Identify potential barriers to getting your target team.

You will need to understand why you may not be able to get the right people for your project. Examine the following possibilities:

Availability of the people you want—Jose is your top candidate for Task 62. Jose is constantly sought after for projects because of his expertise and work ethic. What strategy will you use if Jose is not available when you need him?

Your relationship with the functional manager—You have found Jose’s boss Mary to be difficult to work with. How will you work with her to come to a win-win solution that will benefit your project and her?

Your authority as a project manager—Organizations give project managers different levels of authority to run their projects. What is your authority to staff your project? How strong are your influencing skills?

Your organization structure—Organizations can be established as functional or as projectized, with many variations in between. Functional organizations have clear reporting relationships, where a subordinate usually has one supervisor. Projectized organizations are created to support project work and most of the people are doing project work.