subject: Learning For Pmp Professionals: Developing Project Teams [print this page] Once the Project Team is acquired, the next step is developing the Project Team with an objective to improve teamwork. Remember, a great team work can achieve exceptional results and project manager should really focus on developing the project team.
There is no as such important input for this process, except for the Project Team Assignments. Some team members are quiet particular about what work they do and hence its important for the Project Manager to understand who is assigned what work.
There are number of ways to develop the Project Team. Its more of an art than science and this is where individual characteristics of the project manager matter a lot. If the Project Manager genuinely commands trust and respect of his/her team members, developing the team becomes really easy. Team members look upon to the Project Manager not only for taking project specific instructions, but also for their general career advancement as well.
Doing social activities like celebrating a team members birthday, going for parties outside the office etc does help in team building.
Training is also an important tool for developing the Project team as it helps increase the productivity of the team members.
Some times just co-locating the team members at a single place also helps develop the team bonding, this is especially important, if team members work from different geographical location. Knowing a person face to face does help in reducing conflict.
Finally the Project Manager should also set some ground rules in the Project to ensure that team performs their work without any problems. Some such rules can be:
1.Everyone should reach office for daily meeting by 9.30 AM sharp
2.If there is more than 10% delay in completing any activity assigned, it should immediately get escalated to Project Manager
3.If there are any unforeseen circumstances, it should be immediately brought to the notice of the Project Manager. Etc.
The output of this process is Team Performance Assessment. This is done by the Project Manager to evaluate and enhance the effectiveness of the team as a whole. This can be thought of a document that explains Team Effectiveness.
