Finally working from an outsourcing location organizations are realizing the issues of getting the right mix of skill resources at various levels. With the demand for skilled resources being outnumbered by supply of quality resources the impact is becoming clearly visible in form of organization’s performance.
IT being an area which is so much dependent on people ability to handle a given problem statement under all the constraints imposed it’s next to impossible to process-ize every aspect of software development.
Keeping the above reality in mind the question is how teams for tomorrow can work on projects knowing the fact that they probably don’t have the best resources available with them.
The answer to the question lies in an effective training plan which needs to be worked by Project Manager, Training Department and Human Resources Department on continuous basis.
Working in a team the Project Manager is the best person to assess the weakness and strength of his team members. Things become easy when it’s a small team but can get very complicated once the team size is huge. In case the team size is huge then some of the ownership also needs to be transferred to Team Leaders. For the model sake we will consider a Project Manager who is managing a team size of 15-20 members.
Since a Project Manager and his team becomes part of one family it requires a tremendous amount of team bonding and for this Project Manager needs to play a very crucial role. As part of his daily interaction with team he can identify the areas both technical and behavioral which are missing in his team members. Once the areas are identified he should jot down them with the prioritization based on the long term objective of the individuals.
Identifying the long term objective of individuals is a separate area which organization address as part of Career Planning exercise. As part of this session people from Senior Management sit with the guys and explain them the various path which they can take as part of their growth plan. They not only tell the path but also the mechanics to reach there. Once the individual agrees with the growth path, it needs to be communicated to all the stakeholders and should also form part of employee HR records.
IT being an area which is so much dependent on people ability to handle a given problem statement under all the constraints imposed it’s next to impossible to process-ize every aspect of software development.
Keeping the above reality in mind the question is how teams for tomorrow can work on projects knowing the fact that they probably don’t have the best resources available with them.
The answer to the question lies in an effective training plan which needs to be worked by Project Manager, Training Department and Human Resources Department on continuous basis.
Working in a team the Project Manager is the best person to assess the weakness and strength of his team members. Things become easy when it’s a small team but can get very complicated once the team size is huge. In case the team size is huge then some of the ownership also needs to be transferred to Team Leaders. For the model sake we will consider a Project Manager who is managing a team size of 15-20 members.
Since a Project Manager and his team becomes part of one family it requires a tremendous amount of team bonding and for this Project Manager needs to play a very crucial role. As part of his daily interaction with team he can identify the areas both technical and behavioral which are missing in his team members. Once the areas are identified he should jot down them with the prioritization based on the long term objective of the individuals.
Identifying the long term objective of individuals is a separate area which organization address as part of Career Planning exercise. As part of this session people from Senior Management sit with the guys and explain them the various path which they can take as part of their growth plan. They not only tell the path but also the mechanics to reach there. Once the individual agrees with the growth path, it needs to be communicated to all the stakeholders and should also form part of employee HR records.
Some practical working formulas which I recommend to build the team for tomorrow are as follows:
- Assess every individual of team
- Mentor them – formally and informally
- Conduct workshops under your control making your team member participation a must
- Ask team members to work on subject which can hone both their technical and behavioral skills through simple exercises
- Make them attend both behavioral and technical training
