Belbin Team Roles

Abstract

This article will describe and discuss the theory of the Belbin Team Roles. The theory will be related to the management challenge of putting together the most optimal team to carry out a project. It will also discuss the possibility of analysing an already established team, and using the Belbin Team Roles to identify inadequacies that it will then be possible to take actions towards making up for when planning and carrying out the project work.

The work will be based on a number of sources including Project Management Institute (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge

The Big Idea

According to PMBOK Guide, a project is defined as “a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result” (ref), and as a project is carried out by a defined project team, the characteristics of this team is vital for the success of a project. Is it therefore an important step to carefully put together a team of people that will be most likely to conduct the project successfully.

Figure XX illustrates that the cost of making changes and correcting errors is significantly lower in the beginning of a project, and then gradually increases as the project approaches competition. This further underlines the importance of picking the correct team composition at the beginning of a project, as adding additional people to a project team will become more and more expensive as time progresses. This is due to the fact that any team has to go through a number of phases before becoming able to perform optimally. So if a new person is added in the middle of a project, this will delay the ability for the team to reach optimal performance.

The Belbin Team Roles is a tool designed to aid in selecting the right people to form high-performing teams (http://www.belbin.com/about/why-use-belbin/).

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