the budget, schedule, scope, and plan.

•The project manager acts as a mentor, supporting the professional growth and development of the members of the team.】

Project Kickoff Meeting

Project orientation

Held as early as possible

Sets the tone for the project

Provides opportunity for team to know each other

Clarify roles and responsibilities

Describe protocols and plans

Allow time for questions and comments

【•The project manager should schedule a project kickoff meeting, also known as a project orientation meeting, with the project team.

•It should be held as early as possible during the forming stage of team development

•It helps to set the tone for the project

•It provides an early opportunity for the team to get to know each other

•It helps to clarify any confusion about team members’ roles and responsibilities

•It gives the project manager a chance to describe protocols and plans

•The manager should always allow some time for questions and comments at the end

•The figure on this slide depicts the project kickoff meeting agenda. There are six general parts to the project kickoff meeting.

1.Welcome and introductions - provides an opportunity for team members to get to know each other and the potential value and contributions to the project

2.Project overview - discuss the elements of the project charter

3.Roles and responsibilities - clarify the roles and responsibilities of the team members

4.Processes and procedures - describe the protocols and plans for the project

5.Expectations - express expectations of the project and the experiences expected for team development

6.Closing comments - reinforce the expectations and the roles and allow tem members to ask questions, make comments, and get to know each other】

Effective Project Teams

More than a group of individuals

  Group of interdependent individuals

  Work cooperatively to achieve the project objective

Develop and grow into a cohesive, effective team

  Takes effort on the part of the project manager and each member

【•A project team is more than merely a group of individuals.

•It is a group of interdependent individuals working cooperatively to achieve the project objective.

•Helping these individuals develop and grow into a cohesive, effective team takes effort on the part of the project manager and each member of the project team.】

Characteristics of Effective Teams

Clear understanding of the project objective

Clear expectations of each person’s role and responsibilities

Results orientation

High degree of cooperation and collaboration

High level of trust

【While teams can differ widely from project to project and organization to organization, most teams share certain characteristics. Effective teams all have:

•A clear understanding of the project objective

•Clear expectations of each person’s role and responsibilities

•An orientation geared toward results

•A high degree of cooperation and collaboration

•A high level of trust between its members】

Conflicts on Projects

Sources of Conflict

Work Scope

Resource Assignments

Schedule

Cost

Priorities

Organizational issues

Personal differences

Handling Conflict Approaches

Avoiding or Withdrawing

Competing or Forcing（bad）

Accommodating or Smoothing

Compromising（nobody win）

Collaborating（key to handle conflict）, Confronting, or Problem Solving

【•Conflict is not always a bad thing that should be avoided. When working in teams on projects, conflict is inevitable. Conflict can actually be a productive force.

•Differences of opinion between team members are natural and must be expected.

•Moments of conflict provide an opportunity to gain new information, consider alternatives, develop better solutions to problems, enhance team building, and learn.

•There are seven main sources of potential conflict on projects.

1.Work Scope—Conflict can arise from differences of opinion on how the work should be done, how much work should be done, or at what level of quality the work should be done.

2.Resource Assignments—Conflict can arise over the particular individuals assigned to work on certain tasks, or over the quantity of resources assigned to certain tasks.

3.Schedule—Conflict can result from differences of opinion about the sequence in which the work should be completed, or about how long the work should take.

4.Cost—Conflict often arises over how much the work should cost.

5.Priorities—Conflict can result when people are assigned to work on several different projects concurrently, or when various people need to use a limited resource at the same time.

6.Organizational Issues—Organizational issues can cause conflict. There may be disagreement over the need for certain procedures established by the project manager, or ambiguous project communication, or from failure to make timely decisions.

7.Personal Differences—Conflict can emerge among members of the project team because of differences in individuals’ values and attitudes.

•Conflict is not just for the project manager to handle and resolve; conflict between team members should be handled by the individuals involved.

•Handled properly, conflict can be beneficial. It allows problems to surface and be addressed through stimulating discussion and encouraging people to clarify their views. It can force individuals to search for new approaches; it can foster creativity and enhance the problem-solving process.

•There are five main approaches to handling conflict:

1.Avoiding or Withdrawing.  Individuals in conflict retreat from the situation in order to avoid an actual or potential disagreement.

•This approach can cause the conflict to fester and then escalate at a later time.

