By David Okul
March 18, 2020
For every project to succeed, it must have clear and defined project goals. To achieve these goals, project managers need to distribute roles and assign responsibilities to the right people. This task will include getting people for both management and non-management positions. It also includes getting people with soft skills and varied professional abilities. In short, projects need team players.
A project team comprises of different team players who perform various roles within the same project for a given period.
It would help if you appreciated that a team includes people of different backgrounds and expertise. A winning team seeks to integrate the various people into one unit.
Understanding the critical project players
How you approach a project depends on the nature of the project itself. However, there are typical player roles that will work for any project team. They are as follows.
Project Sponsors
This team player refers to the person or the group that owns the project. They are the reason why there is a project in the first place. Project sponsors do not engage in the day to day running of the project. But, they are involved all through the project to ensure its success.
As far as implementation and control are concerned, project sponsors are above the project manager. However, they must set boundaries and not overstep on the duties of the project manager.
The project sponsor also engages with other stakeholders to help in decision making whenever it isn’t straightforward to reach a consensus. They determine risks and effect changes that may be beyond the project manager to give the go or no go at different stages of the project’s life cycle.
Project Manager
This team member is the point person that spearheads a project. Once appointed, project managers become the face of the project and get involved in the day to day operations. They play a leadership role, which consists of motivating and coordinating team members at each stage of the project.
They set milestones and determine the work scope when they are scheduling project activities. Project managers are also problem solvers whenever issues arise during the project.
Project managers are the link between Project sponsors and other key players. They communicate the desires and effect the changes made by the sponsors of the project.
Project managers are often credited or discredited for the success or failure of a project.
Team members
They are at the heart of operations. The main task involves the execution of project activities as scheduled by performing designated assignments. Team members can either be external staff or in house members. They may be engaged full time or on a part-time basis depending on their professional and soft skill sets that they possess.
In creating the killer project team, you should consider the stakeholders in totality. Generally, there are two types of stakeholders including internal stakeholders (sponsor, customer, management, and project team) and external stakeholders (suppliers, sub-contractors, government, communities, and the media)
Challenges in establishing winning project teams
Although creating winning project teams is a desire of all project managers, some common problems make it hard to develop teams. Some of these challenges include:
- Different points of views of the various stakeholders. Each stakeholder should understand the project objectives and interests
- to mitigate the problem.
- A capable team is hard to form when the objectives are not clear to all the team players.
- Lack of a credible leader. Teams are often ineffective if the team leader is perceived as incompetent by the other members.
- Lack of commitment from other team players: It is hard to form a winning team if members are disinterested in the project. Problems also arise when some of the team members are incompetent.
- Communication problems: Effective communication could overcome most of the challenges in developing a team.
The phases of project team development
Forming winning teams is achievable through the five stages of team development. The steps include forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Bruce Wayne Tuckman developed the stages.
- Forming is the first stage and involves the team members introducing each other. The team leader needs to communicate the project goals and objectives at this stage effectively.
- In the storming phase, the team members compete for status and ideas. As such, conflicts are frequent in the stage. The period is difficult for team members who dislike conflict. However, the project manager needs to ensure that team members listen, appreciate, and respect each other’s ideas. Some teams rarely move beyond storming as they dwell on the conflicts leading to low morale
- Team working together as a unit marks the norming stage. Now, the team does not compete. Instead, the focus is on established procedures and practices.
- Unlike the other stages, the performance phase doesn’t require oversight. Nevertheless, the team leader continues to monitor progress while celebrating milestones. Still, there is a chance of team reverting to previous stages. For instance, a new member joining the unit may cause the team to return to the forming stage.
- The adjourning stage occurs when the project comes to an end, and the team members move into different directions. It is a good idea for teams to have a review during adjournment to document the lessons learned.
Resourcing your team effectively
A resource is an umbrella term that refers to the people working on a project, the equipment they will use, and the site of the project. Even though resources may refer to assets in general, here, resources refer to the people on your team.
Nowadays, companies are under immense pressure to deliver technologically advanced services and products with reduced budgets. But make no mistake; ineffective resource management leads to reduced productivity, poor quality, low morale, and increased costs, amongst other negative consequences.
When it comes to managing resources, high utilization of people does not mean proper resource management. Instead, ensure that your resources work on projects that are specific and aligned with their skill set. Also, take care not to over-commit your funds, as it may limit people’s innovation and growth.
The following are the best practices for resource management
- Identify the resources in short supply and adjust your plans according to their availability. This practice will help you avoid unnecessary delays in your project.
- Find a common approach to prioritize work when resources must be shared.
- Deploy the use of different methodologies to work with different people within your organization.
- Resource management is a continuous process. Understand that changes are inevitable, and conflicts will occur. Resolving resource conflicts is a primary concern.
- Plan your work, and where possible, make use of automated processes to help with the administration work.
- Always account for the non-project time. When planning for both short term and long term, consider your teams off days, paid time, and overtime. Also, account for the loss of time on everyday routines like a delayed email response, general meetings, etc.
- Limit or avoid multi-tasking. It may appear efficient on surface value, but the results are often low productivity.
In summary, establishing a winning project team is no accident. It requires a deliberate selection of team players from the various stakeholders. Of importance is that the team players have a clear understanding of the project goals throughout the phases of team development.
David Okul is an environmental management professional with over 10 years experience on donor projects, forestry, and community-based natural resources management.
