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.៑ There is a tendency to sacrifice quality when deadlines are difficult to meet.៑ It is not enough to recognize a variance.Its cause must be determined so that corrective action can be taken.៑ Acceptable variances can be determined only through experience.Every system has a capability.Your team may have the ability to maintain better tolerances on their work than another team.Exercise.Consider the report in Figure 11-9, showing earned value figures for a project.Answer the questions by analyzing the data.Answers are provided in the Answers section at the back of the book.Figure 11-9. Earned value report.Cumulative-to-dateVarianceAt CompletionWBS #BCWSBCWPACWPSCHED.COSTBUDGETL.EST.VARIANCE301800640880–160–2402,4002,816–416Questions:1.Is the task ahead or behind schedule? By how much?2.Is the task overspent or underspent? By how much?3.When the task is completed, will it be overspent or underspent?American Management Association • www.amanet.orgCHAPCHTER 12APManaging theProject Teamhe previous chapters have concentrated primarily on the tools of project management—how to plan, schedule, and control the work.Unfortunately, far too many project T managers see these tools as all they need to manage successfully.They assemble a team, give the members their instructions, then sit back and watch the project self-destruct.Then they question whether there might be some flaw in the tools.In all likelihood, the problem was with how people were managed.Even in those cases where a problem with the tools may have existed, it is often the failure of people to properly apply them that causes the problem, so, again, we are back to people.The tools and techniques of project management are a necessary but not a sufficient condition for project success.As I have stated, if you can’t handle people, you will have difficulty managing projects, especially when the people don’t “belong” to you.Related to this is the need to turn a project group into a team.Far too little attention is paid to team building in project management.This chapter offers some suggestions on how to go about it.156American Management Association • www.amanet.orgManaging the Project Team157Team BuildingBuilding an effective team begins on the first day of the team’s existence.Failure to begin the team-building process may result in a team that is more like a group thana team.In a group, members may be in-Teams don’t justvolved in but not committed to the ac-happen—theytivities of the majority.The problem of commitment is amust be built!major one for both organizations andproject teams.It is especially significant in matrix organizations, in which members of the project team are actually members of functional groups and have their own bosses but report to the project manager on a “dotted-line” basis.Later in this chapter, I present rules for how a project manager can develop commitment to a team.For now, let us turn to how to get a team organized so that it gets off to the right start.(For an in-depth treatment of this topic, see Jim Lewis’s book Team-Based Project Management.)Promoting Teamwork through PlanningA primary rule of planning is that those individuals who must implement the plan should participate in preparing it.Yet, leaders often plan projects by themselves, then wonder why their team members seem to have no commitment to the plans.All planning requires some estimating—how long a task will take, given the availability of certain resources, and so on.In my seminars, I ask participants, “Do you often find that your boss thinks you can do your work much faster than you actually can?”They laugh and agree.As I tell them, it seems to be some kind of psychological law that bosses are optimistic about how long it will take their staffs to get a job done.When a manager gives a person an assignment that allows inadequate time to perform, the individual naturally feels dis-American Management Association • www.amanet.org158Fundamentals of Project Managementcouraged, and her commitment is likely to suffer.She might say,“I’ll give it my best shot,” but her heart isn’t really in it.Getting OrganizedHere are the four major steps in organizing a project team: 1.Decide what must be done, using work breakdown structures, problem definitions, and other planning tools.2.Determine staffing requirements to accomplish the tasks identified in the first step.3.Recruit members for the project team.4.Complete your project plan with the participation of team members.RecruitingFollowing are some of the criteria by which team members should be selected:៑ The candidate possesses the skills necessary to perform the required work at the speed needed to meet deadlines.៑ The candidate will have his needs met through participation in the project (see the March and Simon rules discussed later in this chapter).៑ The applicant has the temperament to fit in with other team members who have already been recruited and with the project manager and other key players
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