(^96) 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know
Build Teams to Run Marathons, Not Sprints
Naresh Jain
Malad, Mumbai, India
IF yoU RUn AT yoUR FASTEST PACE for a short period of time—a “sprint” in
track and field terms—you burn yourself out. To run a marathon, a team must
be disciplined, practice every day, and keep a sustainable pace. When working
on software projects, we don’t want to run just once and exhaust ourselves. We
need to keep going at a steady pace. Sustainable teams are geared toward run-
ning marathons and not allowed to just sprint.
Building useful software products is not an end in itself. Team members need
to learn how to help one another, help other team members realize their true
potential, and create an environment that allows everyone to go beyond their
limitations.
Most teams have a gap in knowing how to do this. Someone needs to play an
active role to fill this void. In most cases, the software project manager is the
best choice to work on team development. I suggest the project manager target
a goal to build sustainable teams. This is a primary way he/she can add extra
value to the project.
If the project manager focuses on team building and individual growth, on-
time and within-budget deliveries will automatically fall into place. This also
ensures that teams are self-organized and don’t need a babysitter if the project
manager needs to guide multiple projects simultaneously.
Typically, project managers get caught up in daily fire-fighting tasks. Hence,
they don’t really have time to strategically build a team. Working with a long-
term team development plan ultimately allows the project manager to keep
out of micromanagement mode, not only for the current project, but on all
future endeavors.