Building the Team for a Major Project

Start with the work your team must deliver

A project director needs people who can turn an investment into a working asset. That means more than filling the management boxes: someone must define the requirements, design the solution, secure workable access, buy the right equipment, organise construction and prepare the operating team. Someone also needs to connect those contributions when they disagree.

Start with the capabilities and decisions the project needs, then decide how to provide them. The right mix depends on the asset, location, delivery model and phase. Expertise may sit with the owner, a designer, a delivery partner, a contractor, a supplier or a shared function. A name on the organisation chart does not establish that the skill, capacity or authority is available.

For each capability, record the work product, accountable owner, decision rights, interfaces, capacity and date needed. Then decide whether to develop, transfer, recruit or contract for the expertise. Confirm the allocation against project governance and contracts.

Green Riyadh: let the project shape the team

Jovita Stander's Green Riyadh conversation shows why a generic staffing list is only a starting point. Speaking about her experience as Project Control Director, she describes GIS and graphic designers within her controls remit. Elsewhere in the programme, the tree management office drew on landscape engineers, GIS and technical specialists. These were different contributions to an urban-greening programme, not one interchangeable group of designers.

The lesson for a director is to look for the expertise the asset and its stakeholders demand. Graphic design helps communicate a project; landscape and engineering design shape what is built. GIS can connect spatial information with planning. Decide what each contribution must achieve and where it needs to connect.

Give design and engineering real ownership

Name who owns the overall design, who develops each component and who resolves the interfaces. A design manager coordinating outputs, a discipline designer developing a solution and a person authorised to accept a technical decision may be different people. Make those responsibilities clear across consultants, suppliers and the owner.

• Choose disciplines from the asset and its risks. Consider civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, process, architecture, software and systems expertise where the work needs them.
• Bring site and asset specialists into the relevant decisions. Landscape, soils, ecology, water or irrigation expertise may matter on some projects; other assets will need a different mix.
• Agree the design handoff. Identify the requirements, maturity, interfaces and approved information the next team needs before it can purchase, build or test.
• Include construction, maintainers and operators in design reviews early enough for their knowledge to change the solution. Name who records and resolves conflicting requirements.

A capability map for the project director

Use this map to look for gaps, then tailor it to the work. One person may cover several functions; a large programme may have many teams within one row. For each row, check that the contribution is covered and its handoffs have an owner.

Scroll sideways or use the arrow keys to see all columns.

Assign responsibilities across the company boundaries

Two organisations may each supply a project manager, design lead or planner. Start with a real decision, such as releasing a package for purchase or accepting a system for testing. Name who prepares the recommendation, supplies the evidence, checks it and approves it. Record the limits of delegated authority and the escalation route.

Walk the agreement through with the people expected to use it. Check that the owner, designer, contractor and operator have compatible assumptions about scope, information and acceptance. A responsibility matrix needs the same understanding in the meeting as it has on paper.

Find and assess talent before the gap becomes urgent

Translate a vacancy into the work the person must be able to perform. A scheduler might need to challenge delivery logic with construction leads; a design coordinator might need to resolve a supplier interface; a document controller might need to manage review and approval through several organisations. Those tasks give a more useful basis for assessment than the title alone.

• Agree job-related assessment criteria with the functional lead and recruitment partner before meeting candidates.
• Use a realistic, proportionate work scenario to explore assumptions, judgment, communication and when the candidate would seek specialist help.
• Assess both competence and capacity. Check when the person is available, what support they need and which competing assignments could prevent delivery.
• Plan onboarding around the project's decisions, tools, interfaces and reporting cycle, with a named person to help the newcomer become effective.

Ahmed's warning that a short interview reveals only part of how someone will work is a reason to support people after appointment as well as assess them before it.

Make the culture part of the delivery work

The director helps establish how people ask for help, challenge an assumption and raise bad news. Make the desired behaviour visible in ordinary work: listen when someone identifies an interface problem, agree the next action and show that early escalation produces support rather than blame.

Constructive teamwork still needs challenge. People must be able to flag a problem before they know the solution. Agree communication preferences, decision routes and feedback routines, then check whether quieter specialists and people from partner organisations can use them. A single team identity needs practical agreements about authority and interfaces.

