This module has been developed to provide you and your team with the tools you need to be successful in your group project. These are just a few tools used by project managers in industry to get projects started as well as ensure that they are completed successfully (and on time). These tools can not only help you in this project but can also be used in projects you work on in the future.
Project Team Initiation
At the beginning of a project, it is very common for project teams to be keen to get started and dive straight into the work. However, without proper planning, many problems can begin to arise. The team may not have taken time to carefully understand the project objectives and conditions, may not have ensured that the project team has the skills and resources it needs to successfully complete the project and it may not have established the principles and practices that will enable the team to work effectively together. This could lead to confusion and conflict over what the team should be working on and, more often than not, that project would fail.
By the end of this module, you will learn more about how to:
- Create a Team Charter
- Create a Project Plan
- Create a Weekly Project Status Report
Create A Team Charter
The first step in working with others as a team is to get to know one another and establish how you are going to work together. To do this, you will first want to work with your team members to develop a detailed Team Charter. This exercise is intended to help you and your team to get to know each other and establish the ground rules for your how your team will work together to complete your project.
The Team Charter is created with input from all team members and will list the agreed upon guidelines for the operation of your team. It might include how your meetings will be organised, expectations on workload and how you will ensure that people respect each other, as well as any other areas that will be important to working together effectively. Your plan should not just be nice things that you will try to do – it should be the rules that everyone has agreed to and will be expected to adhere to. It should be practical and not a wish list.
Here are some examples of items that may be included in your Team Charter:
- Treat each other with respect
- Avoid hidden agendas
- Create trust
- Be open minded
- We will deliver on our commitments
- Attend meetings on time
- Take notes at all meetings and circulate them within 4 hours of the meeting ending
- All meetings will have an agenda
- Everyone will have an opportunity to express their views
- Information will be openly shared
When you have completed the Team Charter, it should be easily available to all team members throughout the project and referred to when needed to keep the team on track.
Assess Your Project Team Skills
Next, you will want to spend some time reflecting on your personal strengths and weaknesses so you and your team members can assess your Project Team Skills. Most teams will not have a perfect alignment with the ideal set of capabilities for completing their project successfully. This may mean that you need to access skills from outside the project team, perhaps through getting advice from appropriate experts or support from services inside or outside the organisation, or by focusing more consciously on aspects that the team may be less capable in. Project teams need a range of skills and capabilities to be effective. Some of these skills will be specific to your project, while others will be valuable in most project teams. Skills that are seen as usually valuable in project teams include (but are not limited to):
Active Listening
Increased effort to understand what someone else is saying. It is important to motivate team members and take full advantage of their skills and knowledge.
Research and Analysis
Understanding which data is important and being able to gather it. Examining and understanding the data about a project. This is essential to create a good project plan and solve problems as the project proceeds.
Creativity
Using your imagination to plan and devise effective ways of completing the project solutions to problems.
Communication
Communication is important between members of the project team to enable ideas to be shared and solutions to be formed and implemented. It is also important with people outside the project team, to gather their ideas and understand and address their concerns.
Dependability
Project team members need to be able to rely on and trust each other to ensure that work will be done when needed and that support will be provided when team members face challenges.
Decision making
Teams need to be able to make good quality decisions, which is often difficult. They need to carefully consider the factors that will influence the decision and effectively involve team members so that they are comfortable that team decisions are being made appropriately.
Emotional Intelligence
Awareness and the ability to control your own emotions and apply this capability in relationships with others. Emotional Intelligence is important in effective team working and leadership.
Team Working
Being a valuable contributor to the team and helping the team to work as effectively as possible.
In addition to these skills, there will usually be other skills that will be useful for your team that are dependent on the problem being solved. Often these will be technical in nature.
Team Skills Self Assessment
When you and your team meet, review each of these skills and share which of these skills were your strengths and which skills you identified as your weaknesses. You can fill out each other’s answers in the Team Skills Matrix provided below. Your matrix should allow you to see the areas where your team and has strength and the areas where it doesn’t. This will let you know what you might need to work harder at or get help with, from outside the team.
Identify and Allocate Team Roles
Once you have reviewed your team skills, you can identify the roles needed in your team and who will be best suited to assume them. The list of roles below are just suggestions, you and your team are welcome to create roles that you think will be important for the success of your team. It is important to note that is common that one team member may be assigned to one or more roles depending on the project. It is also common that some roles may need more than one team member! (i.e., Team member 1 will be the ‘Time Manager’ and the ‘Recorder’; Team Members 3 and 4 will both be the ‘Data Collectors’).
Roles that most teams include in their planning are:
Champion
May be outside the team with authority to provide necessary resources to the team and remove barriers to the project. May attend team meetings.
Leader
Coordinates the work of the team, its decision making and focus on objectives. Motivates team members.
Team Members
Carry out team activity, contribute to team success.
Time Manager
Help the team allocate appropriate time for its activities, inside and outside of meetings.
Facilitator
Helps the team work better together in pursuit of its objectives. Enables effective application of processes the team is using.
Recorder
Takes meeting notes and maintains the data and records of the team.
Discuss these roles with your team members and consider what team roles would be needed for your project. You and your team members can then allocate who will assume which role and you can record these roles to be included into your Project Plan.
Team Skills images: bsd - Freepik.com