The One-Page Project Manager for IT Projects: Communicate and Manage Any Project With A Single Sheet of Paper

Chapter 3. Your Project Team: Who to Pick, How to Mix-and-Match

This chapter is based solely on my observations and no claim is made to any psychological, academic, or clinical expertise on my part. We have all read about right - brained versus left-brained predisposition, about multiple intelligence, and about IQ and EQ. My thoughts as a project manager are crafted into a simple, easy-to-understand-and-apply thinking model to assist in constructing your project team.

Before starting any project, the project leader is faced with what is often the most difficult decision concerning the entire endeavor: Who to put on the project team. Nothing is harder than identifying the right mix of people. It's like cooking: If your ingredients are poor, no matter how wonderful the recipe and how carefully you follow the instructions, the end result will be wanting. But get superior ingredients and mistakes and accidents can often be made up for.

The same thing holds true for project teams. I've spent a lot of time thinking about the types of people I want on my teams. And, yes, people come in different " types. " I don' t mean this in a denigrating way or that I stereotype people, such as the popular Type A and Type B personalities. But each of us has strengths and weaknesses. Albert Einstein was a great physicist, but that doesn't mean he was a wonderful athlete. Bill Gates is an innovative genius, but I doubt he is a great violinist. Michael Jordan could play basketball like no one else, but ...