| Course | PM 310 Project Planning and Performance (PM/310) |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | Team development and leadership plan |
| Length | about 1,096 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | BS in Business |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PM 310 Week 2
Riders, Electricians and a Software Vendor in One Truck Cab: Building and Leading the Canal Automation Team
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
PM/310: Project Planning and Performance
Week 2 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Basalt Bench Irrigation District, the team members and all details are composites written for a model paper.
The Week 1 paper analyzed the stakeholders of canal automation at Basalt Bench Irrigation District, an invented Snake River irrigation district near Twin Falls, Idaho, which is fitting 46 headgates with solar-powered actuators and launching an online water-ordering portal over two seasons. Stakeholder analysis showed that the district's ditch riders were resistant and that their trust would decide whether the gates were used. This paper turns to the project team: who is on it, how it was formed, how it will be developed and led and how the project manager will handle the conflict that already exists.
The Team Domain
The current standard describes the team performance domain as the work of establishing a culture and environment in which a varied group of people can become a high-performing team, and it stresses shared ownership and leadership by all team members, not only the project manager (Project Management Institute [PMI], 2021). For Basalt Bench, this means a team that includes the riders as owners of the result rather than as users who receive it.
Roles and How Members Were Chosen
The core team has ten members:
Project manager: Marisol Ayala, the district's operations engineer, assigned by the district manager.
Two senior ditch riders, Hank Petersen and Luis Ortega, selected by the riders themselves at a crew meeting.
District electrician, assigned for half her time during installation.
Vendor field technician and vendor software lead, named in the contract.
Contract radio specialist for the telemetry network, hired for 400 hours.
District bookkeeper, for portal billing integration, about four hours a week.
County extension agent, a volunteer adviser for grower training.
Grant analyst from a regional council of governments, for reporting.
Letting the riders choose their own representatives was deliberate: a representative picked by management would have been seen as management's voice. The vendor staff were negotiated into the contract by name after the district asked the vendor to commit the same people for both seasons.
Team Charter
At the kickoff in February, the team wrote its charter together. Its purpose statement reads: deliver the right water at the right time with less waste, using gates that riders trust. Values are safety first, honesty about problems and respect for field knowledge. Working agreements include a 20-minute check-in every Monday morning in the district shop or by phone, problems raised on the day they are found and no gate changes made without a rider on site during the first season. Decisions on technical design are made by the project manager after hearing riders and the vendor; decisions about field operation require agreement from a rider representative. Disagreements are raised first with the person concerned, then at the Monday meeting, then with the project manager.
Guiding Development
Tuckman (1965), drawing on about fifty earlier articles on therapy, training and laboratory groups, suggested a sequence of four stages, which he named forming, then storming, then norming and finally performing; a fifth stage, adjourning, was added in a 1977 revision with Jensen. Ayala plans an action for each. Forming, in February, centers on the charter workshop and a canal tour where riders show the vendor staff the hardest gates. Storming is expected in March, in the rush to set the first gates before water enters the canals in April, when field reality meets the vendor's design; Ayala will hold short reviews after each gate install to air problems quickly. Norming should follow once the first ten gates are running; the team will update its charter with what it has learned. Performing should arrive by midseason, when riders and the vendor troubleshoot together. Adjourning will come after the second season, with a recognition event and a lessons-learned session.
A charter written by the team in its first week is worth more than a perfect one handed to it.
Leadership Approach
The standard describes servant leadership as an approach that puts the team's needs first, removes obstacles and supports growth (PMI, 2021). Ayala will lead mainly this way. The riders have decades of field experience, and the vendor staff know their equipment; Ayala's job is to connect that knowledge, clear barriers such as parts delays and protect the team from pressure that would push installs ahead of testing. During electrical work and confined-space entry at gate structures, however, she will be directive: safety rules are not open to debate.
Thamhain (2004) studied technology project teams and reported that team performance was linked to work environment factors that leaders influence, including interesting and challenging work, recognition, clear direction and a sense of being involved in decisions. Ayala will recognize contributions publicly at board meetings, let riders choose the order of installs within each lateral and share water-savings results as soon as meters report them.
The Conflict Already Present
The riders distrust the vendor. Two years ago a different vendor installed a single automated gate that failed in its first July heat wave and flooded a field, and riders still tell the story. The vendor's software lead, in turn, sees some riders' preference for manual control as resistance to progress. Ayala will address this directly. She will hold a joint session in which riders describe the earlier failure and the vendor explains how its design handles heat, power loss and sensor faults. The first ten gates will run in parallel with manual checks, and any rider can switch a gate to manual if flows look wrong, with the reason logged and reviewed together each week. The aim is to replace a story with shared evidence.
