Team members can be competent in performing assessment activities as individuals, but if they fail to work together as a team, the assessment will fall apart. The Lead Assessor must therefore foster crucial non-technical team skills, including communication, negotiation, collaboration, and conflict resolution. In part, this is a question of managing the allocation of responsibilities.
Planning for Team Member Roles During an Assessment
The Lead Assessor assigns and explains team member roles and responsibilities to be performed during the assessment. Typical assessment roles include:
- Organization Site Coordinator The organization site coordinator handles on-site logistics and provides technical, administrative, and logistical support to the Lead Assessor. This usually includes activities such as coordinating schedules, notifying participants, arranging adequate facilities and resources, obtaining requested documentation, and arranging catering. The OSC coordinates or provides clerical support to the team. This role is often assigned to one or more members of the organization. The OSC may be one of the team members, or this role may be assigned to other site personnel (see Formulating an Assessment Plan).
- Librarian The librarian manages the inventory of the documents provided for the assessment, coordinates requests for additional documentation, and returns documents at the end of the assessment.
- Mini-Teams Mini-teams take the lead for data collection in assigned Process Areas (or KPAs). They ensure that information collected during a data gathering session covers their PAs or KPAs, request additional information needed relative to their PAs or KPAs, and record the work performed by individual assessment team members in their PA or KPA area.
Mini-teams typically consist of two or three members. Mini-team assignments can be made based on several factors, including:
- Related PAs or KPAs (e.g., PA categories)
- Composition mix of mini-team members (e.g., discipline experience, assessment experience)
- Facilitator The facilitator conducts interviews, asking questions of interview participants or facilitates other team members asking questions.
- Timekeeper The timekeeper is responsible for tracking time and keeping the Lead Assessor informed of possible schedule constraints during interviews and other activities.
- Observer Due to the confidentiality required during an assessment and the cohesiveness needed to participate in assessment activities, observers are not permitted to participate in the assessment. The only exception is an observer who is authorized by the SEI to observe a candidate Lead Assessor’s performance as Lead Assessor or to perform an audit as part of the quality audit function of the SEI.
Teams whose members have not previously worked together will usually need to spend significant time on team development. The process does not stop with training, however. The team must explicitly focus on its working relationship during preparation and then learn to sharpen those skills during the first set of assessment activities. The investment will pay off during the onsite assessment’s aggressive schedule. Although the Lead Assessor is expected to facilitate team-building activities, all members at some level should share this responsibility.
A team where the majority of members have worked together previously on an assessment will need to review the ground rules and work to incorporate new team members.
Team dynamics can change dramatically with small alterations. When one member of the team is changed, even if all other members remain the same, the entire working relation of the team can change. If team members are working well, a new team member can feel like an outsider, so extra effort needs to be made to incorporate that person into the team.