Barriers to Project Team Development

1. Divergent Outlooks, Priorities and Interests: The professional outlooks and priorities of team members may differ from project objectives and priorities. The interest of support organizations may differ from the interest of project team.
2. Unclear Project Objectives: Lack of clarity about project objectives and outcomes  produces:
1. Power struggles and conflict between team members.
2. Role ambiguities and role conflicts about who does what within the team.
3. Team Leadership Structure:
• Project leadership may suffer from poor credibility. There may be competition for leadership between formal and informal leaders. This hampers commitment of team members.
• The team structure may lack an effective reporting system. Task responsibilities may not be clearly defined.
• The project manager may be changed frequently.
4.  Poor Selection of Team Members:
• The project manager may have little say in the selection of team members. This may result in assignment of "available" persons to the project by functional managers.
• Poor selection of team members results in low motivation, discontent, conflict, lack of commitment, and poor performance.
5. Lack of Commitment: Team members may lack commitment. The sources of poor commitment by team members can be:
• Feelings of job insecurity in the project.
• Interpersonal conflicts within the team.
• Lack of clarity about the nature of rewards.
• Professional interests of team members may be elsewhere.
• Undue attention to certain individuals by the project manager.
• Failure to maintain commitment over project's life.
6. Communication Problems: Poor communication is the enemy of team building. Poor communication can result from low motivation, poor team morale and lack of attention to detail. The result is poor project control, coordination and work flow.
7. Lack of Top Management Support: Top management support may was or wane over the project life cycle. Timely feedback may be missing about project performance. Insufficient attention may be given to create the right project environment.