The TDS is explicitly based on a conceptual model of the factors that research has shown to be most consequential for team effectiveness. It is short enough to be completed by team members fluent in English in twenty minutes or less. Its contents were pretested using a wide variety of teams in a range of organizational settings, so it can be used to assess any type of work team that operates in an organizational context. It allows for the development of norms for different types of teams and organizations. It generates a diagnostic profile of a team that can help team members and leaders learn about the conditions that foster team effrectiveness even as they explore the standing of their own team on those factors. And, finally, the instrument's psychometric properties are strong enough for it to be used in scholarly research on team behavior and performance.