Effective Software Project Management

Consensus Building

Consensus building is a process that a team can follow to reach agreement on which alternative to proceed with for the item (action, decision, and so forth) under consideration. The agreement is not reached by a majority vote, or any vote for that matter. Rather the agreement is reached through discussion where each participant in the discussion reaches a point where he or she has no serious disagreement with the decision that is about to be taken. The decision will have been revised several times for the participants to reach the point where they have no serious disagreement.

This is an excellent tool to have in the project team tool kit. In all but a few cases, there will be a legitimate difference of opinion as to how a problem or issue should be addressed. There will be no clear-cut action on which all can agree. In such situations the team must fashion an action or decision with which no team members have serious disagreement even though they may not agree in total with the chosen action. To use the method successfully, make sure that everyone on the team gets to speak. Talk through the issue until an acceptable action is identified. Conflict is good, but try to be creative as you search for a compromise action. As soon as no one has serious objections to the defined action, you have reached consensus. Once a decision is reached, all team members must support it.

If the project manager chooses to operate on a consensus basis, he or she must clearly define ...