Building Better IT SWAT Teams
By Alice LaPlante
It's an unpleasant and unavoidable fact of life: IT organizations are almost always in problem-solving mode. And the best way to address unusual, urgent or one-time issues is to create temporary IT "solution teams."
The experts on these SWAT teams - the apt acronym for Special Weapons and Tactics - have the skills and tools to solve problems quickly and efficiently under intense time pressure. But it's important to keep in mind that you are bringing together people who may never have worked as a team before, and in larger organizations, they may not even have ever met.
There are right and wrong ways to build, train and maintain these crucial resources. Here are six ways that work.
Appoint a team leader. Forget everything you've heard about peer management. According to Katherine Spencer Lee, executive director of Robert Half Technology, in Menlo Park, Calif, the self-governing team is a myth. "You've got to have a team leader," she says, "and that person needs to have more than just technical skills." In particular, "good communications skills - both oral and written - are essential."
A leader is vital in cases where the team has been assembled from different departments. Someone acting as a coach or facilitator can help get the group to gel. This might be a role taken by the project manager; it might be formally assigned to someone with those specific skills or it might just be naturally assumed by a team member who has a talent for bringing people together. (article continues)
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