The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development

9.5. Recommendations for Effective Team Management

Managing product development teams is not for the weak and faint of heart. A few specific recommendations may help managers in setting up working conditions conducive to multidisciplinary task integration and to building high-performing project teams.

• Early project life cycle team involvement: Team involvement, early in the project's life cycle, will have a favorable impact on the team environment, building enthusiasm toward the assignment and team morale, and will eventually improve team effectiveness. Because project leaders have to integrate various tasks across many functional lines, proper planning requires all stakeholders' participation. These stakeholders include support departments, subcontractors, and management. Modern project management techniques provide the framework and tools for effective cross-functional planning and for organizing the work for effective execution. Such techniques include phased project planning and Stage-Gate® concepts.

• Define work process and team structure: Successful project team management requires an infrastructure conducive to cross-functional teamwork and technology transfer. This includes properly defined links, task responsibilities, reporting relations, communication channels, and work transfer protocols. The tools for systematically describing the work process and team structure come from the conventional project management system. Here are some of these tools: (1) a project charter ...