How to structure and manage a first-rate project team

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Key takeaways:

• Structuring your team requires clearly defining roles and responsibilities so everyone knows who is accountable for what 
• Team structures can enhance performance or interfere with your project progress
• Don’t hesitate to tailor your team structure to fit your needs, combining the best elements from various approaches to create one that works for your projects

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As a project manager, you’ve got an endless list of important things to get done. But how you structure your team will determine if you end up with a group of skilled people working toward a common goal, or a bunch of individuals confused about how to work together and slowed down by inefficient processes 🐌

It requires assembling the right mix of people, establishing clear roles and responsibilities, and implementing effective processes to ensure success.

We’ll show you how to organize and oversee a successful project team, explaining common team roles and structures, and finally, sharing practical tips on how to assemble and support your crew.

What are the different roles and responsibilities in project teams?

Project teams are often made of individuals with different roles and responsibilities, all working together to achieve a successful outcome. While the precise composition of these teams may differ based on the project’s scope and purpose, a few typical roles appear in most project teams:

🙋 Project sponsor

A project sponsor is the primary point of contact between the project manager and the group requesting the project.

Often, the project sponsor is a senior executive in the organization, a steering committee member, or an individual specified by a client. As the requestor of the project, the project sponsor should be involved in all major decisions related to the project. They may serve as a sounding board for the project manager or delivery team leads as they seek to identify the best solution to meet the project requirements.

Their responsibilities include:  

Defining the project scope

• Work with the project manager and stakeholders to create a project scope document that outlines the project’s objectives, deliverables, timelines, and budget
• Ensure the project scope is clear, realistic, achievable, and aligned with the organization’s strategic goals
• Communicate the project scope to all stakeholders, including the project management team, to ensure that everyone understands the project’s goals and objectives

Approving project plans

• Review and approve the project plans the project manager developed, including the project schedule, budget, and resource requirements
• Ensure that the project plans are feasible and realistic and align with the project scope and the organization’s goals
• Collaborate with the project manager to make necessary adjustments to the project plans

Providing resources

• Identify the resources the project will need to succeed, including financial, human, and other resources
• Provide the resources to the project manager to ensure the project can be executed successfully
• Work with the project manager to manage any resource constraints, such as budget limitations or personnel shortages, that could impact the project’s success

Removing blockers

• Review project status reports and milestones to ensure that the project is progressing as planned and that project goals are being met
• Identify any risks or issues impacting the project and work with the project manager to address them
• Make any necessary adjustments to the project plan to ensure the project stays on track

Supporting change management

• Work with the project manager and stakeholders to identify any changes that may be necessary during the project
• Review change requests to ensure they are feasible and will not negatively impact the project
• Collaborate with the project manager to implement changes in a controlled and efficient manner and ensure that they do not jeopardize the project’s success

🧑‍💻 Project manager

The project manager oversees all aspects of the project to ensure the team achieves its goals and meets deadlines. They must possess the project management skills required to understand the specialized skills or tasks needed for the project and direct every project team member accordingly.

Some important responsibilities of the project manager are communicating progress updates and managing changes to the scope of work.

Other project management responsibilities include: 

Defining the project scope

• Work with the project sponsor and stakeholders to clearly define the project’s scope, including its objectives, tasks, and deadlines
• Identify and manage potential risks and problems impacting the project and develop contingency plans to address them

Creating a project plan

• Develop a detailed plan that outlines how the project will be completed, including a timeline for each task and who will be responsible for each task
• Create contingency plans to address any problems that may arise during the project
• Regularly review and update the project plan to remain current and relevant

Managing resources

• Ensure all necessary human and non-human resources are available to complete the project
• Allocate team members based on their skills and capacity, ensuring the right person is matched with the right job
• Manage the project budget and expenses to ensure the project remains on track and within budget

Monitoring progress and removing roadblocks

• Monitor progress throughout the project and ensure that team members complete tasks on schedule
• Identify any roadblocks or problems preventing the project from progressing as planned and work to remove them
• Regularly report progress to the project sponsor and stakeholders and manage change requests as needed

Completing the project

• Once team members finish all tasks associated with the project, ensure that all final paperwork and reports are completed
• Conduct a post-mortem or retrospective analysis of the project to identify any lessons learned and make recommendations for future projects
• Document any best practices or successful strategies that could be used in future projects

🧑 Delivery team lead 

Delivery team leads guide their team members and ensure high-quality deliverables. 

