Effective Team Management for Successful Projects

1. Software Engineering Project ManagementSE603Unit 7: Building and managing teams Egypt, 15.6.2015

2. Introduction Human Resources are the key element for running projects and achieving success. Therefore, Managing people and forming teams is a first class priority in project management. No calibers with perfect coordination lead to dramatic failures, the same as, having the finestresources with nocoordination.

3. Introduction Selecting team members and adjusting the communicationthreads among them according to the project stages will empower to the project manager to achieve the objectives smoothly. In this unit, the method of forming high performing teams, resources management styles, team models including virtual teams, communication modes and plans are discussed to have a clear overview about managing project resources effectively.

4. Objectives Know how to form high performance teams Be aware of different management and leadership styles Differentiate between team organization styles Determine the impact of good communication on team performance

5. Unit 6: List of topics 1. Team VS. Group 1.1. High Performing team 1.2. Team Roles 1.3. Taxonomy of Tasks 2. Group Decision making 2.1. Management Styles 2.2. Leadership Orientation 2.3. Sources of Power 3. Team Organization 3.1. Democratic team 3.2. Chief programmer Team 3.3. Extreme Programming and Scrum Team 3.4. Virtual Team 4. Communication between Teams 4.1. Effectiveness and Obstacles of Communication Channels 5

6. 1. TeamVS. Group [2]

7. 1. TeamVS. Group

8. 1. TeamVS. Group

9. 1.1. High Performing team Figure 2 [7]

10. 1.1. High Performing team Figure 2 [7]

11. 1.1. High Performing team • In order to transform group into high performing team, Bruce Tuckman’s Model is used. [5]. This is done through different stages: • forming, • storming, • norming and • staging.

12. 1.1. High Performing team Forming @ the inception of building a coherent team, each single member seeks having his behavior accepted by others and certainly avoids conflicts. Serious issues and feelings are avoided as individuals gather information and impressions about each other and the task of the group. [5]. The manager should be directive where workersare told exactly how to do their jobs. With clear objectives and ground rules, the group can figure out how to get the task done.

13. 1.1. High Performing team Storming This phase is characterized by growth of conflictsand inevitable misunderstandings. Withoutthe proper skills, teams would get stuck in this stage producing low moral and motivation resulting in high turnoverand inevitable failure. [5]

14. 1.1. High Performing team Storming In this stage, the manager should facilitatediscussions with team members about differences. In order to build trust, try to have the ground rules amended with group approval.

15. 1.1. High Performing team Performing teams are able to work effectively to get the job done without much external supervision. [5] The manager starts to delegate some of his power with confidence that the team is able to carry out necessary decisions.

16. 1.1. High Performing team Norming Team members start to compromise and agree with others for the sake of the team. They harness their individuals’ contributions in support of team goalsby moving from competition into collaboration. [5]. The manager should act as a facilitator and enabler of a collaborative environment. He challenges the them to complete the task together and be motivated

17. Example on Bruce Tuckman’sModel Consider the following example: A sales department in the storming phase asked their members to identify the top two challenges in their group development. The members listed the commissionstructure and the overlapping territory. These issues foster competition among the members and encourage the individual work. In order to resolve this issue the manager decided to split territories and adjust bonus when they met their monthly goal. As a result, the sales staff shared ideas and contributed to each others success. Besides,The staff conducts weekly meeting to discuss what was working in their respective areas. [5]

18. 1.2. Team Roles Naturally the team would perform well in case all members know their roles and responsibilities. However, despite the clear roles and responsibilities, team might not perform in full swing. [6]

19. 1.2. Team Roles According toBelbin[6],team is considered unbalanced if team members have similarbehaviorstyles or team roles. As a result, in case the team members have similar weaknesses, the team tend to have that weakness or in case the team members have similar strengths, they would compete rather than cooperate.

20. 1.2. Team Roles Therefore, managers should revisit their team roles to make sure that every single member develops his strengths, tackle his weaknesses and contributes to the team identify which team role is missing spot the dominant team role in the team formation. Belbin categorized roles into: Action Oriented Roles, People Oriented Roles and Thought Oriented Roles.

21. Belbin's Team Roles [6]

22. Belbin's Team Roles [6]

26. Applying Belbin's Model • In order to apply the Belbin model: • Each team member should be observed to investigate his contributionand behavior by spotting his strengths, weaknesses and characteristics • Map the teamattributes to Belbin's team-roles • Once the mapping done, consider the following: • Which roles are missing? • Is there a prevalent team role?

