Project Human Resource Management - Develop Project Team

This process improves competencies, team member interaction and overall team environment to enhance project performance. It results in improved teamwork, enhanced people skills and competencies, motivates employees, reduced staff turnover rates, and improved overall project performance.

As a project manager you need the skills to identify, build, maintain, motivate, lead and inspire project teams to achieve high team performance and to meet the project's objectives. You can provide the team with challenges and timely feedback to keep them motivated.

Let's take a look at the Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Outputs of this process:

1) Human Resource Management Plan

• Provides guidance on how project human resources should be defined, staffed, managed, controlled and eventually released. 
• It identifies training strategies - rewards, feedback, additional training and disciplinary actions. 

2) Project Staff Assignments

• Identifies the people who are on the team

3) Resource Calendars

• Identifies the times when the team members can participate in team development activities

4) Interpersonal Skills

• Also known as "soft skills"
• Behavioral competencies that include proficiencies such as communication skills, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, influence, team building and group facilitation. 

5) Training

• Includes all activities designed to enhance the competencies of the project team members. 
• It can be online, classroom, computer based, on the job training from other team members, mentoring and coaching. 

6) Team-Building Activities

• It helps individual team members work together effectively
• Tuckman ladder - five stages of development that a team goes through
• Forming - Phase where the team meets and learns about the project and their roles
• Storming - team begins to address the project work, technical decisions and the project management approach. 
• Norming - team members begin to work with each other and adjust their work habits and behaviors to support the team
• Performing - reach the performing stage as a well organized unit
• Adjourning - team completes the work and moves on from the project. 

7) Ground Rules

• Establishes clear expectations regarding acceptable behavior from the team members

8) Colocation

• Also known as a "tight matrix"
• Places many or all of the most active project team members in the same physical location to enhance their ability to perform as a team

9) Recognition and Rewards

• Original plans to reward people are developed during the Plan Human Resource Management process
• It creates value to the people that work for you

10) Personnel Assessment Tool

• Allows you to focus on areas of strengths and weakness of the team members
• Tools used are:
• Attitudinal surveys
• Specific assessments
• structured interviews
• ability tests
• focus groups

11) Team Performance Assessment

• When training, team building and colocation are implement you have to asses the project teams effectiveness  to increase the teams performance
• It is measured in terms of technical success according to the agreed-upon project objectives and performance on budget. 
• Evaluations may include:
• Improvements in skills that allow individuals to perform assignments more effectively
• Improvements in competencies that help the team perform better as a team
• Reduced staff overturn rate
• Increased team cohesiveness where team members share information and experiences openly and help each other 
• Specific training, coaching, mentoring, assistance will be identified to improve the team's performance

12) Enterprise Environmental Factors Updates

• May include:
• Personnel administration
• employee training records
• skill assessments

Source: PMBOK 5th ed.