Anthony T. Cobb - LEADING PROJECT TEAMS: The Basics of Project Management and Team Leadership

Second
Edition

LEADING
PROJECT
TEAMS

Second
Edition

LEADING
PROJECT
TEAMS

The Basics of Project Management and Team Leadership

Anthony T. Cobb

Virginia Tech

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Copyright 2012 by SAGE Publications, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cobb, Anthony T.

Leading project teams: the basics of project management and team leadership/Anthony T. Cobb.2nd ed.

p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Leading project teams: an introduction to the basics of project management and project team leadership. c2006.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4129-9170-4 (pbk.)

1. Project management. 2. Teams in the workplace.
I. Title.

HD69.P75C616 2012 658.4092dc22
2010051832

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

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I nterest in and demand for project management has increased a great deal over the past 20 years. This increase in interest and demand can be seen in a number of ways. One way is in the number of books oriented to project management, which now number in the thousands. Another is in the growth of training programs offered in project management, which are now widely available and also number in the thousands. Still a third way is in college recruiting. Recruiters often develop much more interest in students when they mention their project management training or their experience in leading project teams. Perhaps most indicative of interest in project management is the results one gets from simply Googling project management.

Part of this increase in demand is due to growth in what can be called traditional project work. Most of the early work in project management was done by engineers working for large performing companies that conducted large-scale projects for outside clients. Working on projects like high-rise construction or large weapon systems, these professionals developed most of the project management tools we now use. Certainly, demand for these kinds of projects has increased over the years.

Interest in project management, however, has grown in a number of other areas as well. One of these areas is new product development. Product life cycles have shrunk a great deal because organizations have turned to using new product development as a competitive strategy. To remain competitive, organizations have to constantly update and remodel what they offer their customers. Companies have found that bringing new products to market is best managed in a project environment using cross-functional project teams.

Another area of growth is in the demand for new organizational processes. Organizations not only have to constantly develop new products to remain competitive, but they have to constantly develop themselves as well. From quality circles to Tiger Teams, organizations have looked to project teams to reinvent and reengineer themselves to attain ever-increasing levels of quality and efficiency.

These kinds of challenges have produced what might be called a project mindset. Whenever something of significance needs to be donea problem solved or an opportunity seizedhigher management assembles project teams to do the work. Whether the projects are making process improvements, starting new ventures, developing new client services, finding and opening new market niches, or even running political campaigns, leaders have come to value project management tools and skills in planning and conducting them.

With this broadening of project work, the composition of project teams has also changed. Although many are still composed of builders or engineers, most are not. Members come from all walks of life and from all professions. Project teams are assembled in laboratories, universities, government offices, school districts, on the shop floor, and in the executive suite, to name just a few project work sites.

The level of skills required for these project teams has also changed. Although the full range of skills used by professional project engineers is always useful, most of the need is for more entry-level project skills. Smaller projects depend less on sophisticated tools to do such tasks as cost or risk analysis and depend much more on tools needed to organize projects, clarify deliverables, work with stakeholders, and manage and lead project teams.

This book is written to help convey entry-level project tools and skills for the newcomer to project management. It is designed so it can be used as a supplemental text in courses dedicated to topics other than project management. In these kinds of venues, its aims are twofold. First, it aims to help student teams become more effective at doing course projects by learning project management techniques and applying them to their work. Teams are simply more effective and learn more when they have the skills to do the courses projects well. Second, it aims to help prepare students to enter the kind of project life that has come to dominate so much of modern organizational work. From whatever area of study students emerge, recruiters see project training and experience as value added, and this gives the student a comparative advantage over those who have not benefited from such training.

This book, then, is designed to be of help in a wide range of professional programs. This includes, of course, undergraduate and MBA-level business courses such as business strategy, entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, information systems, project management, and operations management, among others. It was also written, however, to serve project management needs in a wider range of curricula including education, health care, sciences, information technology, engineering, political science, and other programs whose students will someday be called on to lead project work in their field. Since its first publication, it has been used in a variety of consulting and training venues as well.

In the remainder of this chapter, we examine some of the fundamental notions of what characterizes projects and what makes them unique. We then turn our attention to how the basic tools of project management are addressed in this book as well as essential elements of successful project leadership.