27. 1.3. Taxonomy of Tasks [9] Once high performing team is formed and runs in full potential by diversifying their roles. Steiner proposed a taxonomy of group tasks to be a key source of coordination problems in groups. Tasks types are categorized into: Component, Focus, and Interdependence.

28. 1.3. Taxonomy of Tasks [9]

29. 1.3. Taxonomy of Tasks [9]

30. 1.3. Taxonomy of Tasks [9]

31. 1.3. Taxonomy of Tasks [9]

33. 2. Group Decision making To neutralize dominant personalities, Delphi technique is used. The Delphi technique is a method for consensus-building[10]. It is used for creating Work Breakdown Structures, identifying risks and opportunities, compiling lessons learned and the times of brainstorming.

34. 2. Group Decision making Project manager might consult his team members to take the advantage of their diversifiedperspectives and specialties. Decisions made by the team are more likely to be accepted than those imposed. However, approaching a decision approved by the majority of members is characterized by the following: time consuming, might result in conflictswithin the team, some decisions can be influenced by dominant personalities and members might modify their personal judgments to conform to group norms.

35. Delphi technique steps The steps needed to run the Delphi process to build consensus [11]: Step 1: Choose facilitator: it is important to have a 'neutral' person within your organization who is familiar with the subject of interest.

36. Delphi technique steps Step 2: Identify Experts: experts would be your project team, customer, or other experts within the organization or industry. They all should have relevant knowledge and experience of the subject of interest Step 3: Define the Problem: the problem should be defined clearly to experts

37. Delphi technique steps Step 4: Round 1 Questions: through asking general questions, you would have broad understanding of experts views. Questions might be in questionnaires or surveys format. Afterwards, response are compiled, irrelevant content are removed, common viewpoints are identified.

38. Delphi technique steps Step 5: Round 2 Questions: Based on the answers to the first round questions, this round questions are elaborated to clarify specific issues and clear shades. Questions might be in questionnaires or surveys format. Afterwards, response are compiled, irrelevant content are removed, common viewpoints are identified.

39. Delphi technique steps Step 6: Round 3 Questions: Questionnaire of this stage aims to focus on supporting decision making. It is is done for sake of spotting what experts have consensus on. Step 7: Act on Findings: in this step, we analyze the findingsof step 6 and put plans in place to deal with future risks and opportunities.

40. 2.1. Management Styles

41. 2.1. Management Styles Once we’ve reached a decision, the possible management styles used for implementation are listed in the side quadrant. It depends on manager’s personality & attitude (autocrat / democrat) and the nature of work team (directive / permissive)

42. 2.1. Management Styles For decisionmakingperspective: manager could be autocrat and democrat. The autocrat makes all decision solely while the democrat enables team members to participate in decision making. For implementation perspective: manager could directive and permissive. The directive tell his team members what to do exactly. The permissive gives his team members a considerable degree of independence in completing work activities.

43. 2.1. Management Styles Besides the management styles listed above, managers might go for certain style according to the situation. The different styles depend on the relationship behaviour (amount of support required) and task behaviour (amount of guidance required). These styles are listed next.

44. 2.1. Management Styles

45. 2.2. Leadership Orientation There is also another perspective to consider which is the work environment nature including the sophistication of the job and the capability of the workers (task or people oriented).

46. 2.2. Leadership Orientation

47. 2.2. Leadership Orientation

48. 2.3. Sources of Power [12] Each management style listed is empowered by certain power. These powers are categorized into: positional or personal.

49. 2.3. Sources of Power [12] Each management style listed is empowered by certain power. These powers are categorized into: positional or personal.

50. 3. Team Organization • Once team members are aware of the activities and contribute to overall team success, the organization of the team is a managerial issues where many approaches are used based on the environment (democratic or not), (limited communication threads and high skills in one hand – Chief Programmer or spread allover the team – Scrum and XP), (changes allowed through development – XP or Not allowed – Scrum) : • Democratic team (Weinberg, 1971) • Chief programmer teams (Brooks, 1971; Baker, 1972) • XP (Kent Beck, 1999) • Scrum (Schwaber & Mike, 2001) • Virtual teams