Project Team Progression
Forming: I participated in a team working on a history assignment. It was a responsible and difficult task that required skilled project management. Due to a perfectly chosen leader of the group, who knew the subject rather well and was using helpful techniques, it wasn’t too hard for us to achieve success. At the first stage, forming, there was a lot of excitement over the assignment, but not all the members of the team knew each other and understood the peculiarities of the project. The leader did everything in the right way, by introducing the members to each other and defining objectives of the project, specifying the aspects of each stage and challenges the team will have to face. What I would have done in a different way is paying more attention to defining the relationships between people in the team. It could have made the communication easier (Keane, 2009).
Storming: At the stage of storming in the project described below there were more problems than at the first stage, but they were solved timely due to the manager. Team members felt a considerable deal of resistance, which made the task of roles division more complicated. By asking many questions and finding answers to them, the goals of the project became evident to the members of the team. Due to the manager, everyone became involved in the project realization and understood what tasks they have to perform in particular. If I were a leader in this situation, I would have paid more attention to the ideas recording and systematization. I believe that certain valuable ideas were lost, because there was no established system of recording the ideas. Such a measure would have made the work more productive and could have increased the quality of the result (Acuna, Gomez & Juristo, 2008).
Norming: At this stage the team members began to cooperate successfully, which was evident by the achieved results. A definite sign of success for me was the communication between them and the acceptance that was clearly felt in the team. Meetings at this stage were very productive, as the adaptation stages were already in the past, which meant increased productivity and distraction from the main goal (Cox, Bachkirova & Clutterbuck, 2009). Still, I think that it was possible to optimize the process by using participative style by the manager. In our case, the manager was sometimes an obstacle in productivity increase, but it didn’t gain the scale of a big problem.
Performing: This stage in our project was a productive time of successful collaboration and work towards the goals achievement. All the issues were discussed and solutions were found in a short time. Now people could rely on each other, which made communication better. The general mood of the team was positive and members new that the result is rather close. The most important factor here was their understanding what was necessary to accomplish in order to reach the defined goals. The manager chose the right style of participation – the one of delegation (Kloppenborg, 2012). But I believe that he should have focused on the external factors of the project, as in our case it would have made the work more productive.
Adjourning: The concluding stage of work on the project was dedicated to celebrating its success. The work was performed on time and gained a high grade, as it was performed on a high level of quality. Although there were certain problems in the process of completion, it didn’t spoil the result considerably. Team members were attached to the team, ready for the next challenge in the end. Owing to the manager, everyone felt their contribution to the success, which is why no one was left dissatisfied in the process. The manager performed his functions in the right way, formally closing the project.
References
Acuna, S.T., Gomez, M., Juristo N. (2008). How do personality, team processes and task characteristics relate to job satisfaction and software quality? Information and Software Technology, 51(3), 627-639.
Cox, E., Bachkirova, T., Clutterbuck, D. (2009). The Complete Handbook of Coaching. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Keane, A.E. (2009). Cultivating Positive Project Teams: Accelerating Time to Team Formation. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=mapp_capstone
Kloppenborg, T. (2012). Contemporary project management: Organize/plan/perform, 2nd edition. Mason, OH: South-Western.
