Recruitment of the Project Team

To begin recruitment, a project manager must meet with each of the supervisors of the potential recruits to solicit their recommendations for candidates. This meeting should be held even if the project manager has already chosen a particular individual, because it will smooth the way for the desired person's participation, or will lead to the supervisor identifying an alternate, as the case may be.

Sometimes circumstances are such that the project manager's boss chooses the project team. If this occurs, the project manager should review the work breakdown structure to ensure that all of the necessary skills are represented, and request additional help if necessary. Supervisors here also should be met with!

Once the desired team members have been identified, the project manager must meet individually with each one to request their commitment for the project, keeping in mind that they should be considered volunteers and treated as such. Some recruits may be over-committed for the foreseeable future and unavailable. When this happens, the recruit and the project manager should inform the recruit's supervisor and try to work out availability. However, if this proves impossible, the project manager must find an alternate person. If no one is available, it then becomes a problem for the project's sponsor. If the project could not be completed without this necessary person, the sponsor will quickly discover the need for more workers—temporary or permanent. The sponsor then has the responsibility to acquire new help or postpone the project.

When requesting a recruit's participation—unless IPM procedures are already familiar to the organization—the project manager must brief the person on what to expect. That is, that the project will be planned during a series of structured two-hour meetings, between which, team members will gather project data, and that meeting attendance is mandatory, with meetings scheduled collaboratively by the team to accommodate their other responsibilities.

When recruiting for the small basic project, as few as three or four team members may be all the workers needed. Tasks for the small basic project generally consist of work packages that can be completed without any further breakdown and performed by an individual. Therefore, explaining IPM procedures to a small group may be done all at once at an informal meeting.