Project Management for Research and Development

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7

Facilitating the Creative Team

Creative teams will be facilitated through

• establishing the project using the methods found in Chapters 1

through 6;

• choosing the right project manager;

• identifying and building the best team;

• setting up the project structure to facilitate learning; and

• holding the project manager and team accountable for outcomes.

Chapters 1 through 6 described methods for implementing R&D

and innovative projects within a project management framework.

The application of that framework increases the probability that

these projects will achieve favorable outcomes. This chapter shifts

the focus from the application of processes to enhancing how

humans interact within these processes. The individuals who fill

roles on R&D projects as principal investigators, project managers,

and project team members often bring unique skills and talents;

they often make up small teams; and they typically operate with a

high level of autonomy. Often, the future of the organization rests

in the ability of these individuals to achieve successful outcomes.

Therefore, it is important that those chosen to participate on these

teams are carefully selected and provided an environment that

supports the mission and rewards them in the right ways. When

project teams have been chosen and facilitated suitably, the perfor-

mance will speak for itself.

e project manager’s role in R&D projects is more important than

for other projects within dierent stages of the life cycle. ey are

oen the driving force for success, and having a strong team with the

372 • Project Management for Research and Development

right skills is oen critical for achieving project success. An example

demonstrating the importance of having the right team in place can

be found in the NASA Apollo 13 mission to the moon in 1970.

1

Aer

an oxygen tank exploded, the mission to land on the moon became

a mission of survival for the astronauts. Although a spaceight is

designed to be a highly structured activity, when something goes

wrong, as this example demonstrates, the importance of having a

strong person leading, and a highly competent, adaptable team in

place to do what is necessary, is paramount in reaching a successful

conclusion.

NASA uses a rigorous mission control construct

2

to independently

monitor each subsystem from the moment of lio through touch-

down. Its design is relatively synonymous with an R&D project man-

ager and his or her product team leaders in that it incorporates teams

of highly skilled subject matter experts, responsible for each subsys-

tem, and a ight director acting as the single voice of authority during

the actual ight. Trained to operate in structured, orderly sequences,

in this case, this team was suddenly required to formulate and imple-

ment innovative solutions in record time to save the lives of the crew-

men and bring them back safely to Earth.

Once the crisis was acknowledged, and the challenges that were

being faced understood, there was extreme pressure to come up with

solutions to problems that were inconceivable just moments before,

within unprecedented time frames, and with outcomes that would

mean the dierence between life and death for the astronauts. New

procedures had to be creatively designed, tested, and validated.

Interdisciplinary teams solved issues related to electrical power

consumption, shut down, and power up. ey also addressed issues

with consumables, such as oxygen and water. e dropping inter-

nal temperature of the spacecra, increasing water condensation

and carbon dioxide buildup were high-risk situations that had not

been anticipated, but were now real-life threats. rough the creative

genius of the teams involved, as well as the vision and rm convic-

tion of the ight director, the Apollo 13 mission met its new mission

of researching and developing new processes, procedures, and tools

with only the materials on the spaceship, and returning the crew

safely to Earth. is example, although extreme, shows what can be

done with the right manager and the right team.