| The defense industry is under increasing pressure to perform more efficiently on defense-related projects. A declining defense budget and stiff competition for defense contracts requires project teams to reach an optimal, high-performing status in as quickly a time as possible to improve the project's probability of success. Knowing which characteristics and best practices are most common among successful project teams within the defense industry allows organizations and project managers to form project teams primed for project success within this operative environment. Seeking to understand those characteristics and best practices became the focal point for this research and was the basis for the research questions presented. The researcher used a qualitative, exploratory case study approach to answer the research questions. Project managers within the defense industry who have experience leading high-performing teams bound the case study population. The researcher chose a representative sample by soliciting input from members of the Project Management Institute (PMI) who have experience leading project teams within the defense industry. Participants answered open-ended questions on a questionnaire with willing participants participating in a semi-guided interview following an initial analysis of the questionnaire data. From the interviews, the researcher developed main themes, themes, and sub-themes to address the two research questions of the study using NVivo11(c) by QSR. The thematic analysis conducted led the researcher to conclude that the most significant characteristics of high-performing teams are having collaboration between members and the openness to constant performance measurement while the most common best practice was developing positive relationships through communication and social interaction. The results emphasized the need for the leaders to ensure that their members are aware of the project information, capable in performing the assigned tasks, and equipped with the resources needed to complete the projects. |
