Project Teams: An Overview

Project Teams: An Overview

• Key components of a project involve those directly or indirectly associated with it.
• Project team effectiveness impacts quality and time estimates.
• Skilled IT professionals are a limited resource.
• A project team consists of two or more individuals.
• Team members share goals, are interdependent, and possess complementary skills.
• Team members are mutually accountable to the organization and each other.

Work Groups vs. Project Teams

• Work groups primarily share information, while project teams focus on collective performance.
• Work groups exhibit neutral or sometimes negative synergy; project teams aim for positive synergy.
• Work groups emphasize individual accountability, while project teams focus on both individual and mutual accountability.
• Work group skills are random and varied, contrasting with the complementary skills of project teams.
• Communication can be guarded and inconsistent in work groups, whereas project teams promote free-flowing and candid communication.
• Work groups tend to be bureaucratic, project teams favor autonomy.

Project Team Development Stages

• Forming: Team members become acquainted, team goals are set, and work assignments are provided.
• Storming: Goals are set, power levels are established, and leadership roles are identified.
• Norming: Interpersonal relationships are built, a common purpose is developed, and standard operating procedures are set.
• Performing: Project work begins until the project is completed.
• Adjourning: Project assignments are completed, team members are released and possibly reassigned, leading to varying emotional responses.

Team Communication and Size

• Team communication and management complexity increase swiftly with the addition of members.
• Two-member teams have 1 person-to-person interface.
• Three-member teams have 3 person-to-person interfaces.
• Five-member teams have 10 person-to-person interfaces.
• Ten-member teams have 45 person-to-person interfaces.
• Use the formula: Communication Interfaces = n(n-1)/2 where n = team size

Project Team Performance Factors

• Work Design: Encompasses autonomy, skill variety, task identity, and task significance.
• Composition: Includes ability, personality, roles and diversity, size, flexibility, and a preference for teamwork.
• Context: Covers adequate resources, leadership, a climate of trust, and performance evaluation/rewards.
• Process: Focuses on a common purpose and goals, confidence, and maintaining a low to moderate conflict level.

Work Personalities

• Deliverers excel at completing tasks under pressure.
• Prototypers aid in clarifying unclear requirements.
• Perfectors ensure meticulous work quality.
• Finishers meet deadlines consistently.
• Fixers are adept at quickly resolving problems.
• Producers can sustain work for extended periods and accomplish a significant amount.

Project Team Selection

• Teams should be small and manageable for optimal efficiency.
• Seek individuals with appropriate personality traits for team synergy.
• Embrace diversity to bring varied perspectives and skills.
• Reuse successful teams when possible to capitalize on established dynamics.
• Plan recruitment to secure the right individuals for the project.
• Utilize your professional network to find suitable candidates.

Motivation

• Motivation is an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence in achieving a goal.
• Factors motivating individuals vary such as the individual's job satisfaction, absenteeism, and turnover.

Popular Motivational Theories

• Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow): Includes physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization being the focus once each need is met.
• ERG Theory: Core needs are Existence, Relatedness, and Growth, where more than one need may be operative at the same time; desire to satisfy a lower level need becomes the focus.
• Two-Factor Theory: Intrinsic factors (achievement, recognition) relate to job satisfaction, extrinsic factors (salary, relationships) relate to dissatisfaction.
• Theory of Needs: A person's motivation is explained by achievement, power and affiliation needs.

Process Theories of Motivation

• Theory X: Assumes people dislike work, are lazy, resist responsibility, and require coercion.
• Theory Y: assumes people enjoy work, are creative, seek autonomy, and desire responsibility.
• Theory Z: Reflects concepts such as lifetime employment, strong company loyalty, and group consensus.
• Goal-Setting Theory: Assign clear, challenging goals, and provide feedback to enhance productivity.
• Equity Theory: Individuals compare their inputs and outputs with others to address inequalities.
• Reinforcement Theory: Positive and negative feedback shapes behavior; reward desirable actions and punish undesirable ones.
• Expectancy Theory: Exerting high effort occurs when one believes it leads to a good performance appraisal, which leads to rewards that satisfy personal needs.

Motivating Team Members

• Acknowledge individual differences to cater to diverse needs.
• Set specific goals and provide consistent feedback.
• Allow team members involvement in decision-making.
• Link rewards directly to performance.
• Ensure the system is equitable for all members.

Manager vs. Leader

• Managers use a formal position to plan, organize, direct, monitor, and control activities.
• Leaders influences others through personal attributes.

Leadership

• Leadership involves influencing others toward goal achievement.
• Attributes include intelligence, task competence, maturity, broad interests, interpersonal skills, respect for others, goal orientation, and strong motivation.

Leadership Theories

• Trait Theories focus on personal characteristics like personality and competence that distinguish leaders.
• Behavioral Theories state that actions determine the potential to be a great leader.
• Contingency Theories state that one of the most critical factors for leadership, involves a situational approach to identifying success.

