EXECUTING STAGE (HUMAN RESOURCE) : MANAGE PROJECT TEAM

Manage Project Team is the third process of Human Resource knowledge area in the execution stage whereby project performance is optimized by tracking the project team performance in the tasks and results-oriented, getting feedback, resolving issues raised, managing conflicts or misunderstandings between the project team members (storming), influencing team behaviour (mostly to work as a team) and managing team changes (especially when there is an absence of team member in a certain activity or there is a need to replace one because of ignorance, negligence, presence of unresolved matters like cultural differences, fightings, thefts etc or there is a need to add or reduce the team member from the project because of the budget, scope or schedule changes).

Note that managing project team requires various management skills like communication, influencing, decision making, negotiation, leadership and conflict management in order to create the high-performance team. 

The inputs of this process are:

• Human resource management plan that explains how to manage project team members in order to maximize performance
• Project staff assignments that provide the list of the team members etc
• Team performance assessments that indicate the effectiveness of the project team
• Issue log that documents all issues raised from planning to execution stage and who is responsible for resolving which issue by a targeted date
• Work performance reports that provide information about current status of the project compared to the project forecast in terms of schedule, cost, quality and scope. This information will also determine future requirements on human resource, recognition, rewards as well as staff management plan
• Organizational Process Assets if the organization does provide certificates of appreciation, bonus or other incentives to the team with good performances

The process can be done by:

• Having conversation and observation to the project team in order to monitor the progress towards deliverables as well as to keep in touch with them
• Conducting project performance appraisals in order to have clarifications of roles and responsibilities, discover unresolved or unknown issues, provide constructive feedback to the team and establish goals or plans for future time periods. This will depend on the team size, project complexity and communication frequency for instance team meetings
• Managing conflicts that are caused by scarcity of resources, scheduling priorities and personal working styles. These conflicts can be resolved by either
• withdraw or avoid them in order to be resolved by others
• smooth them so that they meet an area of agreement and not of difference or harmonize the situation by granting one to the needs of others
• compromise or reconcile by having a degree of satisfaction to all parties as a temporal conflict resolution
• force or direct one’s viewpoint at the expense of others. It is a win-lose solution because of the power position
• Collaborate or problem-solve to allow open dialogue to lead commitment, agreement and cooperation
• Using interpersonal skills such as leadership, influencing, effective decision making and negotiation in order to capitalize the strengths of all the project team members and interact appropriately with them

The outputs are change requests because of the staffing changes and updates in project management plan, project documents such as issue log, staff assignments, description of roles etc

References:

PMI (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide 5^th Ed.) USA, Project Management Institute

https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-successfully-manage-your-first-project-2276127