An Examination of the Relationship Between Certification Team Effectiveness and Team Performance

Information technology and E-Government services are vital to the operation of the federal agencies and the functioning of American society as a whole. In the past ten years, and particularly since September 11, 2001, numerous laws, policies, and regulations have been enacted to help secure the federal information infrastructure. Despite legislation and policy changes, and despite annual reports to both the Office of Management and Budget and Congress, the status of the national infrastructure continues to be unsatisfactory. The literature suggests that modifications to certification and accreditation (C&A) team effectiveness can improve productivity, which in turn, should lead to significant enhancement of information security programs. This study investigated the extent to which team effectiveness affected the cycle time and quality of a key component of the C&A processthe System Security Plan (SSP). The Team Effectiveness Profile (TEP) was utilized to measure the dimensions of team effectiveness among teams assigned to the task of creating an SSP during a three-day training course. Performance of the teams was assessed with respect to cycle time and quality of the SSP produced. The findings indicated that team effectiveness had the potential to influence C&A team performance in the production of the SSP.