Project Management

Project Management

1. What are some strategies that could be used by a project manager to successfully manage the relationships among project team members? According to James Chapman in an essay published online, for projects to succeed, the goals need to be well defined and clearly communicated to the project team. A project manager would normally establish a clear direction for the team, create a shared vision, have a clearly defined target, assign clear task ownership, obtain commitment from each individual team member, develop a realistic timeline as well as project milestones, and then coordinate the project team's effort (Chapman, 2001). The project manager would create an environment in which each member recognized that completing the assignment requires the combined efforts and skills of each member of the team. Tasks would be assigned only after adequate definitions, guidance and training had occurred. In addition to managing the process, the project manager would monitor the interactions among team members, and if necessary would engage in a team-building process if and when the manager felt the team members were drifting apart, and long before team members became hostile to each other.

English: screenshot of WME project manager Рус�...

English: Simleu Museum Original Project Team

Berrett-Koehler Publishers

My assumption when accepting this assignment is that this team has been poorly managed and that valuable time and resources have been squandered. I would also assume that between and among the team members, there is some ill-will that has accumulated over time. I recognize that this team faces serious challenges, that getting back on schedule and preventing additional cost overruns will require better management of the team than my predecessor in addition to the support and cooperation of the remaining team members.

The first thing I would do is to have a meeting with the remaining members of the team. This would be a lengthy meeting...