Conducting Your First Project Team Meeting

Team Meeting

Research on team development confirms what we have heard from project managers: The first project team meeting is critical to the early functioning of the project team. According to one veteran project manager: The first team meeting sets the tone for how the team will work together. If it is disorganized, or becomes bogged down…

Building High Performance Teams: Recruiting Team Members

high performance teams

Project managers play a key role in developing high performance teams. They recruit members, conduct meetings, establish a team identity, create a common sense of purpose or a shared vision, manage a reward system that encourages teamwork, orchestrate decision making, resolve conflicts that emerge within the team, and rejuvenate the team when energy wanes. Project…

Factors Affecting Team Development

factors affecting team development

Experience and research indicate that the following conditions will aid team development and also help start the process of building a high-performance project team:    There are 10 or fewer members per team.    Members volunteer to serve on the project team.    Members serve on the project from beginning to end.    Members are…

Change Request Overview

Change Request

A change request is a document containing a call for an adjustment of a system; it is of great importance in the change management process. A change request is declarative, i.e. it states what needs to be accomplished, but leaves out how the change should be carried out. Important elements of a change request are: An…

Project Team Synergy: How to Deliver High Performance

project team synergy

There is positive and negative project team synergy. The magic and power of project teams is captured in the term “synergy,” which is derived from the Greek word sunergos: “working together.” The difference in productivity between an average project team synergy and a turned-on, high-performing project team is not 10 percent, 20 percent, or 30…

Project Initiation Document

Project Initiation Document

The Project Initiation Document Template aggregates the information which was acquired through the Initiating Stage of a project. Keeping that in mind, the Project Initiation Document, or PID, is a term representing the planning approach in project management. It is assembled from a series of other documents, including: Business case Terms of Reference, Communication Plan,…

The Punctuated Equilibrium Model of Group Development

group development

Starting from Gersick’s research,  stating that groups don’t develop in a universal sequence of stages as suggested by the five-phase model. Her research, which is based on the systems concept of punctuated equilibrium group development, found that the timing of when groups form and actually change the way they work is highly consistent. The Punctuated…

Post Project Review

post project review

Usually the benefits or dis-benefits of a project can’t be assessed until the change (occurred by completing the project) has been in place for some time. The review process is therefore incomplete without a post project review and evaluation. This is required to check whether: outcomes are those expected projected benefits have occurred operational working is as planned costs are as expected…

Checklist, what is it and why use it?

Checklist

A project checklist template is a type of informational job aid used to reduce failure by compensating for potential limits of human memory and attention. It helps to ensure consistency and completeness in carrying out a task. A basic example is the “to do list.” A more advanced checklist would be a schedule, which lays…