PROJECT 804
Organization and Team Process

Course Introduction

In this course, we will focus heavily on the "people skills" necessary to getting the job done. In my experience, more projects fail due to human relations issues than any other reason. Therefore, it behooves us to understand how interpersonal skills make the crucial difference between project success and project failure. We will go beyond the interpersonal skills discussed in the program so far and take them to the level of team processes. We will include group communication and explore how it can affect and be affected by the other project management processes. We'll also devote a lesson to writing the project proposal—a crucial instrument of communication with all project stakeholders.

NorWest Directories

You will study team processes through a fictionalized case study based on a true project management story.

The breakup of a nationwide telephone company some years ago resulted in the creation of many new companies. The breakup cascaded to other companies that supported the telephone company's monopoly. They, too, had to subdivide; what had been functional divisions of other companies became new, autonomous companies. The new companies were allowed to keep their computing systems, facilities, equipment, and staffing. One company, the subject of the case study, had been responsible for producing the telephone directories in the Pacific Northwest. The new name selected for the company was NorWest Directories. Other directory services companies had supported seven other areas of the country. With the breakup, they were free to compete outside their region. Where NorWest formerly had no competitors, now it had many.

As you read the assignments for the case study, you'll need to develop your listening skills, which should include listening to the "sounds" of the project team at work. You'll observe how newly hired contract employees in the NorWest project deal with the long hours and bad winter weather, and with being the "new kids on the block." You'll also watch as Jody attempts to reconcile the differences between two technical analysts who can't agree on how to construct the new client screen in the customer database. As you complete the readings, exercises, and assignments, you'll be prepared to comment on the NorWest situation and to relate it to your own job experience.

Course Objectives

After mastering the material in this course, you will be able to

• write a complete project proposal;
• use the project proposal in the project management process;
• present your project proposal in a favorable light;
• discuss strategies for negotiating with functional managers;
• identify selection criteria for project staff and conduct effective selection interviews;
• identify appropriate team building activities;
• motivate team members and manage conflict between team members; and
• describe an effective plan for monitoring team communications and carrying out effective performance reporting.

Course Overview

This course, Organization and Team Process, is composed of four lessons. You will submit an assignment and respond to discussion questions once every one or two weeks. Responses to required discussion questions and submitted assignments will be due separately. The final assignment includes completing a team activity. This course is designed to be completed in six weeks.

Completing this Course

To complete this course, you must:

• read the assigned sections of the textbooks;
• complete and submit all written assignments;
• participate in specified team activities; and
• answer the discussion questions.

How This Course Fits into the Certificate Program

In addition to dealing with scope statements, schedules, budgets, and performance reports, project managers must possess—above all else—excellent interpersonal skills. Project managers operate in the roles of negotiator, problem solver, communications consultant, mentor, and advocate, among others. In each of the courses you've taken so far, you've had the opportunity to see how "people skills" impact the other skills and processes that are important to specific phases of managing a project. Now you will expand on what you've learned as you apply your knowledge to team processes and communications.

This course will be very useful to you as a prelude to the final course of the certificate program, Project 805, Implementation and Closeout. During the implementation phase, a project manager must have a well-functioning team in order to identify and deal quickly and effectively with variances in the project. During the closeout phase, a project manager must know how to deal with others as they make the sometimes difficult transition from working intensively on a project to winding down their work and thinking about what their next project will be. This course will serve as a transition from learning about planning to learning about project implementation and control.

The skills you learn in this course will help you on the job and in numerous other situations. When you have mastered the art of listening, giving and receiving appropriate feedback, managing meetings, conducting effective interviews, negotiating, and designing effective communications structures, you will be surprised at how much the different areas of your life in which you communicate and work with people intersect and support one another.

The first objective of the course ("write a complete project proposal") reinforces the skills in project scoping you have already gained in Project  801 and Project  802.

About the Lessons

Each lesson in this online guide provides a reading assignment, a list of objectives, key terms, practice exercises, discussion questions, and an assignment to be submitted for evaluation. The material included in the lessons is designed to help you use new skills as you learn them. Examples are provided from various industries. Interactive exercises and assignments ask that you relate course concepts to your own work situation. This online guide will also coordinate your reading and writing assignments, as well as your Team Project Notebook deliverables, and it will help you answer the discussion questions.

Key Terms and Abbreviations

Each lesson includes terms that are important to the concepts you will learn in the lesson. You will not be held responsible for term definitions per se, though you will be expected to use the terms in your written work wherever possible. You will find the terms emphasized with boldface and italics, and listed in sidebars near where they appear in the commentary. You may find the glossaries in the back of Lewis and EPM helpful.

At the beginning of most lessons, you will also see a list of abbreviations in the online guide lesson material. Use the list as a reference tool, since there are a number of terms used in project management that are commonly abbreviated.

