Building a Team
Building a successful project team requires you to take the following steps.
1. Select the right team members.
First, you must identify the specific project skills that are needed, and then bring in people with those skills. As the project continues, you must continue to validate the team's skills and resources to ensure that no critical skill areas are missing or misrepresented.
2. Organize the team.
As team members begin to work together, the team establishes a set of values. You, the project manager, must help team members commit to the team and its values. Each team meeting is an opportunity for team building and team development.
Another part of organizing a team is preparing an organizational breakdown structure (OBS). This WWPMM work product, which is presented in Module 3, defines the relationships between projects and subprojects, the reporting relationships, and the team structure of the project organization. All team members should have a copy of this chart, which clearly identifies their roles and responsibilities.
In order to support the team's goals, team members need to understand the background information about the project and team's mission.
3. Ensure open communication.
Communication should be easy and frequent, and team members must feel that they are part of the group. A variety of communication methods can be used to share information, including meetings, informal discussions, e-mail, and bulletin boards. All of these should be documented in the communication management plan.