People usually collaborate on projects to achieve a common goal. Working on projects as a group looks easy on the face of it but in practice, it is really tasking. The more the number of people on that project, the more difficult it is to achieve success. This is the reason a group project needs to have a leader who will be able to carry everyone along to make sure that they achieve their goal collectively. There are some techniques to follow to achieve success in practically any group project. These are proven to yield results over the years.
A competent leader should be chosen
Every group project needs to be done in an organized way since there will be team members assigned to that project. The first thing to do is to choose a leader. Sometimes the leader is chosen by a unanimous decision from the other members of the team or if it is an office setting, the manager who has assigned the team members that project could choose a leader from the team. Now it is very important that this person leading has some sort of experience leading a group before. He needs to have certain team-leading qualities that would go well with the other team members else he or she would fail woefully and the project would suffer.
Apart from having good leadership qualities, the team lead should have some professional developments in form of certifications. Getting a PMP certification wouldn’t be a bad idea. Project Management Professional Certification must be at the top of the list for any project manager. It is the most requested certification around the world on job boards for companies seeking project managers. The training for this certification takes care of all that is needed in handling and delivering a successful group project.
There should be a communication plan
Apart from choosing a competent leader who has some professional certification, the group project still needs a workable communication plan put in place for the team members to share their opinion on the work done or to be done at any instant. Communication is key to any project involving several people. The first step is to develop the method the team members will be using to connect and keep everyone on the same page. Several communication tools are available from emails to google docs, skype, Google hangouts, closed Facebook groups, and even Whatsapp.
Divide the project into progressive sections for better handling
After establishing a communication plan, the next step is to start off with the project. Since there are members in the team, everyone will have to join in. The project leader can come up with a plan to split the project into stages, the completion of one leading to another. He or she can share his plan with the rest of the team who should make contributions. This will help the group agree on how they want to handle the stages of the project.
Agree on weekdays and time for general meetings
This part is very important. It is called a group project for a reason and every member of the team is supposed to be involved equally. It is true that there is a leader but it doesn’t mean the leader will now have to do most of the job while the others just make comments. One of the reasons that can make this happen is if there are no agreed times to meet that will be suitable for all the group members. Imagine fixing a meeting and only 5 out of 40 people in the team attend because the time fixed didn’t work well with the remaining 35 people.
Group members may be living in different time zones or hold jobs outside standard working hours. If it is difficult to achieve a common time for general meetings, just make sure you agree on a time that will have most of the team members present, you can make sure good minutes are taken during the meeting and action items are recorded. These should be shared with the few other members that couldn’t make the meeting.
Making contributions and building a community
The project leader should be able to identify the areas of interest of each member of the team for the project. For example, if there is a part of the project that requires some artificial intelligence coding, you should have that part handed over to the professional programmers in the team. Every member of the team has to be useful, bond professionally, and make meaningful contributions towards the success of the project.
Final word
Members of a group project have to recognize their responsibilities towards the goal of the project. The success of the project can only be certain if every member completes his or her assigned tasks, consistently communicates with the other members of the group, and always collaborates with the team members. There has to be mutual respect for everyone on the team. All these will make the project a success.
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