Who do we need to get the job done and how do we get the best out of the team? There is no such single factor contributing to project innovation and – productivity as the people in our project organization. Invest in people – get the right people on board, establish a high-performance team, maintain motivation and commitment throughout the project – The extra attention, effort, and resources invested into the project organization will pay off.
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Get the right people on board – The positive effects of having the right people on board cannot be overemphasized. Invest all you can in the important task of attracting the right people to the project. Keep in mind the famous study showing a 1:10 ratio between the worst and best performers (Ref 1). Pay special attention to the key roles like project manager, team leads, architects, lead developers, and lead testers. Watch out for compromises also when there is time pressure to get the project organization staffed. People are quickly becoming “irreplaceable” in projects and the cost of having the wrong people is high in terms of the cascading effects; poor quality, delays, extra workload, and impact on team morale. Ensure right staffing – Make sure to get the right profiles and to have the right staffing throughout the project. It is a puzzle to define what profiles will be needed at what time. Timing is important – it can be counterproductive to be overstaffed too early. When the need is there must however be sufficient staffing. Be prepared when you enter the “staffing battle” to fight for getting and keeping the resources needed to execute. Define the organizational structure – The traditional organizational chart is a practical way to provide a quick overview of how the project is organized, to define who is inside and outside of the project organization, to define how team members belong to the project, and to define roles and responsibilities. Size matters – and big is not beautiful – Small project organizations are more efficient than big project organizations. Teams with sizes from 5-12 seem to be most efficient. when projects turn large the need for resources to manage, monitor and coordinate seems to be ever-growing. Everything cannot be built by small teams so when things are becoming big special attention must be paid to how to establish and remain a big productive project organization Establish and maintain a high-performance team – Get the best out of the team and get the best out of each team member. The high-performance team is not something that can just be “bought” it must evolve through human interaction. There are however many things that can be done to promote the formation of a high-performance team. Some general key factors include: Sell the vision, set clear achievable goals, involve the team actively in planning and give the team responsibility, address individual preferences, recognize the contribution, celebrate results and communicate openly, evaluate results and improve iteratively. You can never invest too much in the team and it often happens that too little is invested. Make a difference by putting team activities on the plan when the project is started and throughout the project. Manage the virtual team – More and more activities are taking place with teams and people located in different locations working as virtual teams. It requires an extra effort to establish and maintain the virtual team. Ensure the technical prerequisites are in place so the team can work efficiently incl. virtual meeting equipment and tools for knowledge sharing. Invest extra in building relations, and pay extra attention to team communication incl. regular well planned meetings. Make projects people friendly? – Projects can be a fantastic playground with an option to be innovative, learn new skills, be part of great teamwork but they can also be stressful, exhaustive, and never-ending marathons. Make it an objective to make projects people friendly because it creates better results and because it increases life quality for all of us that spend a huge part of our lives in projects. Find the sustainable high pace that is producing results without draining people, contribute to a positive working climate, be supportive, promote open communication and be ready to learn and adapt.
Researchers have found 10-fold differences in productivity and quality between different programmers with the same levels of experience and also between different teams working within the same industries. |
| Activities |
| Define project organization |
| Create staffing and allocation plan |
| Staffing of key roles |
| Create organizational chart |
| Define roles and responsibilities |
| Define project processes |
| Share project organization with stakeholders and team |
| Conduct kick-off |
| Establish a high-performance team |
| Promote factors that form a high-performance team |
| Create settings that promote productivity |
| Ensure 1:1 dialogue with team members |
| Form new team |
| Establish team communication plan |
| Establish team goals |
| Establish team processes |
| Create plan for virtual collaboration |
| Maintain project organization |
| Assess project organization and need for changes |
| Revisit activities for establishing the organization |
| Update role descriptions |
| Update staffing overview |
| Re-align project organization with team and stakeholders |
| Conduct "kick-on" |
| Maintain high-performance team |
| Assess team performance |
| Revisit activities for forming the high-performance team |
| Conduct meetings and social arrangements |
| Ensure communication |
| Celebrate success |
| Create plan for over-loaded project team |
| Long project: Define near-term goals |
| Early Involvement of operational team |
| Establish a task force |
| Vendor involvement |
| Risks |
| Teamwork blocked by team members on multiple locations |
| Problem: Project team members cannot meet on a regular basis and solve things as they arise Consequence: Team members may not be aligned about the work in the project and may not be able to utilize each other. This barrier for high performance may impact both time, budget and product value |
| Lack of communication to project team |
| Problem: Project team members lack information about overall vision, important decisions, relevant news and they are not receiving information when they need it. Consequence: One of the key elements that form a high performing team is missing and the project team members may need information required to perform their job efficiently. |
| Lack of team member motivation |
| Problem: Team members lack motivation the motivation to deliver their best Consequence: Severe risk that the project cannot deliver expected results |
| Multiple barriers for high performance team |
| Problem: There are multiple barriers preventing formation of a high performance team Consequence: It will not be possible to get the best potential out of the team |
| One or more key roles are not staffed with the right profile |
| Problem: A vital part of the project organization is not in place Consequence: Severe risk that project cannot deliver expected results |
| Insufficient staffing |
| Problem: The project is not sufficiently staffed for planned activities Consequence: Progress will be negatively impacted and team can become overloaded |
| Unclear roles and responsibilities |
| Problem: Team members find it difficult to understand, navigate and produce results in the organizational structure due to unclear responsibilities, heavy procedures or lack of common priorities or collaboration between teams. Consequence: The organizational structure is itself consuming time from the project team and preventing high-performance. |
OBV Consulting ApS
Skovvej 5 DK-4180 Sorø
info@obvconsulting.dk
Ole Barkou Vilstrup
+45 61 62 73 12
obv@obvconsulting.dk
Good project knowledge base sets the scene for project management and provides an intro to its main disciplines. Get inspiration for project execution through action templates, risk lists, key figures and find inspirational guides on how to deal with typical challenges in projects. Read more