Measuring Teamwork
Hoegl and Gemuenden (2001) found in a study of software teams that the quality of collaboration, including communication, coordination, balanced contributions, mutual support, effort and cohesion, was related to team performance and to members' satisfaction and learning. Ayala will track four signs drawn from that idea: attendance and participation at Monday check-ins, the number of problems raised on the day found, the share of manual overrides that are reviewed jointly within a week and a short anonymous team survey every six weeks asking whether members feel heard and supported.
Conclusion
The canal automation team brings together people with different employers, skills and histories with automation. By involving riders in choosing their representatives, writing a charter together, planning actions for each stage of development, leading mainly as a servant with firm direction on safety, confronting the distrust between riders and vendor with evidence and tracking teamwork quality, the project manager gives the team a fair chance to become the group that makes the gates work.
References
Hoegl, M., & Gemuenden, H. G. (2001). Teamwork quality and the success of innovative projects: A theoretical concept and empirical evidence. Organization Science, 12(4), 435-449. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.12.4.435.10635
Project Management Institute. (2021). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (7th ed.). Project Management Institute.
Thamhain, H. J. (2004). Linkages of project environment to performance: Lessons for team leadership. International Journal of Project Management, 22(7), 533-544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.04.005
Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384-399. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0022100
What the PM 310 Week 2 instructions ask
For Week 2, PM 310 students are usually asked how they would build, develop and lead a project team. Common elements include the roles and responsibilities needed, how team members will be selected or acquired, a team charter or ground rules, stages of team development, leadership styles suited to the project, motivation, conflict management and, in some prompts, how virtual or distributed members will be included. You may be given a scenario or asked to use the project from Week 1. Ground your choices in the standard's team domain and in scholarly sources on teams and leadership, written in APA style. Keep the paper practical: describe what you would actually say and do, and with whom, at each point.
How this PM 310 Week 2 example is built
The model paper builds a ten-person core team for the canal automation project: the district's operations engineer as project manager, two senior ditch riders, a district electrician, the vendor's field technician and software lead, a contract radio specialist, the bookkeeper, an extension agent and a grant analyst. A responsibility list assigns each role. A team charter sets values, decision rules and how disagreements are raised. Development stages are planned with specific events, such as a joint installation of the first gate. The leadership section argues for a servant approach with directive moments during safety work. A conflict section addresses the riders' distrust of the vendor, and a final section sets four measures of how well the team works together.
PM 310 Week 2 grading rubric: where the points go
Graders reward plans that fit the team in front of them. Top papers identify the roles the project truly needs, explain how each member was chosen and show the team charter's contents rather than just mentioning one. Instructors look for team development theory applied to dated, specific events, a leadership style justified by the team's makeup and the work, and a conflict plan for a real tension in the case. Motivation should be tied to what members care about. Using research on teamwork beyond the standard improves the score, as does a way to judge whether the team is working well. A logical structure, readable lists, consistent role names and correct APA citations earn the remaining points.
PM 310 Week 2 help: mistakes to avoid
Plenty of drafts describe Tuckman's stages in general and never say what the project manager will do at each one. Attach an action and a date to every stage. A second weak spot is a leadership section that declares one style without explaining why it suits these people; a team of veteran field workers and outside software staff needs something different from a startup team. Students also leave out how the team was formed: were members assigned, negotiated for or hired? Another gap is conflict planning that says only that conflict will be addressed promptly. Name the likely conflict and the steps. Finally, measures of team performance are often missing. If you want feedback on whether your charter is specific enough, a tutor can mark up a draft.
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- PM 310 Week 4: The Planning Domain
- PM 310 Week 5: Project Management Plan
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PM 310 Week 2 questions, answered
What does PM 310 Week 2 usually cover?
It usually covers the team performance domain: forming the project team, assigning roles, writing a team charter, guiding team development, choosing a leadership approach, motivating members and managing conflict.
Where can I find a free PM 310 Week 2 sample paper?
The Week 2 team plan above, written for a canal automation project in southern Idaho with a charter, stages and a conflict plan, is free to read in full.
What should a project team charter include?
Usually the team's purpose, values, roles, working agreements, decision-making rules, communication norms and how disagreements will be raised and resolved.
What are the stages of team development?
A widely used model names forming, storming, norming and performing, with a later adjourning stage when the team disbands at the end of the project.
What is servant leadership in project management?
An approach in which the leader focuses on removing obstacles, supporting team members and helping them grow, rather than directing every task, while still making decisions when needed.
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