TEAM COORDINATION AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Sierra Student Coalition training at Power Shift 2009
I.
II.
TEAM PURPOSE AND TEAM NORMS
 Team purpose
o A team purpose defines what you and your team are working together for.
o Example: Our campus climate group catalyzes global warming solutions, like
energy-efficiency and smart design, in our school and city community.
o Important for framing work in a “bigger picture.”
 Team norms
o Team norms set the boundaries for ways that your team works together.
o Questions to help decide team norms include:
 What are we always going to do when working together?
 What are we never going to do when working together?
 How will we be held accountable to these norms?
 What do we do when a norm is violated?
o Example: Our group works openly and transparently by hosting conversations on
an online forum that can be viewed by anyone.
o Norms help your team work smoothly, efficiently, and with accountability.
STEPS TO PLAN A TEAM PROJECT
1. Establish team purpose & norms
2. Determine project goals: make them SMART! (specific, measurable, achievable,
realistic, time-bound)
3. Establish broad realms of tasks that must be completed (i.e., transportation, promotion)
4. Establish goals within each realm
5. Determine tasks for each realm, and place them on a timeline (example below)
6. Establish leadership roles within your team, for individuals to be accountable for
different portions of the project
Note: Steps 3-5 are somewhat interchangeable, and you may have to jump back and forth
between some of them to get a full plan together. Don’t do 6 until that is completed.
Example timeline for laying out your plan:
Goals
Fixed Dates
Meetings
Meeting Agendas
(Insert Realm 1)
(Insert Realm 2)
(Insert Realm 3)
…
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
III.
DARCI – a project management tool for identifying what tasks need to be accomplished, by
when, who should be involved, and at what levels.


Task
IV.
For each task you identify, determine its deadline, and keep track of when it is
completed.
Then, figure out who has to be involved on the following levels:
o Decision Maker: This is the person or group who has the ultimate decision
making authority for a given task.
o Accountable: This is the person/group who is accountable for making sure the
task gets accomplished. Note that this doesn’t mean that they necessarily do the
task themselves.
o Responsible: This is the person or group who is responsible for actually carrying
out and completing a given task, may or may not be the same as or include the
Accountable.
o Consulted: This refers to people/groups who should have input into the process
but aren’t responsible for completing the task.
o Informed: This refers to the people/groups that should be notified about the
outcome of the task—i.e. kept in the loop.
Realm
Deadline
DecisionMaker
Accountable
Responsible
Consulted
Informed
Completed?
TIPS
 Some tasks may not have all 5 DARCI roles. The point is to consider each category and
fill in accordingly.
 Identify someone to serve the role of reminding people of upcoming due dates and
responsibilities as described by your DARCI. In a committee setting, this could be the
chair, or, if you have a secretary, this could be a function for them too, though anyone
could take on this role.
 Be sure to share the DARCI with all people who are affected by it, and whenever
possible, allow all members of your team to be a part of creating it.
 Like other kinds of plans, if it isn’t written, it ain’t a plan, AND just because it is written,
it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be revisited and possibly revised frequently.
If you have any questions or comments, contact us!
Erica Stout, University of Maryland, ericastout@gmail.com
Rachel Fauber, Towson University, fauberrs@gmail.com
Rachel Aitkens, University of Texas in Austin, raitkens724@mail.utexas.edu
Matt Kazinka, Macalester College, mkazinka@gmail.com