I want to add more to this post.
A real life example of skipping steps that ensured everyone was on the same page was a NASA mission to Mars. The Mars Climate Orbiter was a spacecraft designed by NASA to study the Martian atmosphere, climate, and surface. It was launched in 1998 but encountered catastrophic failure. in 1999. The cause of the failure was due to a mismatch in the software systems used by different teams involved in the project. One team used metric units and the other team used English units. These mismatched units were used for navigation which caused the spacecraft to incorrectly calculate its position and orientation, leading it enter the Martian atmosphere at a much lower altitude than intended and burning up. Although not every member of each team has to know the details of another team that they aren't working on, it's key that they need to know at least what is being integrated and brainstorm any possible issues.
I think it's very important to make sure everyone understands each other's roles because it can contribute to the long-term efficiency and success of the project. If each team member understands the roles and responsibilities of other team members, it encourages improved coordination and cooperation between team members. This can lead to fewer errors and increased productivity. Additionally, if team members are aware of each other's roles, then they can anticipate potential risks and take proactive measures to mitigate them. Also, it might help the PM to allocate resources more efficiently.
While it may seem like a time-consuming step that could potentially delay the project deadline, ensuring that everyone on a project team has a working understanding of what each part of the team does is crucial for effective project management. When team members understand what others are working on, they can better align their efforts with the overall project goals and objectives. As a result, projects will begin to run much more smoothly and misunderstandings are more likely to be prevented. Furthermore, when team members understand each other's roles and responsibilities, they can collaborate more effectively and troubleshoot problems together. This will ultimately lead to greater risk mitigation as well. By taking the time to ensure everyone has a working idea of what others do, project managers can identify potential risks early on and develop mitigation strategies. Overall, while taking time to ensure everyone understands each other's roles may seem like a delay, it ultimately contributes to smoother project execution, fewer setbacks, and better outcomes.
From my exposure, I believe that it is crucial for all team members to understand the full scope of the project. That being said, each person has their own specialized skill set and may not understand every aspect of the project. The shared understanding of the project allows for communication among team members, minimizing misunderstandings as the project progresses, and preventing delays as each person can understand the process leading up to and following their assigned task. These points show that as it may initially be beneficial to skip this step, it is crucial to the projects' success in the long run.
I absolutely believe that it is important for people to understand the work and style of their team members and the project goal as a whole, reason being it helps them understand the big picture as to how their part in the process related to the whole thing. This is especially considered if the project has some slack time, which could be used to learn about the everyone else's role and working style in order to understand the implementation of one step to the next and so on.
Such as working with friends or people you are familiar with, I definitely feel more comfortable working with people whose quality of work and work ethic that I am aware of as compared to those who I am unfamiliar with. Even so, I still spend time trying to understand and read through the works of others regardless if I am familiar with their work or not.
I think that if everyone on the project team has an understanding of what each other does it is very good for the team as a whole. Having this connection can allow team members to appreciate what each other does and can enhance collaboration and communication between them. So, although it may take longer in the beginning to set these relationships between team members, I think it is crucial to enable great execution. Overall, it will increase progress and will save a lot of time in the end.
I think it is important to be familiar with other people's work. This will improve teamwork and collaboration. Additionally, should there be anything one person needs, they can ask a colleague. Overall, it should help streamline communication.
It all depends on the context of the project in my opinion but overall all of the teams should know essentially what is being made and the steps needed in order to accomplish the goal. Would knowing what the other team is doing help a team with their task? Not in all cases but at the same time it would not hurt to take some time out and clarify any questions. Maybe tasks in series are important to discuss so you can know what happened before you started working.
