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Building Better IT SWAT Teams (continued)

Establish firm boundaries. A temporary team is just that - temporary. The exact charter for its existence, including its timeframe, deliverables and deadline, must be carefully delineated in advance of the first meeting of the team. "If you don't provide an end date, or sufficiently detailed criteria about what constitutes the success of the project, then the so-called temporary team can easily turn into a standing committee," says Johanna Rothman, president of the Rothman Consulting Group, in Arlington, Mass. "If at all possible, make the goal something measurable; certainly make progress toward it something you can track."

Be prepared to disperse the team if necessary. Just because specific deliverables - and viable deadlines - have been established up front doesn't mean that the team must stay together to the bitter end. "Every healthy IT organization has a methodology for evaluating and killing troubled projects," says Raj Kapur, vice president of the Center for Project Management, in San Ramon, Calif. "You need to keep ascertaining that your resources are allocated where they can provide the most value. If things clearly aren't working out, you need to cut your losses and move on."

The bottom line: The best way to get a team acting like a team is for them to start working together.

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