Project Team Members

Get What’s Needed to Succeed

What are the competencies of the team? How does the staffing plan distribute these competencies against project tasks? Assess the team’s particular strengths, then get the additional expertise needed. There may be a need to outsource for additional skills to round out the team. Balance the mix of management and technical expertise, and the mix of contractor and government personnel. Distinguish between critical strategic activities and tactical activities. Make use of consultants to leverage the team’s capabilities.

Keep the Core Team Together

Maintain a commitment to the integrity of the core team. The project should include the project manager, the functional program manager, the contracting officer and other key players from project conceptualization through implementation. Empower a central point of responsibility for technical decisions, including standards and architecture.

Monitor Team Productivity

How does the level of effort contribute to project deliverables and results? How is the team progressing against the project plan? Perform periodic cost-benefit analyses and life cycle cost estimates. This information will be needed for go/no-go decisions at major project and contract milestones.

Develop Competencies Over Time

Invest in building competencies in key people. Institute and follow a formal plan for skills training and career development. Align the competencies of team members with the long-term needs of the project.

Processes Making it happen

Planning

Define Success Up Front

Define project success in terms of specific business objectives. From the customer’s point of view, how should different business objectives be prioritized?

Use Metrics to Focus On Outcomes

Focus on outcomes rather than outputs. Prioritize the metrics for which project participants will be held responsible. Gain agreement on critical metrics and use them to drive planning and delivery.

Integrate Planning Activities Across the Project

Formalize planning processes. Assign roles and responsibilities specifically for planning-related activities. The CIO can help anchor project plans in the organization’s business and IT plans.

Realign Plans Over Time

How will plans need to be modified along the way? Make sure project plans continue to support intended business priorities. If the project encounters significant changes, then the original plans will have to be realigned to ensure desired results.

Managing Technology

Choose an Appropriate Development Model

Base selection of a development model on careful consideration of four factors:

Costs. Consider various development alternatives and estimate how they might contribute to project costs.

Risks. Consider how much risk the project faces due to:

·         High visibility due to public or political attention or requirements

·         Highly compressed development time

·         High uncertainty associated with the system’s requirements, the technology that the system will employ, or the way that the system will affect business processes

Complexity. Consider the project to be complex if it:

·         Affects many organizations or functional areas.

·         Results from business process reengineering, dramatically altering the use of information technology.

·         Requires new or rapidly advancing technology.

·         Requires a long time for development.

Type. Consider the general type of the project: