Project Management Leadership: Building Creative Teams, 2nd Edition

Chapter 12

Project Teams

Learning Outcomes

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

• Understand the importance of building relationships between team members.
• Understand why companies use project teams.
• Understand why some teams win, while other teams lose.

Although teams and team building have been used successfully in the sports and the military environments for some time, it is only recently that commercial companies have grasped the need and appreciated the benefits of using multi-disciplinary teams to gain competitive advantage. It is, therefore, essential that the project leader understands the characteristics and features of project teams to be able to lead the team effectively.

We are all members of one team or another; working in teams has become a modern-day phenomenon. This chapter will look into why people work in teams and discuss the benefits of working in teams, particularly focusing on the benefits to the project and the benefits to the individual.

The project leader’s challenge is to identify the team leadership techniques that will encourage the project team to work together towards achieving the project’s objectives.

The PMBOK defines a Project Management Team as: The members of the project team who are directly involved in project management activities.

The APM BoK defines Teamwork as: When people work collaboratively towards a common goal as distinct from other ways that individuals can work within a group.

A project team can be defined ...