For example, if you’re managing a creative team, the lead web developer would be in charge of the team’s coding tasks and ensuring quality assurance. The lead researcher would oversee market research or user experience studies and write reports with findings and recommendations. The lead designer would direct the team in creating mockups, reviewing designs with stakeholders, and maintaining brand consistency.

In big projects, leads serve as the connective tissue between the project manager and the rest of the team. Not all teams have leads, but they’re typically present in large projects. 

Their responsibilities include:

Responding to the project’s goals and objectives

• Review and determine the feasibility of the project sponsor’s desired project scope and deliverables
• Work with the project sponsor and project manager to identify what the project is trying to achieve and what success looks like
• Help create a project plan once goals and objectives have been defined

Developing activity or task estimates

• Work with the project manager to create the project plan based on the team’s estimates for completion timing
• Scope each task for effort and difficulty level to determine an estimated duration
• In predictive project management, use estimates for task duration to build the project plan. In adaptive project management, iteratively refine estimates throughout the project.

Identifying resources needed for the project

• Use their knowledge of team members’ expertise to identify the resources with the right skill sets needed to complete the project
• Work with the project manager to get everything needed to execute the project, such as people, materials, equipment, and software

Responding to changing requirements

• Be open to change and work with the project manager and sponsor to suggest, review, and respond to change requests
• Help re-estimate tasks and adjust the project plan and scope of work as needed
• Adapt to changes in the project and the team’s work, which may require redoing previously done work or undoing finished work

Executing, collaborating, and reporting

• Work with the project manager and other team members to execute essential project items, solve problems, and report on progress
• Collaborate with other project team members to solve problems as they arise
• Report on progress regularly to keep the project manager and sponsor informed, which helps them make informed decisions

🧑‍💼 Team members 

Team members are individual contributors responsible for producing and delivering specific project components like web development or market research.

They need to have the right skills to deliver the project and the capacity to be available for work. They are usually sourced in-house, but freelancers or consultants can be brought on the team to work on the project in cases of reduced capacity or to fill a skill gap. 

Their responsibilities include:

Responding to project goals and objectives

• Understand what the project is set to achieve and determine how best to use their skills to support the goal
• Establish individual goals that support the project outcomes 
• Track and assess progress against the objectives and goals to ensure that they are moving in the right direction 

Communicating about risks and roadblocks

• Proactively identify potential risks that could negatively impact project success 
• Report issues or concerns to the project manager or delivery leads to ensure they are addressed quickly 
• Discuss challenges and come up with ideas on how to solve or mitigate them

Executing, collaborating, and problem solving

• Use their skill set and expertise to contribute to the project completion
• Share ideas, ask questions and provide constructive feedback on the work
• Be flexible and adapt to changing project needs 

Producing deliverables

• Ensure all assigned tasks are completed and delivered on time while maintaining quality and accuracy 
• Provide constructive feedback on deliverables and make needed changes to improve the output 
• Document work processes and deliverables where necessary 

3 steps to assembling a project team 

By now, you know who you need on your project and how your team structure works. It’s time to assemble your Avengers—sorry, team members 🦸 

Here are some essential steps to find and work with the best people: 

1. Get the right people on board

You might not get to pick your team every time, but if you have the opportunity, work with functional managers who understand team members’ skills well to identify the best fit for the roles within your team. Managers can point you toward people who will excel in the project due to their interests or past experience. 

If you use a resource management tool, you’ll easily be able to you can also check within the tool to find people with relevant skills. With a tool like Float (that’s us 👋), for example, you can filter using customizable People tags to see specific skills you need. 

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You can just click in Float [to find] a motion designer or a copywriter and you will have a list of everyone from all the offices. You can help out if someone is in need of a specific skill set.

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<pull-quote-author>Comfort Agemo, Senior Capacity and Freelance Manager at Scholz & Friends Commerce</pull-quote-author>

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2. Ensure resources are available 

To prevent your project from grinding to a halt because a key team member becomes unavailable, always check that the resources allocated will have enough capacity throughout the timeline. You can confirm this by speaking to their managers and the team members about upcoming PTO, competing projects, or administrative responsibilities. 

Consider using resource management software to check capacity and allocations to better understand capacity. In Float (we’re back again 😉), the Schedule gives you a live view of your team’s allocations and availability so you can spot time off or conflicting schedules. If you’re working with part-time staff or freelancers, you can see their work hours, enabling you to plan accordingly. 

