Strange as it may seem, the word ‘project’ has no clear definition. It can be a scientific or research project involving a whole team of people, or a single idea implemented by a single person.
Nevertheless, all projects have common features — the need for a binding completion or delivery (here we can talk about desired or fixed deadlines), as well as a certain goal or result. Once the goal of the project has been achieved, it can be considered complete. When the project is finished, the team either starts working on a new project or disbands.
Problems can arise at any stage — from planning to delivery (if the project was commissioned by the client). But what makes a project successful? This article is about project teams. What is the optimal composition, what are the roles and functions of each member, how to put your team together, and other subtleties.
What makes up a project management team?
A project team is a group of like-minded people who do their best to ensure that the project is delivered as intended. In addition, project participants may be involved in the planning, implementation and maintenance of the project.
Project teams can be temporary when the project is a one-off, or permanent when work on typical projects is already in flux. A simple example is programming teams (IT teams).
Permanent and temporary teams may occasionally employ external specialists, for example to carry out individual specialised tasks, consultations, audits and other purposes. Their work is not evaluated on the basis of the results of the whole project, but only on the basis of the results of their tasks, i.e. the delivery of specific types of services.
Particularly large projects may involve several teams working simultaneously. In this case, objectives and tasks should be divided between the individual teams, and rules and protocols for communication on individual issues and tasks should be defined. To ensure quality planning and co-ordination, it is logical to set up a project office to distribute tasks and workloads between the different teams.
What does the project team do?
The project team delivers the project. Roles, duties and responsibilities within the teams are usually strictly divided and delineated so that everyone is only responsible for their own area of work and tasks.
However, there are different approaches to this issue, so that in some teams the boundaries and responsibility for the outcome may be blurred, and the functions of the management body may be absent or evenly distributed. In such a case, the whole project team or a large part of it will be involved not only in the direct work, but also in planning, organisation, communication with the customer(s) and other aspects related to management tasks.
Therefore, the team can not only implement the project, but also plan it, provide resources, interact with other participants in the process (external factors) and more.
Who is (can be) part of the project team?
The project team usually includes:
- Subject matter experts who are capable of solving the problems faced by the project;
- Representatives of the customer or client — the one who orders the project and will accept it after implementation;
- External specialists hired for occasional work.
Of course, we should not forget the functions of control, coordination, communication and support. The latter can be flexibly distributed within the team if there are no clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
A typical team working on an IT project (often using an agile methodology) will include the following participants:
- Project manager — the most experienced and authoritative participant who is responsible for organisation and planning.
- Project Administrator — an optional participant who assists the Project Manager with organisational work.
- Private performers are subject matter experts.
- Customer Representative(s). They are usually part of the team to ensure a continuous process of control and communication.
- External Experts — people outside the core team.
- Representatives of contractors and partners, if the project involves close integration with the distribution network of the product or service created by the project team.
What are the responsibilities of a project manager?
The Project Manager is at the heart of the whole system. It is he who is responsible:
- Planning all types of work and possible risks.
- Planning and allocation of resources (material, human and financial).
- Assigning tasks to operators.
- Organising and coordinating the work.
- Control of the execution (at control points or in a continuous format).
- Communicating with customer/client representatives and contractors/partners.
- Recruitment of staff — core and casual.
- Motivating and prioritising tasks.
- Resolving conflict situations and ongoing problems.
- Analysis of the situation and accumulation of experience.
- If possible, training (additional training) of employees if the situation requires it.
In fact, a manager is responsible for everything, but this does not mean that he should do everything himself. Therefore, the main function of any manager is the competent delegation of some of his authority and responsibility.
A manager can delegate virtually any task to subordinates, with the exception of control. Delegation should be balanced, so that the employee can really cope with the tasks and functions assigned to them, and also so that it is fair to other team members.
Here we have covered all the responsibilities of a team leader in detail.
Role and Functions of the Project Manager (Administrator)
In large teams, routine tasks take up too much of the manager’s time, energy and attention. To reduce the impact of routine, it is logical to delegate it to a responsible employee.
The project administrator is the manager’s right hand who can take over:
- Work with documentation.
- Checking the justification and level of expenditure.
- Communicate with team members, clients and partners.
- Prioritising tasks.
- Preparing, organising, conducting and documenting meetings.
- Analysis and statistics.
- Collecting reports.
- Identifying problems.
- And more.
Read more about the responsibilities of a Project Administrator in a separate article.
What is a project role?
The official position may not always coincide with the actual role in the team. Roles can be of different types and it is often the case that the same person can fulfil several roles at the same time.
The most common roles in a project team:
- Customer or client.
- Investor.
- Leader (usually combined with a management position).
- Supplier.
- Partner.
- Contractor.
- Consultant.
- Implementer.
- Administrator.
- Designer.
In terms of personality traits or psychological portraits, roles could be, for example:
- An idea generator.
- Initiator.
- Finisher (controller).
- Soul of the company.
- Pedant.
- Implementer (worker bee).
- Strategist/analyst.
- Coordinator.
- Researcher.
These roles may be named differently in different sources, but their meaning does not change — they are the people who cause the actions themselves (leaders), the people who do what needs to be done (slaves), and those who question and pull back (anti-leaders, critics, this role is not always bad, it can be beneficial to the project).
How do you put together a project team?
The composition of the team will depend directly on the objectives of the project and the timeframe of the project. The faster the work needs to be done, the more people and resources may be required.
The only mandatory and most important member of the project is the project manager (the person responsible for carrying out the project). It is he or she who can recruit the team and reformat it if necessary.
In order to plan the number of participants, the manager must first assess the scope of the action, the resources required (financial, time, human) and the workload, taking into account all possible and most probable risks, such as replacement in the event of illness, resignation, cancellation, etc.
To make the plan as accurate, detailed and realistic as possible, it is logical to use specialised software: task planners, organisation management systems, BPM, etc.
The algorithm should look something like this:
- An overall implementation plan is established.
- Risks are assessed and action plans drawn up in the event of their occurrence. Additional resources, including human resources, are allocated to the risks.
- Depending on the output tasks required for the quality realisation of the project objectives, the necessary work resources and functional responsibilities of potential team members are assessed.
- Responsibilities must be considered for their ongoing necessity: which of the functions may require occasional employment or can be fully outsourced.
- The remaining key functions are assigned to permanent team members. These can also be documented (e.g. in fixed-term contracts or supplementary agreements).
- If the functional workload exceeds the norm for implementation time per person (for a standard working day), the position should be reinforced with more performers.
- As the project progresses, the composition of the participants can be revised if the situation requires it (e.g. if the services of certain specialists are no longer needed or, on the contrary, if they are needed).
