Project Management - Notes

Article - Building the Right Project Team

Article From JDJ, January 2007.

Assume you are the project manager for a newly selected technical implementation for a specific line of business that you’re familiar with. You’ve been chosen for this effort because of the confidence that both the business and technology departments have in you to get the job done. Your past record speaks for itself and you have an opportunity to select people currently in your company as well as augment the team with new hires and consultants. Whether your project requires a medium or large-scale project team you should plan your team accordingly.

Always plan in five-person team increments.

Business/Technical Lead

This person should be someone who understands the business requirements very well and hopefully was one of the main authors of the Business Requirements Document. This individual should be technically very strong, but doesn’t necessarily know all the technologies that have to be deployed to implement the system.

Technical Architect

This person is responsible for designing the technical framework in which the entire system will be built. He should be intimately familiar with all the technologies required to deliver the system and be mindful of all governance requirements in your organization.

This is the lead person who will insure the technical success of the project.

Data Analyst

This person should be knowledgeable about all of the data elements required for system implementation as well as where the data currently resides in the organization and how to gain access to it.

This person will coordinate all DBA requirements and work with the governance group in the organization as well as lead all logical and physical database design efforts.

Technical Programmer

This person will be responsible for coding parts of the system based on the direction of the Project Manager. For example, this person may be the front-end technical programmer.

Technical Programmer

This person will be responsible for coding parts of the system based on the direction of the Project Manager. For example, this person may be the application server programmer.

Quotes

Bill Langley: The perfect project plan is possible if one first documents a list of all the unknowns.