by Dave Wakeman

My editor asked me about a post I wrote 10 years ago, looking at how to build winning teams on the court and off.

“Let’s bring back March Madness!” he said.

I aim to please.

So, on the eve of the 2025 NCAA Final Fours for men and women, let’s go back to the locker room and see what coaches and project managers have in common when they build winning teams.

1. Establish a culture
I attended the University of Alabama, which I have discussed before. I’ve written often about my respect for football coach Nick Saban, and translated some lessons from his success into project management terms.

Now, Saban has retired. His culture was one of precision, hard work, and constant improvement. But that doesn’t mean Alabama doesn’t have coaches to respect and learn from. We have many.

Nate Oates is the men’s basketball coach, and Kalen DeBoer is the football coach. Both focus on establishing culture in their programs.

• For the basketball team, it is about being gritty. Coach Oates calls it “hardhat basketball.”
• Coach DeBoer has talked about having a “player-led” culture that he believes gives the team extra incentive to buy in.

The two approaches are different, but they teach us one important lesson: The best teams have an identity, something that provides a framework for how they approach their jobs.

This same idea applies to project teams. Projects often deal with turbulence, change and adversity, just like on the court or the field.

2. Handle change, adapt quickly
Going back to Alabama. When I was in school, making the Sweet Sixteen was a huge victory. Last season, Alabama made its first Final Four. This year, we’ve been in the Top 10 all year.

Besides bragging, one thing I’ve learned is that the NCAA tournament is about adjustments and being able to react quickly. How do I mean?

Because of the compressed nature of the tournament, if you make a long run, you play games quickly. You might be selected on Sunday and have your first game on Thursday. Win and you have a day to prepare for a team you may not know anything about for the game on Saturday.

That pattern can repeat three times if you make the Final Four.

It happens even more when you factor in the conference tournaments that might make a team play three or four days in a row. Or even more: Last year, NC State was in danger of not making the NCAA tournament. It won five games in five days (!) at the ACC tournament, automatically qualifying for NCAAs. After just four days of rest, the team won four more games in the NCAA tournament and advanced to the Final Four before losing. (And if you have to play in the First Four, the schedule is even more compact.)

The lesson: You must adapt and change quickly.

That’s true for PMs as well.

A change order pops up.

You might lose access to resources.

A team member may be called away or get stretched in multiple directions.

On and on.

You must adapt and adjust to keep your project on track. Just like a team in the tournament.

3. Find a way
Teams that win the championship must find a way to win.

The only team I remember not having a close call at any point in the men’s tournament was the 2018 Villanova Wildcats. The closest games they played were two that they won by 12. (My wife doesn’t let me forget that season.)

Most teams that make a championship run face adversity. They must find a way to overcome challenges, injuries and other obstacles.

Project teams must find ways to complete jobs as well.

You may have a budget cut.

You may get a schedule change.

There are always change orders.

You might change team members during the project.

Who knows?

You work on enough projects; you see all kinds of crazy things happen. The key thing is that you find a way to bring the project home.

That’s what good teams do.

That’s what good project teams do.

Two questions for you in the comments:

1. Who are you cheering for at the men’s and women’s Final Four?
2. How do you make sure your team is ready to win?

By Peter Tarhanidis, Ph.D.

Many leaders accept failure as part of their learning to enhance their future and mature outcomes. At the beginning of a new year, we must reflect on the past year’s successes and failures. Reflecting on project failures in 2024 offers leaders valuable insights to foster success in 2025. Understanding these challenges, supported by data and examples, is crucial for leaders aiming to enhance project outcomes in 2025.

Here are some notable quotes and perspectives on failure and resilience:

• Failure as the stepping stone to success: "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." — Robert F. Kennedy.
• The power of perseverance: "The secret of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times." — Paulo Coelho
• The need to take risks: "Risk is not to be evaluated in terms of the probability of success but by the value of the goal." — Ralph D. Winter

Leaders should reflect on 2024 project failures with a focus on identifying root causes, assessing systemic issues, and implementing actionable lessons. Below are examples of challenges organizations and leaders faced or continue to struggle with:

