(^120) 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know
A Project Depends on Teamwork
Lelio Varella, PMP
Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
A PRojECT IS An EnDEAvoR oF A MUlTIDISCIPlInARy nATURE. It can be
seen as a collective effort, jointly performed by people of great diversity. Once
deployed according to their own unique skills and competencies, and properly
coordinated, team members are able to produce major results and fulfill the
expectations of the project’s stakeholders. If we look to an information tech-
nology solution development project, for example, we may identify different
participant activity and group categories:
• Activities. Business Processes Review, Information Technology Solutions
and Services Definition, Products and Services Development, and New
Processes and Services Activation.
• Groups. Client Business Area Team, Information Technology Depart-
ment Team, and Outside Service Providers Team.Project activities are work units requiring the participation of individuals from
different groups within the organization, and eventually participants from
external organizations, such as vendors and service providers.
These groups are formed by people with different centers of knowledge and
competence who, in practice, manage and/or carry out the project activities.
The members of each group are usually involved in a set of unique activities
within the project.
To work effectively and produce a positive result in the project environment,
the allocation of responsibilities should tie directly to individuals and not to
the departments or organizations to which people belong. These responsibility
assignments should be documented in the project plan.
Depending on their own abilities, and on the nature of the activity, each indi-
vidual can act simultaneously in various roles during a project. An individual
may act as a leader in one situation and a participant in another.