Team intranet

IT managers say building a diverse, harmonious construction team is the first step toward a rock-solid 'net.

By Peggy Watt
Network World, 8/24/98

Building an intranet is somewhat like founding a town. The population is ready and probably helping frame some of the structures. But becoming a community is the real challenge - and the builders must become a team first to lead the way.

Assembling an intranet construction crew often is trickier than picking a team for traditional IT projects. That's because intranet team members usually are much more diverse than IT staff alone.

On intranet teams, users aren't confined to their usual role of interface design and usability testing. They are often intranet content managers, so they may help with application design and maintenance. Increasingly, a nontechnical person participates to describe business tasks that intranet applications are supposed to solve.

Indeed, the most successful intranets result from pairing technological solutions with business and information management issues, and planning the process with representatives of both, says David Foote, managing partner at Cromwell Foote Partners, LLC, a management consultancy in Stamford, Conn.

Melding those disparate talents into a team is challenging, but variety is a strength, according to some who've been there. "The first [application] idea often comes from the businessperson, whom I put with the technologists to make it happen," says Sherman Woo, director of Global Village information tools at US WEST in Denver. He considers the intranet team's mission a business strategy, not strictly the accomplishment of technical tasks.

Lofty ideals and all, some nuts-and-bolts suggestions help such construction crews. For example, Foote recommends goals and rewards - especially milestone rewards during a long project. He also encourages rewards, particularly bonuses, for project completion; such perks keep the staff around for the duration.

If you offer incentive bonuses for projects, you've got to spell out the expected milestones and set practices for fulfilling the goals, Foote cautions.

Woo goes further, protecting a project's momentum from staff departures by rotating the programmers. "One Global Village work ethic is that nobody owns applications," Woo says. "I move people around applications and projects, weekly or even more often."

Consequently, coders are diligent about making program notes. "People are starting to realize I'm serious about this team-building business," Woo says.

Foote also endorses nonmonetary rewards, which he divides into categories. There are the "showy" ones, such as naming an employee of the month or gifts of jewelry emblazoned with the company logo. Others are "pampering," such as tickets to sports events, gift certificates or travel vouchers. Foote's third category is most tangible, what he calls "useful" rewards such as time off, stock, a plum assignment or the opportunity to telecommute or take special training.

Development teams at Solectron in Milpitas, Calif., have been rewarded by going en masse to courses by Microsoft. The benefits are threefold, says Ken Ouchi, the company's chief information officer. Team members feel they are on the leading edge, the training promotes team synchronization and the off-site trip encourages bonding.

Programmers are solitary types who should be reminded that intranet-building is a team project, Woo says. "The big things can't be done by one person, no matter how big the machine," he adds.

One of Woo's tricks is to shun cubicles in favor of clustering workers at shared large tables, at which they are more likely to brainstorm. Woo finds the seating arrangement promotes energy and collaboration.

Similarly, avoid hierarchy, suggests Tom Herring, senior vice president and general manager of NuMega, a division of Compuware in Nashua, N.H. "Empower team members of all experience levels," he advises.

Although forming and growing a team is an ongoing process, sometimes a team can spring forth full-grown, Foote says. He recalls an IT manager who hired an entire development team from a company going out of business. The new employer got the entire construction crew and then introduced them to the business strategists in the new neighborhood. They teamed up to design and build the next expansion to their new town.