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discussed the various roles and responsibilities of team members in Chapter 2 if you

need a refresher on specific project roles. You could use that information as a starting
point for the roles and responsibilities document.

Whatever format you choose to document the roles and responsibilities,
the intent is to be as clear and precise as possible in defining the key areas of
accountability for each team member.

Roles and responsibilities may change over the course of the project, so be
sure to update this document as needed.

Building and Managing a Cohesive Team

Every team progresses through a series of development stages. It’s important to

understand these stages because team member behaviors will change as you progress
through them, and the stage they’re in affects their interactions with each other.

Dr. Bruce Tuckman developed a model that describes how teams develop and mature
over time. According to Tuckman, all teams progress through the following five stages
of development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. You’ll take
a brief look at each of these next:

Forming Forming is the beginning stage of team formation, when all the members
are brought together, introduced, and told the objectives of the project. This is where
team members learn why they’re working together. During this stage, team members
tend to be formal and reserved and take on an “all-business” approach.

Storming Storming is where the action begins. Team members become
confrontational with each other as they begin vying for position and control during this
stage. They’re working through who is going to have the most influence and they’re

jockeying for status.

Norming Norming is where things begin to calm down. Team members know each
other fairly well by now. They’re comfortable with their positions in the team, and they
begin to deal with project problems instead of people problems. Decisions are made
jointly at this stage, and team members exhibit mutual respect and familiarity with one
another.

Performing Ahh, perfection. Well, almost, anyway. Performing is the stage where
great teams end up. This is where the team is productive and effective. The level of

trust among team members is high, and great things are achieved. This is the mature
development stage. Not all teams make it to performing; many churn between

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