The Definitive Guide to Project Management: The fast track to getting the job done on time and on budget (2nd Edition)

It is the project manager's responsibility to develop the project team. At the start of a project it is often the case that the team may not have worked together before. The project manager must ensure that the team develops into a group of individuals capable of delivering the project on time, on budget and on scope. The develop project team process is shown in Figure 9.6.

Training can be provided formally, such as obtaining certification, or informally, such as ad-hoc coaching sessions. The third technique is team-building activities. Team-building activities can vary enormously, ranging from a weekly team meeting to a team awayday. Project tasks can also be used for team building, such as the development of the work breakdown structure. The fourth tool is ground rules. It is imperative that the standards for acceptable behaviour are established at the start of the project. In fact the development of the ground rules can be a team-building exercise in the form of a workshop. The project manager must ensure that the team understand not only the rules but also the shared responsibility of enforcing them.

The fifth technique is the co-location of a team. This involves ensuring as many team members as possible are based, ideally, in the same room. If this is not possible, co-location on the same floor or in the same building will often suffice. If it is not possible to have the team in the same building, such as in a multi-country project, other methods must be thought of. One way to achieve this is by the creation of team pages on the organization's intranet. Another is the creation of virtual teams, making the most of novel technology, such as video conferencing and instant messaging.

The sixth and final tool is recognition and rewards. This technique identifies and provides incentives for desirable conduct throughout the project. It is important to reward only good behaviour; for example, working weekends to ensure a software product is ready for the publicized launch date is worth rewarding if the schedule was tight. It is not worth rewarding if the programmer was often absent without notice and was using the weekends to catch up on work. The PMI makes a clear distinction between win lose and win win rewards.

There is only one output from this process the team performance assessment. As the project team develops, their performance should increase. The performance assessment will evaluate the team's effectiveness by looking at various performance indicators, such as increased productivity, improved competencies, and reduced staff turnover.