Effective Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme, Fourth Edition

Chapter 9. Building and Managing an Effective Project Team

The productivity of a workgroup seems to depend on how the group members see their own goals in relation to the goals of the organization.

—Paul Hersey and Kenneth H. Blanchard

When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves.'

—Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher

When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes reality.

—Joe Paterno, football coach, Penn State University

The project plan has been approved, and it's time to get on with the work of the project. Before you turn the team loose, you must attend to a few housekeeping chores.

Project Manager vis-à-vis the Functional Manager

I first want to juxtapose the roles of the project manager with those of the functional manager. The distinction is an important foundation to the material presented in this chapter:

• The objective of the project manager is clear: Complete the project on time, within budget, and according to the customer's Conditions of Satisfaction — in other words, according to specification. Staff development is not on the list. The only cases when staff development is an objective of the project manager occur when the project manager also has line responsibility for the project team, in self-managed teams or in project forms of organizational structures. In these cases, staff development is definitely part of the project manager's objectives. The project manager must develop the skills on his or her project ...