1. Poor resource management: Inefficient allocation of resources led to project delays and budget overruns. TeamStage’s 2024 survey cites 60% of respondents identified poor resource management as their biggest challenge. Prosymmetry illustrates this impact; the Denver International Airport's automated baggage handling system faced severe delays and budget overruns due to inadequate resource allocation and management.
2. Lack of defined project management methodologies: The absence of standardized processes resulted in inconsistent project outcomes. Plaky’s 2024 survey indicates that 42% of project managers do not follow a defined project management methodology, making their projects 15% less likely to meet goals and stay within budget. Prosymmetry 2024 shares an example of when the Ford Edsel project failed due to the absence of a clear project management methodology, resulting in misaligned objectives and market misjudgment.
3. Unrealistic deadlines: Setting unattainable timelines leads to compromised quality and team burnout. Tempo 2024 states that 31% of project managers reported unrealistic deadlines as a top challenge. A key highlight noted by the Project Management blog is when the FBI's Virtual Case File project was abandoned after four years and $170 million spent, primarily due to setting unattainable deadlines that led to incomplete and faulty deliverables.
4. Insufficient budget: Unsurprisingly, underfunded projects struggled to procure necessary resources, affecting deliverables. Exploding Topics 2024 survey notes that 17% of project managers cited insufficient budget as a significant challenge. ProjectManager blog cites the California DMV's IT modernization project was canceled after $135 million was spent over nine years, largely due to chronic underfunding and budget mismanagement.
5. Poor project quality: Without the voice of the customer, deliverables failed to meet stakeholder expectations, necessitating costly revisions. This was noted by the Exploding Topics 2024 survey by 13% of project managers, who identified poor project quality as a major issue. ProjectManager blog notes the Healthcare.gov website launch in 2013 suffered from numerous glitches and downtime due to inadequate testing and quality assurance, leading to a poor user experience.

2025 Strategies to Ensure Success

1. Implement defined project management methodologies: Adopt a standardized framework like agile or waterfall to provide clear guidelines and improve project outcomes. Tempo 2024 confirms projects are 15% more likely to meet goals and stay within budget when following a defined methodology.
2. Set realistic deadlines: Engage stakeholders in setting achievable timelines based on resource availability and project scope. Leaders will reduce the risk of team burnout and maintain quality standards.
3. Ensure adequate budget allocation: Conduct thorough cost estimations during the planning phase to secure necessary funding. Leaders can prevent resource shortages and maintain project momentum.
4. Enhance project quality: Implement quality assurance processes and continuous improvement practices. Organizations can deliver products that meet or exceed stakeholder expectations, reducing rework.
5. Invest in resource management tools: Utilize project management software to optimize resource allocation and track progress. This will aid leaders in improving efficiency and in meeting project objectives.

By addressing these challenges with targeted strategies, leaders can build project maturity and drive more successful outcomes in 2025. What project challenges did you have in 2024, and what actions will you take to ensure success in 2025?

References

1. https://teamstage.io/project-management-statistics
2. https://www.prosymmetry.com/blog/4-famous-project-management-failures-and-what-to-learn-from-them
3. https://www.tempo.io/blog/failed-projects
4. https://plaky.com/learn/project-management/project-management-statistics
5. https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/failed-projects
6. https://explodingtopics.com/blog/project-management-stats

By Soma Bhattacharya

What ways can you inspire a team to stay motivated or perform better to minimize losses? Better focus or more time on details can reduce incoming defects or even breakage.

That’s easier said than done. Getting and keeping the team motivated is no easy feat when the same group has been working together for a while.

So, instead of the regular reports or team meeting agenda, try out different information that might result in the required change. That’s enough to trigger a discussion.

Here’s something to think about in trying to improve team efficiency. We didn’t look at individuals, since we always look at the combined team effort. We looked at the input versus the output differently. The hours worked by the team for a sprint, month or quarter led to the input; and the features or potentially shoppable product led to the output. But we brought in another dimension often forgotten: the impact and usage of what was delivered, the defects that came in, and if any breakages happened. That gave the team something to think about; it just wasn’t the count of user stories or features that went out last quarter, but also how that was used by the clients. What was the adoption rate? How was the flow?

These are just the basics, and I am pretty sure some of you reading this might have tried more inputs, more data points, and have a better understanding of metrics for the team. 

What I found was that by changing up the parameters in what goes into the teams working together, the discussions can always be better. Conduct something like a simple theme-based, goal-based discussion on how to reduce the support tickets by just 1% every month. What would it take?

How you have been able to keep your team motivated?

By Yasmina Khelifi, PMP, PMI-ACP, PMI_PBA

You have probably worked with passionate project leaders who talk enthusiastically, smile or laugh loudly. Maybe their contagious energy inspired you. 

But perhaps, sometimes, it was too much—even counterproductive. 

As a project leader and a passionate person myself, I want to share some thoughts and advice.

Passion can help your team…and exhaust it at the same time.  As a passionate project leader, you remain motivated to find solutions, help people, and share knowledge. Your passion is also communicative and can inspire others and motivate them.

However, passion can become a double-edged sword for you—and your team. I have experienced this issue myself. I was in a hurry to onboard people, giving them loads of details, sending multiple documents, and repeating things by email. For some of the team members, it became stressful because I had forgotten that sometimes, people need space. Some people felt hurt because I insisted too much on helping them.