Practice Exercises

Practice Exercises allow you to apply the concepts presented in each lesson. These are for practice only and do not need to be submitted.

About the Assignments

Each of the four lessons in this online guide includes an assignment to be submitted for evaluation.

Although you will not be quizzed on key terms, you should strive to incorporate them into your work wherever appropriate. Refer to the lists of key terms at the beginning of each lesson.

The following is a preview of the assignments for this course:

Assignment 1

This assignment has three parts, the first two of which you will complete with your team and the last by yourself. In Part 1, you will write descriptions of the team members needed to complete your team project. You will need to identify skills and number of workers needed, relate your personnel and skills list to your WBS, and specify who will be core team members and who will be contract members. Finally, you will need to choose one of your job categories and write five questions for interviewing prospective team members.

In Part 2, each member of your project team will take one of the eight possible team or relationship behaviors, in the first four stages of team development, and decide on and describe a team-building activity related to that behavior that would be useful for your team.You will need to consider such factors as number of core members, number of contract members, work site location, project duration, and deadline pressure.

For the last part of Assignment 1, you will identify a work package to document, from either your team project or your individual project from Project Management 802. The work package will include definition, enumeration, and description of tasks. It also will include a description of the package's product and who is assigned to it, and a description of how this package relates to a project as a whole (including how much is done and how much is left in the project). In addition, your work package will identify responsibility for its completion, and any assumptions and risks involved with this work package (and possible mitigation).

Assignment 2

You and your team will develop a communications management plan for your team project, which your team will submit. Your plan should address the communication needs for all project stakeholders (including those outside the team), what needs to be communicated and when (including format, content, level of detail, and definitions), a description of communication methods and pathways, update procedures, and plans for revising the communications management plan in the future, as needed.

Assignment 3

You will work with other team members to develop a comprehensive list of main sections and supporting detail that your team project proposal should contain. You will also write a summary of specific stakeholder needs that were part of your decisions about what to include. A single submittal for the team must be submitted.

Assignment 4

You and other team members will provide feedback to each other, following the guidelines and forms for effective feedback. From the feedback you receive, you will develop a plan of action for what you want to improve or continue to do.

Participation Requirements

You must interact with your team on an ongoing basis in order to complete the "team" portion of the assignments.

Working in a Team

This course, perhaps even more than the other courses in the certificate program, requires that you work as part of a team to complete portions of the assignments. (See the "About the Assignments" section in this Introduction for an overview of each assignment.) This will mean communicating regularly with fellow team members. You can accomplish this required interaction in a variety of ways: through e-mail, phone calls, and informal meetings. Take advantage of the variety of available communication options, both to accommodate the needs of various team members and to enhance teamwork by selecting the method most suited to the task.

Team Project Notebook Deliverables

Throughout the course, your team will be responsible for preparing deliverables for the Team Project Notebook. It is your team's responsibility to prepare these deliverables before the end of the program. You will most likely want to do so after you receive your instructor's feedback on related assignments and can integrate any changes into the notebook deliverables. At the end of the program, the instructor of the final course PM 805 (and also the program mentor), will review your Team Project Notebook and provide feedback. Your course instructor can also provide additional guidance in creating your Team Project Notebook deliverables.

Note: Team Project Notebook deliverables do not always correspond to the assignments; each team must work out the what, how, and when for managing these deliverables. While reminders are placed throughout the course, Team Project Notebook deliverables are due by the last day of the course.

Evaluation and Grading

Because this is a non-credit professional certification program, all submitted assignments are graded as satisfactory (S) or non-satisfactory (NS). Additionally, other exercises will count toward the participation grade, as noted in individual lessons.

Study Tips

A central theme of this course is team process and team communication. Therefore, this course has a greater number of team activities than previous courses in the program. You will be expected to account for the amount and types of interaction you have had with your team members (see individual lessons for activities and requirements). The following tips may help you devise a successful study strategy for completing the lessons.

• Each lesson is designed to be completed in one and one-half weeks. Plan ahead to give yourself extra time to complete the readings and assignments. If you work fulltime during the week, you should try to budget extra study time during the weekend while completing this course. It will be difficult to catch up if you fall behind.
• Early on, find out when each of your teammates is most likely to be available by telephone. This will help you plan your time for working with others on assignments.
• Review the list of ground rules your team adopted during the first class session; let others in the team know if you observe that these are not being followed (which may suggest they need to be modified). Observe and modify your team communication processes as needed, as you learn more about team communications.
• Since team process is a major course theme, be thinking about how you can report your own experience in your team as part of course activities.
• Use the learning objectives and key terms in each lesson in this online guide to direct your study.
• Use the objectives listed at the beginning of chapters in EPM, and the questions and review points at the end of chapters in Lewis as guides to your study.
• Take advantage of your instructor's expertise!

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