Team Interactions for Successful Project Management in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Abstract

Team interactions are recognised as important factors in successful project management. Even so the concept of ‘teams' is not developed to any great detail within the project management literature. This project sought to determine the actual practices of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in regard to their management of teams within project management (PM). The specific area of interest was engineering organisations, and the focus area was New Zealand (NZ). Data were collected by means of a survey, which was advertised through various PM chapters and other organisations. Results show that there is an overwhelming appreciation for the importance of team work in projects, but a low awareness and usage of team models, and a large proportion (37%) of team processes that do not work well. Team building is the team process that is strongest associated with project success. Curiously, the results also suggest the existence of an asymmetrical relationship between teamwork and project success: that effective teamwork IS a factor in project success, but the lack thereof IS NOT a failure factor. Instead the major causes of project failure are identified as primarily poor planning and poor communication. Implications are identified for future developments of a more comprehensive understanding of how team variables affect project success.