What is a supervisor?

170 Chapter 7 n Controlling your project Thought oriented roles n Plant – Creative, imaginative, can solve difficult problems. Does not like criticism; often introverted. Often so preoccupied with problems that she doesn’t communi- cate effectively. n Monitor evaluator – Sees all options and maintains a strategic view of the project. Tends to be quite shrewd and objective in decision-making. Because of focus on strategic issues, can appear quite detached from the day-to-day operations of the project and does not really inspire others. n Specialist – Narrow specialism and viewpoint but dedicated. While essential to certain parts of the project, contribution can be limited. Often uses a lot of jargon in communications. Chances are that you will not be working in a team with this number of members. However, individuals within your team may well possess two or three of Belbin’s skill traits, giving your group a reasonable skills balance. Having a good cross-section of team skills within your group is, however, no guarantee of project success. Having said this, the more of these skills that are present within your group, the higher the chances are that the team will succeed. Individuals will work together well and the team will not suffer from clashes between the egos of several like-minded people. These skill traits should be kept in mind when team roles are assigned. Three team roles, which are common to all project teams, irrespective of the project, include: n Team leader – chairperson, coordinator. Responsible for time-tabling the work, assigning it, chasing team members’ progress, chairing meetings, making difficult decisions, etc. n Librariansecretary – minutes meetings, coordinates paperwork and all literature. n Team contact communications officer – liaises with external bodies – the client, supervisor, etc. When assigning these roles, you might, for example, elect your team leader as the person possessing the skills of a coordinator. A resource investigator would perhaps be a good person to assign as your team contact, and the team’s librariansecretary may be best assigned to a completer-finisher. You might also assign primary and secondary roles to each member of the team. For example, someone may have the primary role of librariansecretary and be supported by another team member who has this as their secondary role. Thus each team member is responsible for one aspect of the project, supported by one other team member, and each team member is supporting, in a secondary role, someone else. Sometimes you may find that no one naturally fits into any of these roles or you may find that no one is willing to take on a particular role. In these cases the role might have to be divided so that different people are responsible for it, or that different people take on the role at different stages of the project. For example, team leadership could be split into coordinating team contributions, chairing meetings, planning, etc. This is a compromise and not an ideal solution as projects should ideally have a single leader. Technical skills are particularly important within computing projects. Depending on the nature of your course, and the type of project you are undertaking, you will need team members with some of the following technical abilities: n Programming – high level, low level, 4GLs, visual programming, etc. n Databases – analysis, design, development 7.5 Working in teams 171 Strengths Weaknesses Strong leader Poor relating to people I don’t know Technically sound Writing skills poor Good programmer Opportunities Threats Project is a chance to Field trip clashes with improve my systems project presentation analyse skills n Systems analysis n Systems design n Information systems n Human computer interaction n Networking n Computer systems architecture n Graphics n Mathematics including statistical analyses, etc. O’Sullivan et al. 1996 suggest using a SWOT analysis to identify team responsibilities. A SWOT analysis identifies everyone’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. For example, your own personal SWOT analysis might look something like this: Not only must your team be well balanced with respect to technical skills and the team skills identified earlier, but your team must also link well. In other words, there must be good communication between team members in order for the project to succeed. This boils down to people’s ability to get on with one another and is the main benefit of being in a group with your friends.

7.5.3 Team development

Teams do not form together in a consistent manner and generally evolve through five stages of development. Being aware of these stages can help you to understand why the team might be behaving as it is, prepare you for the types of problems the team may face during each stage and perhaps enable you to deal with these problems more effec- tively. These stages, originally identified by Tuckman in 1965, are: n Forming. When the team first comes together as a group of individuals, the team members are keen to make an impression. The team become acquainted with one another, the goal for the project is defined, roles are established and communication channels are set up. During this stage the team leader must provide guidance and direction and be prepared to be challenged as the team begins to probe boundaries of acceptable behaviour within the group. n Storming. Following initial formation most groups go through a period of instability as roles, personalities, hidden agendas and cliques come into conflict. Through this period realistic procedures are established and people determine how they can get along and work together. It is difficult for decisions to be made during this period as everyone seems to be pulling in different directions. Uncertainties exist and team 172 Chapter 7 n Controlling your project members need to focus on the goal of the project and not the relationship and emo- tional issues that seem to be overtaking the team during this stage. n Norming. This stage represents the settling down of the team following the chaotic storming process. It is during this stage that the team begins to stabilise into a working environment, patterns of work are established and people are committed to the project. The team now has a sense of identity, a team spirit forms and everyone knows what their roles and responsibilities are. n Performing. The team can now achieve its optimum performance and really focus on getting the project completed. Performing can only be achieved if the previous three stages have passed successfully. Any disagreements can now be handled effectively within the team, all team members know their strategic direction and team members tend to look after one another. n Mourning or adjourning. When the project is complete, the team might well be disbanded unless there is another project in the pipeline. To many group members this can be quite a culture shock for those that have been in a close-knit team for a long time. In an industrial context team members may move onto other projects, have to form new relationships or be returned to their original departments. For student projects it may mean the end of your course or a shift to other things such as exams or coursework. Whatever the case be aware that emotions you might feel at the end of a group project are not unique and you should reflect on your time in the team positively. Some group projects require students to undertake a reflective summary of their project at the end. This will normally take place after the project has completed so occurs during the mourning stage. This is discussed in Section 7.5.6.

7.5.4 Managing the team

You have ‘selected’ your team and the project is underway – how should the group and its communications be managed? Group coordination will clearly rest on the shoulders of the team leader. It is his or her responsibility to coordinate effort by breaking a large project down into manageable chunks and assigning these chunks appropriately. The main coordinating link that should be maintained within a group project is through frequent team meetings. These should be minuted, everyone should be in attendance and work should be agreed and assigned. When work is assigned you should all agree on what should be done and by when. Work should be assigned to individuals based on their technical skills and sometimes subgroups might form to work on particular parts of the project. The Gantt charts and activity networks, introduced in Chapter 4, can help you assign work to team members, as they provide a strategic view of workloads and responsibilities. It is useful to get people to sign up to their obligations at this stage so that everyone knows who is responsible for what. If problems do arise later, and the team falls apart for whatever reason, individual contributions can be identified for assessment purposes. Frequent meetings also provide a useful means of project control. They enable progress to be monitored and provide a time and place for team members to meet and discuss ideas. Motivation of team members also becomes clear at frequent meetings and