3. Tailor your team structure to meet your needs

Each project (or team composition) will differ, so it’s always wise to organize your team accordingly, depending on your circumstances. Some teams may also incorporate additional positions not mentioned here, like business analysts or quality assurance professionals. 

Also, leaders may hire contractors instead of full-time employees in some organizations to execute projects, depending on their budget constraints and timing needs. 

It’s also important to factor in how well the team members work together, as they may need to collaborate and interact regularly while assembling, planning, and implementing tasks. 

Ultimately, it’s up to each project leader to determine what mix works best for them.

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Pro tip: set up your team for success with capacity planning

Assembling a team gets you halfway through. You must support your team members by managing their capacity, optimizing utilization rates, and adjusting allocations where necessary. 

Their workloads might increase or get assigned to another project, leaving them overwhelmed with work. Conversely, they might not be assigned enough work. Whatever the case, you need to closely monitor workloads to ensure they are neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed. 

Regular capacity planning meetings with other stakeholders, using a resource management tool, can help you spot issues and adjust the schedule by reallocating work or moving tasks to balance the workload.

"Once a week, we have a virtual capacity planning meeting with account managers and creative directors, in which we go through projects in Float to see team workloads and availability. Float enables us to answer important questions like: Is this project properly planned? How much time can we allocate to tentative projects without blocking confirmed projects? Can we predict how much work is coming in?"

Maike Jahnens, Head of Financial Operations and Capacity Management at Scholz & Friends

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7 types of project team structures 

How your team is structured can either help them do their best work or frustrate their efforts. A defined project organizational structure can support performance and boost collaboration, while a poorly organized structure can lead to confusion and stall work. 

Depending on your role and authority in your organization, you might not be in the position to decide the structure of your team. Either way, knowing the different types of organizational structures can help you understand your control over resources and your relationship with other managers or leaders. 

1. Hierarchical structure 

The hierarchical structure is pyramid-like, with senior management at the top and the team members at the bottom. This top-down structure is the most commonly used in organizations. 

Upper management makes the major decisions, which are communicated through various levels of management until they reach the employees. Roles and decision-making powers are clearly defined, making it easy to maintain order.  

⭐ Best for: teams that want to streamline decision-making and quickly respond to client needs and project changes. 

2. Network structure

The network structure is the opposite of a hierarchical structure. It consists of decentralized, autonomous pods that work on different projects but can support each other with resources. These pods are usually separated by focus or location.

⭐ Best for: large businesses with multiple entities, such as a large corporation that acquires and connects several independent agencies.

3. Functional organizational structure

In a functional organization, teams are arranged into different departments where people with similar skills work together. 

Team members report to their line or functional manager. They may be temporarily assigned to project teams, but the project manager has less authority than the functional manager (for example, all designers report to a head of design or lead designer).

⭐ Best for: teams that handle projects requiring highly specialized people. It also works for projects with clear departmental ownership, such as campaigns handled by a marketing department. 

4. Project-based structure 

A project-based team structure organizes team members around specific projects. 

These are usually cross-functional teams that report to the project manager, who has full control over how projects are run.

⭐ Best for: teams that work on a project-by-project basis, such as in marketing or creative agencies where client projects need to be delivered.

5. Matrix organizational structure 

The matrix structure combines elements of both functional and project-based models: team members report to different managers, usually a functional manager and a line manager.

This structure can be quite complex. Teams often struggle with confusing reporting lines and conflicts between decision-makers, making it challenging to navigate.

⭐ Best for: teams that are part of larger businesses because they can access the expertise and support of the larger organization while maintaining the focus and specialized skills needed for individual projects.

6. Process-based structure 

In a process-based structure, the organization is divided into units responsible for specific processes, such as research and development (R&D), customer acquisition, and customer support. 

Team members typically report to process owners or functional managers, depending on the organization’s specific design.

⭐ Best for: internal teams focused on improving workflows rather than teams working on client projects. 

7. Product-focused structure

Teams are organized in autonomous units focusing on delivering a product or service. Each unit might have its supporting departments, such as marketing, sales, comms, and customer service. 

The product manager will likely have the most control over resource allocation but this could vary across organizations.

⭐ Best for: teams that want to prioritize product development and customer satisfaction through dedicated teams. 

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