The decision on who to select and appoint to a project is usually made using three types of information:
- Information provided by candidates about their background and experience (their résumé or CV). This is usually the most reliable evidence that you have available to judge whether or not candidates are likely to be suitable.
- Information gained by interviewing candidates. Interviews can give you a good impression of whether or not a candidate is a good communicator and whether or not a candidate has good social skills. However, tests have shown that interviewers are liable to accept or reject candidates on the basis of rapid subjective judgements. Consequently, interviews are not a reliable method for making judgements of technical capabilities.
- Recommendations from people who have worked with the candidates. This can be effective when you know the people making the recommendation. Otherwise, the recommendations cannot be trusted and, in my view, are of little use in making decisions about staff.
The following case study illustrates some of the issues involved in choosing people to work in a project team.
Case study – Choosing team members
In the following page, I discuss a number of factors that have to be considered when selecting people to work on a project.