2.Competing or Forcing. In this approach, conflict is viewed as a win–lose situation in which the value placed on winning the conflict is higher than the value placed on the relationship between the individuals.

•This approach to handling conflict can result in resentment and deterioration of the work climate.

3.Accommodating or Smoothing. This approach emphasizes finding areas of agreement within the conflict and minimizes addressing differences. Topics that may cause hurt feelings are not discussed.

•Although this approach may make a conflict situation livable, it does not resolve the issue.

4.Compromising. Team members search for an intermediate position.

•The solution may not be the optimal one.

5.Collaborating, Confronting, or Problem Solving. Team members confront the issue directly, with a constructive attitude, and look for a win–win outcome. They place high value on both the outcome and the relationship between the individuals.

•For this approach to work, it is necessary to have a healthy project environment.】

Problem Solving

•    A disciplined, creative, and effective approach to problem solving is needed for project success.

•    There is a nine-step approach to problem solving that will generally help to resolve issues.

1.     Develop a problem statement

•    It is important to start with a written statement of the problem, which assigns the problem definition and boundaries.

•    The problem statement should include a quantitative measure of the extent of the problem. For example: “We are two weeks behind schedule. If we don’t make the customer’s due date, she will be entitled to a 10 percent price reduction according to the contract.”

2.     Identify potential causes of the problem

•    There can be many reasons why a problem has occurred or is occurring.

•    A technique often used to identify potential causes of a problem is brainstorming.

3.     Gather data and verify the most likely causes

•    Data can be collected through asking questions, interviewing people, running tests, reading reports, or analyzing secondary data sources.

4.     Identify possible solutions

•    This is the creative step in the problem-solving process. Team members need to be careful not to latch onto the first solution suggested, but rather be open minded and receptive to more out-of the box ideas.

•    Brainstorming is a very useful technique.

5.     Evaluate the alternative solutions

•    Once various potential solutions have been identified, it is necessary to evaluate them.

•    The team must establish criteria against which solutions are evaluated in order to help determine which of the solutions is best.

•    Once the criteria have been established, the team may want to use an evaluation scorecard similar to the one you can find in chapter 3, Figure 3.3.

6.     Determine the best solution

•    The evaluation scorecards are used to help determine the best solution. However, they should not be the sole mechanism for determining the best solution; they should be used as input to the decision-making process.

7.     Revise the project plan

•    Once the best solution has been selected, it is necessary to prepare a plan for implementing that solution.

•    Specific tasks, people and resources need to be identified, along with their estimated costs and durations.

•    The project team members who will be responsible for implementing the solution should develop this information.

8.     Implement the solution

•    Team members should go ahead and perform their respective tasks.

9.     Determine whether the problem has been solved

•    Once the solution has been implemented, it is important to determine whether the problem has indeed been solved.

If the problem has not been solved, the problem-solving team needs to go back to earlier steps to see what else could be causing the problem.

Time Management

Identify goals to accomplish the following week

At the end of each day, make a to-do list for the next day

Read to-do list first thing in the morning, and keep it in sight all day

Control interruptions from the items on your to-do list

Learn to say no to activities that will consume time but not contribute to accomplishing goals

Make effective use of waiting time（hard but need to be done）

Try to handle most paperwork only once

Go through incoming e-mail or mail at the end of the day so that it will not divert from working on day’s to-do list（awful thing , just come to see manager）

Take action on each mail document while holding it

Reward at end of week if accomplished all week’s goals

【•People involved in projects are usually very busy working on their assigned tasks. Therefore, good time management is essential for a high-performance project team.

•Following are some suggestions to help you effectively manage your time when working on a project:

•At the end of each week, identify several (two to five) goals that you want to accomplish the following week.

•At the end of each day, make a to-do list for the next day.

•Read the daily to-do list first thing in the morning, and keep it in sight all day.

•Control interruptions from the items on your to-do list.

•Learn to say no to activities that will consume your time but not contribute to accomplishing your goals.

•Make effective use of waiting time. For example, carry reading material with you in case you get stuck in an airport.

•Try to handle most paperwork only once.

•Go through your incoming mail or e-mail at the end of the day so that it will not divert you from working on your day’s to-do list.

•When going through your mail, take action on each document while you are holding it.

Reward yourself at the end of the week if you accomplished all your goals.】