I’m saying an obvious thing but any IT company can only reach its goal if its members are keen on it. As a matter of fact, loads of problems tend to arise when companies plan to establish effective and well-coordinated teamwork. There are quite a lot of reasons: improper organization, different temperaments of group members causing conflicts, and many more.

The most important resource for achieving the result of a project are people responsible for it, people who are involved into the project. Experts identify the following as the characteristics of the effective team:

• A small group (from 5 to 9) people. A large number of people in the team impact the quality of communication between its members, while a small one affect the speed and quality of task implementation;
• each member has the necessary knowledge and set of qualities that are important for the team;
• all team members share a common goal and strive to achieve it. The goal in this event means the goal of the project, but not the personal goal of an individual team member;
• each member of the team has tasks that are measurable, finite, and could be monitored by the rest of the team;
• team members should feel that they are the part of this team, ‘they are one’;
• each team must have one leader.
• Planning and communication are some of the most important elements of the teamwork. Weekly or daily meetings help each team member to understand what stage the project is at. Rapid communication during working hours allows to deal with problems much faster.

It is also worth considering that if two people implement a task together, they will complete it significantly faster, rather than working on it separately. This effect can be denoted by the mathematical formula: 1 + 1 = 3. Since people exchange experience and ideas for implementation during working in the team, they achieve the result much more rapidly.

The team leader should keep in mind that the motivation is remarkably important, as high motivation and great involvement are the keys to success, while low morale kills creativity and results in lower productivity. You may start by praising employees for a successfully completed task which was challenging, paying bonuses or organizing a corporate event for the team members.

Let me make a short summary of an effective team on the basis of the above characteristics. An effective team consists of 5 – 9 people, each of whom has got the necessary knowledge to resolve problems. In addition to technical knowledge, team members should possess communicative skills to enhance interaction within the team. Each team member should be responsible for his (her) tasks, which are given to him (her) by the team leader. The team should not neglect weekly (or daily) meetings to discuss the results and further development plans. In order to maintain high team morale, remember to praise your employees, as everyone likes their work to be appreciated.

Using such simple principles of team formation and work, you will get an effective group of people who quickly and efficiently solve the assigned tasks. This is the approach of AZN Research company.