Getting It Done: Go Team

  Estimating   Leadership   New Practitioners  

Previously published in PM Network and Getting It Done: Project Management in Action.

Consider the following stakeholders: customers, sponsors, team members and managers. Of those groups, which one do you think project managers consider the most important?

I believe team members are. From initiation to closure, the team helps the project managers run and deliver a successful project. Because of their day-to-day importance, making teams work more e­fficiently and effectively should be the top priority for project leaders.

Several best practices allow for improved efficiencies and enable project managers to help team members excel. Here, I have coined an acronym (TEAM) comprised of the best practices for creating an e­fficient team.

Tailor to the Team’s Needs
Tailoring to team members’ needs, expectations and concerns helps ensure that project tasks get done and the team’s expectations are met. To discover what your team’s needs and expectations are, I suggest the following:

• During project initiation, meet with team members on a one-on-one basis to identify their goals. For example, a coder on an IT project might aspire to become a designer.
• Assign tasks based on their expectations, which should increase productivity and quality output. If …

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