Situational Leadership Model (SLM)

• Follower is Able + Unwilling: The leader should participate and support
• Follower is Able + Willing: The leader should delegate
• Follower is Unable + Unwilling: The leader should direct by telling
• Follower is Unable + Willing: The leader should coach and sell

Essential Practices for Effective Leadership

• Challenge the process to encourage innovation.
• Inspire a shared vision to unite the team.
• Enable others to act to empower team members.
• Model the way to set a positive example.
• Encourage the heart to motivate and uplift the team.

Power in Project Teams

• Power is the ability to influence behavior or attitudes, classified as positional or personal.

Positional Power Types

• Legitimate power is derived from the individual's position.
• Reward power stems from the ability to distribute rewards.
• Corrective power stems from the ability to punish
• Information power comes from controlling information.
• Ecological power involves controlling resources like equipment and space.

Personal Power Types

• Expert Power: Influencing people is based on expertise, special skills, or knowledge (Warren Buffett).
• Referent Power: Influencing people is based on affection, admiration, or loyalty (Collin Powel).
• Charismatic Power: Influencing people is based on a favorable personality (Oprah Winfrey).

Conflict

• Conflict is the result of opposing needs, drives, wishes, external or internal demands.
• Functional conflict supports team goals and improves performance where a low to moderate level of task conflict can increase performance.
• Dysfunctional conflict hinders group performance, it hinders group performance and damages the team where relationship discord and high task conflicts have a negative impact.

Primary Causes of Conflict

• Schedule disagreements over task duration and scheduling.
• Different project priorities
• Manpower issues with team workloads.
• Technical disputes regarding system design and limitations
• Administrative conflicts related to authority.
• Personality clashes from dysfunctional relationships.
• Cost issues as project resources become more constrained.

Project Conflict Conditions can arise from:

• Ambiguous roles
• Incompatible goals
• Communication issues
• Dependency on the other party
• Specialization
• Consensus decisions
• Behavior regulations
• Historical unresolved prior conflicts

Conflict Intensity Scale

• The scale ranges from no conflict to extreme conflict, with varied levels of dysfunctional and functional conflict.
• Minor disagreements or misunderstandings are considered to be a functional conflict issue
• Overt efforts to destroy the other are considered a dysfunctional level of conflict

Conflict Management

• Problem Solving: Face-to-face meetings address conflict via candid discussions.
• Shared Goals: Goals require cooperation to resolve conflict.
• Resource Expansion: Resolving conflict caused by resource scarcity requires additional resources.
• Avoidance: Suppressing the conflict.
• Smoothing: Using common interests and downplaying the conflict.
• Compromise: Each party gives up something of value.
• Authoritative Command: Person mandates an ultimate outcome.
• Altering Team Member Behavior: Training attitudes and behaviors.
• Altering the Team Structure: Limit the interaction between members.

Conflict Stimulation Techniques:

• Communication: Using threatening or ambiguous messages.
• Outsiders: Adding new member to the team with different backgrounds.
• Structuring: Realigning tasks.
• Devil's Advocate: One assigned to argue among team members.

Important Political Skills

• Understanding organizational values, how your decisions will impact the organization.
• Expanding and strengthening your network for assistance and communication.
• Using a clear and easy to communicate story, so that other members understand your motivations and feelings; being able to understand others.
• Lead by example, showcase the values that you believe in.

Global Project Teams

• Global project teams are increasing as telecommunications, globalization, and outsourcing increases.

Why Outsource

• Helps to reduce costs, free up internal resources, accesses world capabilities, increase revenue potential, reduces time to market, increase processes, outsource non-core activities and compensate capabilities in skills.

Global Project Team: Management Challenges

• Expertise related challenges: Lack of training, knowledge requirements, etc..
• Cultural differences: Issues of different communication styles, languages, societal factors etc..
• Environmental Challenges: Climate changes issues, global warming.
• Technological Challenges: Keeping up with the speed

Culture

• Culture is the collective programming that distinguishes people from each other

Aspects that Cultures Vary By

• Power distance that describes societies handling of human equality issues.
• Uncertainty Avoidance: the levels of risk tolerated
• Individualism/Collectivism: Describes how a society values the importance of a group.
• Masculinity/Femininity: The qualities that characterize each society
• Concept of Time: Long term vs Short term
• Life Focus: Cultures focus on the quantity vs quality of life.

Possible Cultural Barriers

• Language and communication difficulties.
• Work culture and skills.
• Differences in aesthetics, such as art and music.
• Differing attitudes toward education and literacy.
• Spiritual customs and values
• Family dynamic
• Political stability and the impacts within

Other Challenges

• Different skill sets and personnel costs
• Obstructions in data collection and flow.
• Differing legal policies
• Currency fluctuations.

Global Project Team: Development Strategies

• Emphasize teams that are sensitized toward global and political issues
• Recruit individuals that are experienced in working across cultures.
• Prioritize the organization of the people that speak multiple languages
• Flex organization culture to fit individuals