In all industries, for all sizes of projects, the alignment and level of functioning of the team is a key ingredient to success. Almost all major companies in the processing industries use very similar processes for framing up and executing their capital projects, yet some projects succeed while others fail. To help project teams understand if the team is working well together and if the project team members perceive they have the basis to function effectively to deliver the project, IPA has developed the Team Functionality Assessment. This assessment is based on findings from continuing research conducted by IPA since 2000.
Team Functionality Assessments can be completed during any of the FEL phases, but are most effective when done in FEL 2 or FEL 3 with either a Pacesetter or Prospective Analysis.
The Team Functionality Assessment will focus specifically on key metrics associated with the following areas:
The Team Functionality Assessment allows the project leaders an opportunity to examine the perceptions of the team members in an aggregate form. IPA research has demonstrated that an aggregated response from a representative sampling of project team members provides a good indication of the status of the project. Thus, the results will allow the project leaders to compare the perceptions of the team (subjective) against the objective results of an IPA assessment. When coupled with a Pacesetter or Prospective Analysis, the team assessment can be used to validate the practices and outcome metrics of the project analysis.
Each team member will fill out a questionnaire, which usually takes 10 minutes to complete. All answers are then aggregated to reflect the view of the team as a whole. It is important to know that no individuals will be identified. This is typically done as part of the normal interview process for a Pacesetter or Prospective Analysis.
The deliverables are presented as either a standalone short presentation or as part of the deliverable for the Pacesetter or Prospective assessment. In either form, the deliverable will include a discussion of the Team Functionality Assessment results and a summary of comments made by the team. In addition, when combined with another IPA assessment, the team perceptions will be combined with IPA’s assessment of the project’s Team Development and Front-End Loading (FEL) Indices for a unique comparison of the subjective and objective evaluations of the project.