Give capable people a reason to stay and grow

Ask each person how they weigh progression, meaningful work, compensation, security and workload. Use their answer to shape the development conversation.

• Agree development goals tied to real responsibilities, with coaching and feedback from someone able to support them.
• Make mentoring and knowledge transfer part of the capacity plan. Learning cannot depend entirely on spare time after delivery work.
• Be clear about assignment duration, likely next steps and what remains uncertain. Avoid promises the project cannot control.
• Identify critical knowledge held by one person, provide cover and prepare a handover before a phase change or departure.

Change the team as the project moves into the field

Revisit the capability plan at phase transitions. During definition, the team needs to settle requirements, uncertainty and the delivery approach. During design and procurement, it needs to coordinate interfaces and commitments. Construction needs executable work, supervision and access. Commissioning needs testing and acceptance capability; the operating organisation needs people, procedures and reliable asset information.

Plan the overlaps. Construction expertise is useful before site execution, and operational knowledge is useful before handover. Keep enough design and supplier support available to resolve field issues. At each transition, identify what the receiving team needs, who accepts it and which skills must stay until outstanding work is resolved.

Worked example: a critical equipment delivery slips

AACE's public overview describes the connections between cost engineering practices across a project's life cycle. The useful application here is integration: an estimate, a schedule and a risk assessment need a compatible basis before their outputs can support one decision. Producing each successfully in isolation does not establish that the combined forecast is coherent.

Imagine a supplier warns that a critical equipment delivery will be late. Follow the issue across the team to see what each role contributes:

• Establish the facts. Procurement checks the supplier's commitment and recovery options. Engineering checks whether design information or technical approval is holding up manufacture.
• Work out the consequences. Planning assesses the effect on installation and testing. Construction and commissioning examine practical alternatives. Cost and commercial specialists assess the forecast and contractual implications, while risk specialists help test the remaining uncertainty.
• Recommend and decide. Project controls brings the assessments together on a consistent basis. Project leadership coordinates the recommendation and approves within its authority, or takes the decision to the authorised sponsor or governance body.
• Act and confirm. Assign named owners and dates to the agreed actions. Source owners validate the revised information; reporting communicates the decision and its basis. Follow up to confirm that the promised recovery happened.

Agree package identifiers, scope boundaries, dates and change assumptions across those contributions. The data lead helps make information comparable, but source owners still need to validate what it means. A dashboard cannot resolve conflicting accountabilities or make incompatible reporting periods comparable by displaying them together.

Quick reference: roles people often mix up

Compare the purpose of the work before comparing seniority or reporting lines. These functions can sit together or in separate teams. Clarifying the boundary is more useful than insisting everyone adopt the same job title.

Scroll sideways or use the arrow keys to see all columns.

The same caution applies to project director and project manager. A director may oversee a larger delivery scope or lead several managers, but the title does not establish a universal hierarchy. Ask what scope each person owns, which decisions are delegated and how unresolved issues are escalated.

How this map relates to industry role frameworks

There are established role frameworks to draw on. The UK Government Project Delivery Capability Framework gives government teams a common language for leadership and specialist roles, while recognising differences in local titles. Its scope helps explain governance and delivery responsibilities; a capital project's engineering, construction and operating teams still need their own clear arrangements.

APM's example profiles connect typical responsibilities with relevant competences and allow organisational adaptation. Use them alongside the project's governance and delivery model when shaping roles.

The director's team-readiness checklist

• Define the asset, outcomes, delivery model and decisions the next phase needs.
• Identify the technical, design, field, operational, commercial, information and people capabilities required for that work.
• Name an owner, required output, decision authority, interfaces and acceptance conditions for each critical responsibility.
• Check the skills and available capacity behind each name, including what comes from partners and shared functions.
• Agree when capability is needed and how it will be developed, transferred, recruited or contracted.
• Test the arrangements against a real design change, supplier delay or handover before relying on the chart.
• Make onboarding, feedback, speaking up and development part of the working plan.
• Review gaps, cover, knowledge transfer and transition needs as the project and team change.

Follow the work into the next guide

Use the Data and Reporting guides to establish how the team will share trustworthy information and explain decisions. Use the Risk guide and workshop to bring the relevant people into uncertainty and response planning. Procurement guidance connects commercial choices to the needs of the receiving team. The audience tags help you find the next guide for the work you lead.