workshop -
52 Leveraging the Power of Work Teams for Successful IT Projects
Susan
Evans, College of William and Mary
Michele Valliere, College of William and Mary
David Hamilton, College of William and Mary
Much is expected of information technology
professionals in today's colleges and universities. To be successful, IT professionals must possess not only
technical expertise, but also strong interpersonal communication skills and
problem-solving abilities. And to
effectively contribute to the teaching and learning missions of their
organizations, IT professionals must be able to lead and participate in large,
complex, and highly visible technology projects. More and more often, IT professionals find themselves leading or
serving on project teams.
Due to limited funding, organizational structures in
higher education have flattened somewhat.
Replacing layers of managers and supervisors are work groups or
teams. More and more often, IT
professionals find themselves as members of work teams.
Teams are becoming part of the culture at the College
of William and Mary. A project team
approach is in place for the implementation of our enterprise resource plan
(ERP). And within Information
Technology, work teams are organized around critical areas of support, like
engineering, training and support.
On any campus, project and work teams yield some
important benefits. Not the least of which is that teams can often achieve
higher performance -- much higher than the sum of their members' individual contributions. So teams are an effective approach for the
scope and challenges of information technology organizations and projects.
But the role of team member is unlike the role of
employee, and IT staff need to be purposefully equipped for their roles as team
members. This workshop will focus on
the critical skills and attitudes for building exceptional team members in IT
organizations.
WORKSHOP OUTLINE:
I. What Teams Are and What They Are Not
II. Qualities and Characteristics of Successful Team
Members
III. Critical Skills for Team Members
A. creative problem solving
B. reaching consensus
C. providing feedback
D. staying on track
E. leadership
INTENDED AUDIENCE:
This workshop is intended for professionals in any information technology functional area. It is most suitable for IT professionals who are members of project or work teams. Managerial employees who are interested in developing team based organizations will also find it useful.