Success of the Project Team at Miracle IT Solutions

Founded in 1995 by a young engineer Sudhakar Pillai, Miracle IT Solutions (MIS) is a Bengaluru based
IT services firm specializing in technology solutions for the aviation and hotel industries. MIS started
with a manpower if eight, including Sudhakar. After one year, the company got its first major project
from a client in the USA. Since then, due to the globalization and high demand for IT services, MIS
grew by leaps and bounds. By the end of 2005, its manpower grew close to 1,800 employees at four
locations: Bengaluru, Mysore, Chennai and Hyderabad; it provided services in business processes and
architecture design, and helped clients in end-to-end project implementation. Their clients were
usually based in the USA, Europe, and Middle East, and they believed in establishing long-term
relationships with them. In fact, more than 90 per cent of its clients had been with them right from
the beginning, mainly because of the personal terms with the consultants, project managers, and
engineering teams, who listened and addressed clients’ specific requirements with best solutions
across a broad spectrum of service areas.

In 2010, MIS received a major project from a large enterprise in Denmark in a new specialization area.
The Business Process head, Madhukar Apte, formed a team by taking personnel from all four locations
to work on this new process improvement project. The team was to be led by Shekhar from the
Bengaluru office who had 14 years of experience as a project manager/team leader in managing the
process improvement projects. The team comprised nine members: Alok and Arun from Bengaluru;
Rashmi, Ram, and Sunil from Chennai; Juhi and Kanika from Hyderabad; and Avinash and John from
Mysore. All the team members had at least eight years of experience in various types of projects. All
of them had neither previously worked with each other nor had worked on this type of project.
Shekhar was given a very tight schedule to complete the project, so he decided to hold a face-to-face
meeting of the team at its Bengaluru office for two days to get to know each other and to learn about
the project. All the team members were very excited to get an opportunity to meet and know each
other in person.

During the meeting sessions, all the members got to know each other by sharing personal information
about themselves, such as their hobbies, families, experiences, dreams, and mission of life. Shekhar
considered this as a good sign that the team was getting along well and this would make it easier for
them to work together. All the members also discussed the goals of the team, intricacies of the project,
roles and responsibilities of each of them, team norms, and the ways of working together on the
project while sitting at different locations. Shekhar also learnt in the meeting that none of the team
members had any knowledge or experience of the field area of the project. He decided to conduct a
training for them. He invited an external expert for this training and another week was spent on it.
After 10 days, when Shekhar reported to Madhukar about the progress of the project, Madhukar
warned him to take care of two things – the deadline and the expenses incurred.

After the training, the team members went back to their locations and started working on the project,
they communicated with each other via Internet and the project took off to a good start, but very
soon conflicts among team members started. Making the project schedule was Alok’s responsibility,
which he did in consultation with only Shekhar, Avinash, and Sunil, since they were his seniors and
had good experience in project management. Juhi and Kanika were angry that their opinion was not
taken in making the schedule, just because they were juniors in the team. Ram and John also resisted
Alok, saying that he had not considered the deadline for the project and with this type of schedule, it
was impossible to achieve the desired goal. Rashmi and Ram also argued over who should lead the
database design and development. While Rashmi acknowledged that Ram had more experience than
her in database development, but she had only agreed to be part of this project so that she could take
a lead role and develop her skills further which will help her progress in the company. Had she known
that Ram would lead, she would not have bothered to join this project team. In addition, Arun was
non-communicative and did not share with others any information on his progress. In fact, no one in
the team knew what he had been working on or how much progress had been made.

Based on past experiences of managing project teams, Shekhar knew that he would have to take
control ad guide the team through this difficult time. He called for a virtual meeting of all team
members to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each of the team members as well as the goals and
objectives of the project. He made all decisions in consultation with the team and a consensus was
reached. He reminded the team members about the ground rules that they had set in their face-to-
face meeting and urged members to be transparent and share information, to trust each other, and
be open to feedback. He also told them to identify and use resources in the team, develop a ‘We’
feeling, rather than ‘I’, and share concerns they had without fear. Over the next few weeks,
arguments/disagreements were at a minimum and when they did occur, they were sorted quickly by
the members, without the involvement of Shekhar. On a monthly basis, all members of the team met
for a face-to-face meeting. As the working relationships of the team members started improving, there
was significant progress on the project.

After three months, there was a sense of teamwork among the members and there were very few
arguments and disagreements. Team members supported each other on the project, solved each
other’s problems, made decisions as a team, shared all information, and made sure to follow norms
of the team. They also helped each other to grow and develop their skills. For example, Ram worked
closely with Rashmi to teach her many skills required in database design and development. The team
members developed a bond among themselves. They enjoyed each other’s company, both while
working on the project and also after working hours by communicating on email, instant messaging,
Twitter, WhatsApp, telephone, etc.

The team was considered a ‘high-performing team’ in the organization. They worked effectively as a
team, supporting each other and relying on the group as a whole while making decisions on the
project. They brainstormed effectively to solve problems and were highly motivated to achieve the
goal as a team. Whenever there was a conflict, they resolved it amicably. Shekhar appreciated the
team members on a regular basis for their hard work and progress. All the members also appreciated
each other’s skills and abilities. The team also developed links with other teams in the organization,
so that they could avail other facilities and resources, if required. The project was completed on time
and within budget, and was considered a success. The client and the management were very happy
with the results. In fact, MIS got two more projects based on the feedback and review of this project.
After this nine-month journey of the team, all the members working on this project were moved to
other projects within the organization. They, however, expressed their desire to work together in
future as well as keep in touch with each other on a personal level.

Questions

1. Analyse the case study.

2. Discuss the various stages of team development at MIS.
3. Could this team revert back to a previous stage and, if so, under what circumstances?
4. What was the key to the team’s success and who or what made it possible?