Building a Successful Project Team

How to Select the Best Mix of Personnel to Ensure Project Success

Jan 17, 2008 Susan Kristoff

Choosing the most capable people for a project team is vital to the success of a project.

Businesses thrive on the proposal and execution of projects. Project scope will vary among industries, but all projects require the right mix of people to get the job done. Creating a project team may in fact be the most important part of the project creation process. However, a simple thought process is all that is needed to ensure that the best team is assembled. These 5 steps outline the path to creating a team for a successful project.

Understand the specific needs of the project. Every project is different, and the makeup of a team needs to reflect the specific goals of the project. A manager may be tempted to use the same team for every project, but this may not be the most efficient use of skills and time for the people involved. Review the specific project tasks, and determine what specific backgrounds and skills are required.
Appoint a credible and capable leader. The project manager will guide the whole team to success through the execution of the project. The leader must have a good understanding of the project subject matter, demonstrated leadership skills, and the ability to monitor progress and keep the project on schedule. In technical fields, many employees with extensive subject knowledge may not be the best managers.
Select team members to meet the needs of the program. Project team members are the people that get the job done. Review the specific needs of the project from Step 1, and select team members that as a whole meet all of the project requirements. If a project includes a literature review, a team member with research experience in the subject area needs to be included. A project to develop a marketing strategy needs to include team members with industry understanding and experience creating marketing approaches.
Bring in new members to fill capability gaps. If the current employee pool does not cover all of the required needs for a project, a manager should bring in new team members, as employees or as consultants, to round out a project team. This approach is useful if an industry expert in a specific field is required. For example, if a product development team is looking to transition a product to market, it is vital for the team to employ members with commercialization and manufacturing experience.
Monitor the performance of the team over time. Sometimes, project scope can change over time. Personnel situations can also change over time. The project manager needs to monitor the overall performance of the team as a whole, as well as that of individual team members, to ensure that the team remains best poised to finish the project successfully. This may require rotating some team members in at certain points in the project timeline for specific needs, or moving members out of the team as needed. Personnel who are underperforming need to be either motivated to improve performance, or removed from the project team.

A company is its people, and its people are what bring it success or failure. Selecting the right mix of talent, expertise and leadership will ensure that the work they do leads to success for their company.

The copyright of the article Building a Successful Project Team in Business Management is owned by Susan Kristoff. Permission to republish Building a Successful Project Team in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.