Team Agreements: Essential Norms for Collaborative Project Success

PMBOK v8 Definition

Team agreements represent a set of behavioral parameters and working norms that are established by the project team and upheld through individual and team commitments. These agreements should be created at the beginning of a project to determine the essential norms and practices that facilitate ongoing collaborative success. Team agreements are part of the team charter, which establishes clear expectations regarding acceptable behavior by project team members.

Why It Matters for the Exam

Team agreements appear frequently in PMI exam questions about team development, stakeholder engagement, and project initiation. You will encounter this concept in situational questions where a project team is forming, experiencing conflict, or struggling with collaboration. The exam tests your understanding that team agreements are proactively created at project start, not reactively when problems arise.

Key Points to Remember (for the exam)

• Main Purpose: Establish behavioral parameters and working norms for collaborative success
• Timing: Created at the beginning of a project (not during execution when problems occur)
• Creator: Established by the project team (not imposed by management or the project manager alone)
• Enforcement Mechanism: Upheld through individual and team commitments (not through formal disciplinary procedures)
• Common Confusion: Team agreements are part of the team charter, not the project charter
• Key Benefit: Early commitment to clear guidelines decreases misunderstandings and increases productivity
• Typical Content: Codes of conduct, communication guidelines, decision-making criteria, conflict resolution processes, meeting guidelines

Typical PMI Exam Example

A project manager is forming a new cross-functional team for a complex software development project. During the kickoff meeting, the project manager asks team members to collaboratively define how they will communicate, make decisions, and resolve disagreements. What is the project manager establishing?

Answer: Team agreements (behavioral parameters and working norms created by the team at project initiation)

PMI Exam Traps

• Trap: Confusing team agreements with the project charter

• Reality: Team agreements define team behavior norms; the project charter authorizes the project and assigns the project manager

• Trap: Thinking the project manager creates team agreements alone

• Reality: Team agreements work best when the team develops them or has opportunity to contribute

• Trap: Believing team agreements are optional or can wait until problems emerge

• Reality: These agreements should be created at the beginning of a project to determine essential norms

• Trap: Confusing team agreements with contractual agreements (contracts, SLAs, MOUs)

• Reality: Team agreements govern internal team behavior; contractual agreements define legal relationships with external parties

Important PMI Connections

Quick Review Questions

1. When should team agreements be created according to PMBOK v8?

2. Who is responsible for establishing team agreements?

3. What document contains team agreements?

4. Name three types of content typically included in team agreements.

5. How are team agreements enforced?

PMBOK v8 Reference

Section 3.8 - Team Agreements (within the context of team charter and project initiation)