When I am passionate about a topic, I talk quicker, louder and with more energy. At times, I noticed a few colleagues physically moving back in face-to-face meetings. I wondered why, until I worked with a coach, and she told me: "It's great to have passion and energy, but it can exhaust some of your team members. You need to adapt your energy to the audience." 

It was a wake-up call. I learned to regulate my natural energy and pace of speech. Other project leaders I worked with were so passionate that they could not take a break or disconnect from work, which again was a burden for their teams. 

The worst thing was that they were so passionate that they expected others to be the same and follow their rhythm. “There’s a meeting during a bank holiday? No problem; I’m available.” And if others didn’t do so, they were judged less passionate and less dedicated.

According to research, passion influences your perception of yourself and others. It can make you overconfident in planning, budgeting, or in your own abilities. 

For example, I had to prepare a project presentation. I was very satisfied with it. But when I rehearsed in front of a friend, an expert in presentations, his feedback was different. And fortunately, thanks to his feedback, I improved it significantly. 

Passion can also affect how you perceive others: You may be overconfident in the skills of a colleague because you appreciate them so much.

We need passion in projects, but in a balanced way. Listen to feedback and observe nonverbal cues to adjust your passion for the team. Just because people outwardly express less passion than you doesn't mean they are less dedicated or motivated.

Gather feedback from trusted colleagues or friends regularly so you can maintain an honest view of the projects and abilities of yourself and your team without being blinded by the fire of passion.

What are your experiences with passion—for you and your team?

When forming a new Scrum team, it’s crucial to look beyond the foundational aspects of Scrum and consider the broader ecosystem of practices, mindsets, and collaborative tools that contribute to a team's long-term success. This article focuses on just a few of the many topics that can be crucial for a team's growth and sustainability.

In my experience, teams are often simply taught what Scrum is, but many essential elements are overlooked. This can happen due to the inexperience of the coach or Scrum Master; lack of time to properly prepare; or, unfortunately, a lack of buy-in from managers who push for training to be completed as quickly as possible. 

Addressing these additional areas can make a significant difference in setting up a team for success:

1. Team Culture and Psychological Safety

Creating a positive team culture where members feel safe to express their ideas, take risks, and provide constructive feedback is essential. Psychological safety fosters innovation and allows the team to learn from failures without fear. Establish ground rules for open communication and active listening to build trust from the start.

2. Defining Team Values and Working Agreements

Aligning on shared values helps guide the team’s interactions and decision-making processes. Establishing working agreements ensures everyone is clear on expectations for behavior, availability, and participation. These agreements should be reviewed periodically to adapt to evolving team dynamics.

Examples of working agreements include:

• The preferred days for team members to work on location versus remotely
• The agreed times for key Scrum events like daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and retrospectives
• How peer reviews of work will be conducted, such as dedicated review sessions or integrating feedback within daily work

These agreements create clarity and foster a shared commitment to team practices.

3. Effective Use of Collaboration Tools

Remote and hybrid teams need strong digital collaboration practices. Introduce collaboration tools to facilitate brainstorming sessions, create visual artifacts, and document shared learnings. Training the team on how to use these tools effectively can greatly enhance communication and efficiency.

4. Backlog Management and Prioritization Techniques

While backlog refinement is a core part of Scrum, diving deeper into prioritization frameworks like MoSCoW, the Kano Model, or Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) can help teams make more strategic decisions. Ensure that product owners are equipped to guide these practices effectively and that the team understands how to contribute.

Additionally, emphasize the importance of properly splitting backlog items vertically so that each item delivers incremental value. This approach ensures that each piece of work completed adds real user or business value. Define a clear definition of “done” to establish a shared understanding of completion criteria and maintain high-quality standards across the team.

The importance of story points should also be highlighted. While story points can aid in planning, their main strength lies in triggering discussions and helping the team share a common understanding of the complexity and scope of backlog items. This practice fosters better alignment and clarity across the team.

5. Agile Mindset Beyond Scrum

While Scrum is a popular framework, embracing the broader agile mindset—focusing on adaptability, continuous learning, and iterative improvement—helps the team apply principles flexibly. Introduce Lean concepts, Kanban practices for visualizing work in progress, and DevOps principles for fostering collaboration between development and operations.

Conclusion

Building a Scrum team involves more than simply implementing the basic rules of the framework. By focusing on these additional areas—team culture, working agreements, collaboration tools, and advanced backlog management—teams can develop a more holistic approach that supports sustainable growth and long-term success. Investing in these practices sets the stage for a resilient, collaborative, and high-performing team.

What other topics are important for you when you train new teams?