ITech7401_30377238

Gopal Bharvad:

Keeping in mind the impact of social relationships when managing software project teams

Introduction

In IT projects, a lot of influence is provided on the factors that affect the success and failure of the project by the top management. But one underrated thing is the social relationship among the team members. It is very essential to provide a huge focus on creating a social relationship among the employees and should be managed efficiently. By doing so team members and the whole project can benefit a lot from it.

Project managers can create social relationships through their technical and social skills that come with experience, social networks, and education. By having proper social networks an organization can gain huge benefits. The strength of any social network is measured by the communication among the project team members. Social strength is a very vibrant part of social information processing. 

            

Common challenges while Building Social Relationship 

While building a social relationship, a manager has to face a lot of challenges. Below are some basic challenges that need to be resolved by the mangers to build a successful social relationship.

Improper Communication

Incompetent colleague provision

Scarcity of eminence time

Deficiency of worthy and collective experience 

Deprived Technical and social Skills

Lack of Trust

(RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS, 2012)

 

Analysis

The social relationship between the team members is very obligatory for the success of the project. Project managers play a very key role in the establishment of this network, as project managers have some extra-ordinary experience of handling people. If there is no communication within the team then there will be no proper flow of information and that can lead to failure of the project. So, below are some of the key point that a project manager or the leader should keep in mind while building the team:

 

1.Establishing and preserving healthy relationships

The relationships among the personnel and the clients are very multifaceted and enthralling. If someone wants to build a healthy relationship it is very necessary to understand some of the critical aspects such as co-operation, support, commitment, and knowledge. Each of these aspects has its importance and neglecting any can affect the health of the relationship.

A healthy relationship is considered as one of the key ingredients for a good working atmosphere.

Also, if we want to upsurge the relationship, it is very important to follow a strategy known as "Human Behavior". This strategy is comprised of two-dimension one is known as the social and intellectual dimension. The social dimension should be kept in focus by the project managers while managing the teams.

 

2.The Socio-Technical Constituencies Agenda

As per the (Collinson, 2010) if we want to influence the process of innovation, we can make use of the Socio-Technical- Constituencies, commonly known as STC. STC is a framework that acts as a map and tool to identify the roles for various sources of expertise, knowledge and some other factors which influence the innovation process. This Scaffold can help to define the social interactions,  alignments, and alliances that are critical for the success or failure of any project.

(Collinson, 2010) stated that STC is a process that combines tools and techniques with people and their values for interaction and to enhance each other in terms of diffusion, production in particular technologies. 

 By using the STC approach in any IT project enables the managers to identify the technical, social and economic factors that can play a significant role in achieving fruitful results.

3.Trust

As stated above beside the elements like cooperation, knowledge, support, and commitment, Trust also plays a vital position in the building and Maintaining the sound relationship between a team member and consumers. Being very essential trust is also a very rigid, complicated and indefinite thing. According to Kadefors (Kadefors, 2003) 

“Trust is a psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of the intentions or behavior of another.”

 As per the definition specified by Kadefors trust is a phycological state rather than being just a behavior. Also, trust is not considered as just a fundamental step towards the creation of Cooperation, but it also recuperates the level of assistance and upsurges the already existing cooperation.  

The lesson for the Managers

It is very crucial for the top management to build a social relationship in the team and to ensure that these relations are supportive and healthy. It has been observed that if there is a sound relationship among the employees, they are happier and more productive. Thus, social networks can provide long term benefits to the project.

Top managers should take care of the foremost thing that is proper communication between the employees. Second thing is to build and maintain the sound relationship. To achieve this milestone few elements, need to be taken care of such asco-operation, support, commitment, and knowledge. But creating a relationship does not work until and unless there is a trust between the coworkers and the clients.  SCT framework needs to be understood clearly if the managers want to boost the innovation under the project. It helps to identify the factors that need for innovation and to build healthy relationships among the team members. 

 

Conclusion

To conclude, apart from the success failure of the project, building a healthy working environment is very important for any project manager. Lack of proper cooperation, communication, social and technical skills could not build a sound relationship among the client and in individual team members. It is very important to build trust, communication, knowledge between them. If the team members are having inadequate communication, they might fail to share vital information about the project. This can lead to an overall failure of the project. So, it is very important to resolve their personal and professional conflict to build a social relationship in an IT project. (Leonard, Keeping in mind the impact of social relationships when managing software project teams, 2013