Team Composition Optimization: The Team Optimal Profile System (TOPS)

Existing research and tools do not provide ample solutions for composing highly effective teams under complex, real-world conditions. For example, leaders may need to balance individual candidate qualifications with current team requirements and capabilities, while factoring in constraints (e.g., candidate availability, missing information), and ensuring appropriate team chemistry, sometimes when forming or reconfiguring several teams at once. The Team Optimal Profile System (TOPS) has been proposed as a way to enable decision makers to make better and more rapid team composition decisions. In Phase I we gathered data from team staffing experts at 16 organizations, built a team staffing decision taxonomy, and designed the TOPS framework. In Phase II we will develop a process for customizing and populating the generic TOPS system for use in specific team domains. Second, we will seek to confirm the incremental validity and boundaries of the TOPS algorithm and extend and refine it using lab and field data. Third, we will design, develop, program, and populate a functional, customized prototype of the TOPS system for a specific type of team and team composition decision.