BUS402: Project Management

Project team

Introduction

Some projects, especially large-scale ones, will rely on a team, not just an individual, for their successful implementation. Unlike permanent work teams, a project team's objective is the achievement of a finite and specific task – the project. Its performance, especially its ability to perform effectively as a group, is therefore critical to a project's outcome. However, it may prove relatively difficult for a project team to work well together at the outset, since its members are often drawn from different functions within the organisation, perhaps even from different organisations, and may include external representatives such as external consultants or representatives of the project's customers. This means that the group members' interests regarding the project are highly likely to differ at the outset.

The example shows that, in the case of the construction of the British Library, failure to establish a coherent and effective project team with clearly defined tasks meant that no shared set of objectives was ever agreed by the parties involved. Thus no one group took responsibility for driving through the project. A direct consequence of this was that control over the project's progress was inadequate and technical problems proliferated.

For project teams to perform well, certain circumstances need to exist:

• members must feel personally involved in the project;

• members believe that they are serving the interests of those whom they represent who will benefit from the project outcome;

• a readiness to accept new ideas;

• a certain autonomy for project teams to determine their own goals and their approaches to achieving them if they are to work effectively. Not surprisingly, the ability of the project manager to expedite effective project team working is crucial.

While the diversity of a project team may sometimes detract from its effective working, especially at the beginning of a project, it is nevertheless essential that a range of skills and knowledge is represented within it if it is to perform efficiently. Boddy and Buchanan (1992) identify three aspects of a project for which a well-balanced project team will require appropriate skills: process, content and control.

To deal with the content agenda, a team may require:

• expertise in the skills which the project concerns, e.g. IT skills;

• awareness of the organisation's policies and strategies;

• operating knowledge of how the part of the organisation which will benefit from the project works.

To deal with the process agenda, a team may require:

• skills in team-building to help the members of the group work together;

• awareness that the process by which things are done are as important as what is done;

• willingness and ability to give time and commitment to the team.

To deal with the control agenda, a team may require:

• a helicopter view to set the project within a broader picture;

• deadline skills to ensure that the project is progressing satisfactorily;

• administration skills to ensure that appropriate and timely project documentation is maintained.

Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a project team

Those involved in a project may have skills that fulfil more than one aspect of the project agenda. This is likely to be particularly important in small-scale projects, where management of the content, process and control agendas are just as important to the project's success, but where fewer people are involved.