A team approach to analysis in an NVivo project is increasingly common. While team members’ diverse perspectives can strengthen the results, the team can often be hampered by challenges of teamwork not directly related 
to the software. For instance, a lack of organization inside the NVivo project can waste valuable analysis time and resources, add frustration, and expose the team and work to unnecessary risk.
One of the keys to efficient, effective teamwork in a shared NVivo project is maintaining consistency in the organization of the NVivo workspace and analysis processes.
How do you achieve this? By appointing an NVivo lead.
Ideally the lead is confident in their qualitative analysis and NVivo skills, pays attention to detail, and is consistently well-organized. It helps if they get along well with everyone on the team.
The NVivo lead ensures:
- the NVivo project contains all project documents and remains well-organized
- data cleaning and naming conventions are consistent
- coding and analysis decisions are documented
- copies of the NVivo project are accessible to team members but stored securely, in adherence with ethics requirements
- (if applicable) Collaboration Cloud roles are correctly assigned
To aid the lead, team members agree to abide 
by team conventions. The team members can still provide input and ideas through their own analysis and memos, and in discussion of changes in regular team meetings.
When teams I work with are floundering in their shared NVivo project, I often discover a messy combination of individual preferences – the lack of a consistent approach obviously impacts the work. Team members are understandably discouraged by work that is needlessly inefficient. You can avoid all of this by appointing an NVivo lead to manage the organizational elements and ensure consistency.
Learn more in my short, live, online course Working as a Team in NVivo, filled with more practical tips to get your team quickly up and running in a shared NVivo project.
Illustrations are the work of Scott Maxwell at thegoldguys.blogspot.com, accessed as LuMaxArt Linkware Freebie Images at https:www.flickr.com/photos/lumaxart.
