Identification of the Project Team Members
Identification of the Project Team Members (#2 in the series Requirements for an Effective Project Team and for Excellent Teamwork)
By Dr.Russell Archibald
It seems obvious that in order to have an effective team, the team players must be identified. However, experience shows that project managers often fail to do this, or only identify their project team members on an “as needed” basis when a new task comes up that cannot be performed by someone already on the team. In some cases the project manager may know the team members, but will fail to inform the other members, so that only the project manager knows who is on the team.
Using the defined project scope and objectives and the initial list of project deliverables, a listing of all project team members is compiled and distributed to the entire team. This list should include each team member’s full name, address (regular and e-mail), voice and fax telephone numbers, and any other pertinent communication information. Frequently, this list will include home telephone numbers. For those project teams that have established escalation procedures (for resolving issues, conflicts or other problems), the team member’s immediate supervisor with office and home telephone numbers are also listed.
The general duties and responsibilities of each team member will normally be documented by the organization’s human resource practices and its project management process description. However, for effective project teamwork it is imperative to define the responsibilities of each team member for each task to be carried out on their specific project. The best tool available for this purpose is the task/responsibility matrix based on the project/work breakdown structure.
Dr. Russell D. Archibald, PhD (Hon), MSc, Fellow PMI and APM/IPMA, PMP, is one of the six founding members of the Project Management Institute. Now semi-retired, he has many years of management experience in engineering and operations with a variety of major US corporations in Europe and South America as well as the US. He has made major contributions to the understanding of project management, is author of the best selling 2003 book “Managing High-Technology Programs and Projects” (published also in Russian, Chinese, and Italian), has trained more than a thousand program and project managers and project specialists around the world, and has consulted in project management to clients in 14 countries on 4 continents. E-mail: russell_archibald@yahoo.com. Website: www.russarchibald.com.
