IPT Key Success Factors *

The strong environmental effects impacting IPTs place severe pressures on their ability to meet customer requirements. An important question is, what are the fundamental elements that create the IPT's ability to deal effectively with these forces? In other words, what are the major causes of performance in this environment? These elements are called key success factors. They are briefly described below:

  1. Team leadership: the ability of the team leader to lead and develop the team.

  2. Shared vision/approach: A vision and mission that all team members accept and share. It also includes full agreement by team participants on the team's approach to carrying out its responsibilities.

  3. Team collaboration: Team members working closely together with no hidden agendas and mutually supporting each other and team goals.

  4. Empowerment: Team and team member capability, and authorization to represent their organization, make decisions, and/or take action.

  5. Technology support: How much and how well technology supports team needs.

  6. Team learning: The ability of a team to continuously learn, question old assumptions, and improve its ability to take effective action.

  7. Enterprise partnering: A program or continuous activity to establish partnering relationships with stakeholders in the enterprise.

  8. Feedback: A program or continuous activity to get feedback from customers and other key stakeholders on how well the team and its program are doing.

  9. Team collocation: The percentage of team members located in the same local space.

  10. Team size: The number of full-time members on the IPT.

The astute reader may have noticed that individual competency has not been identified as one of the key success factors. There is no doubt that team member competency plays a very important role in team performance. It has not been included in this model because forty years of demonstrated acquisition system performance provides assurance that the competency of the Navy-Marine Corps acquisition workforce is high. The model therefore assumes that all team members have the required experience and competency to perform effectively in their disciplines.

Another consideration not used in this model is the representation of cross-functional disciplines on the IPT. It is assumed that team members have been selected with the appropriate cross-functional disciplines.

The last assumption is that team members have professional attitudes toward their job and their responsibilities. As a consequence, the proposed team model does not account for individual attitudes, behaviors, or performance problems.

* NASA IPT Learning Campus, Version 5