The primary task in defining a team is selecting roles and mapping them to participants. To understand the concept and purpose of teams you should understand the relationship between teams and life cycles. (For additional information about life cycles, see Understanding Life Cycles.)

Business objects are associated with life cycles and teams, and roles are selected within these. The primary purpose of a team is to determine who is assigned the roles that are selected in a life cycle, that is, how life cycle roles are resolved to participants at runtime. Life cycles are more complex than teams, and they require more resources to create and maintain. Therefore, it is generally more efficient to create a relatively small number of life cycles with abstract roles and a larger number of teams that map roles to specific participants, which may change over time. Your site should have a policy regarding your use of teams with life cycles.

If you can modify a team, you should be familiar with existing life cycles that might be associated with the team you are about to create. You should then select a role for the team for every role that exists in the relevant life cycles.