Summary

Establish and maintain organizational rules and guidelines for the structure, formation, and operation of teams.

Description

Operating rules and guidelines for teams define and control how teams are created and how they interact to accomplish objectives. Team members should understand the standards for work and participate according to those standards.

When establishing rules and guidelines for teams, ensure they comply with all local and national regulations or laws that can affect the use of teams.

Structuring teams involves defining the number of teams, the type of each team, and how each team relates to the others in the structure. Forming teams involves chartering each team, assigning team members and team leaders, and providing resources to each team to accomplish work.

Example Work Products



  1. Rules and guidelines for structuring and forming teams
  2. Operating rules for teams


Subpractices



1. Establish and maintain empowerment mechanisms to enable timely decision making.

In a successful teaming environment, clear channels of responsibility and authority are established by documenting and deploying organizational guidelines that clearly define the empowerment of teams.



2. Establish and maintain rules and guidelines for structuring and forming teams.

 

Organizational process assets can help the work group to structure and implement teams. Such assets can include the following:
  • Guidelines for establishing lines of communication, authority, and escalation
  • Team structure guidelines
  • Team formation guidelines
  • Team authority and responsibility guidelines
  • Team leader selection criteria



3. Define the expectations, rules, and guidelines that guide how teams work collectively.

 

These rules and guidelines establish organizational practices for consistency across teams and can include the following:
  • How interfaces among teams are established and maintained
  • How assignments are accepted and transferred
  • How resources and inputs are accessed
  • How work gets done
  • Who checks, reviews, and approves work
  • How work is approved
  • How work is delivered and communicated
  • Who reports to whom
  • What the reporting requirements (e.g., cost, schedule, performance status), measures, and methods are
  • Which progress reporting measures and methods are used