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The virtual project managing

Tomorrows team today

Summary:

The Case is about the virtual project management ,the related issues and their solutions and

how a project manager can develop effective virtual project team.

In the beginning of the case there is a discussion about the bureaucrat project management

whereby the team members shared a common workplace,saw each other frequently,knew

each other well and expect to work together for an extended time period. While in the virtual

projects the team members seldom share a common workplace, may rarely see each

other ,may never work together before ,and may never work together after completion of

project.

Then there is a discussion about the issues related to virtual project teams which are as

follows:

Developing trust

Developing Group Identity

Sharing information

Developing clear structures

Formation of cliques or in formal subgroups

Understanding information

Then the case point out the four most common used means of communication by the virtual

project’s managers.These are as:

1.The Internet:

The Internet provides a mean for communicating quickly and inexpensively throughout the

world.

2.The Pager:

The paging system is one of the ways to make the best use of a team member’s tme.Each team

member carries a pager and the pager member are published within the team roster. When

agenda topics don’t directly relate to a particular team member or function that person can be

released from attendance , freeing up time that can be then used more productively.

3.Teleconferencing:

The tool is used to assure that everyone has an opportunity to contribute and that all issues are

dealt within a responsible period of time.

4.Video Conferencing:

It allows participants to feel more involved with each other because they can communicate on

many different levels.

Question/Answers:

1.which virtual project problems are unique to the phenomenon of being dispersed and

which are common project problems in any project?

In the increasingly global competitive environment there , exit the geographically dispersed

project teams ,these teams have some unique issues or problems which are:

i. Developing trust:

Developing trust is difficult among virtual team members due to irregular , inconsistent

communication and lower level of comfort and familarity among team members.
ii. Sharing information:

sharing adequate levels of information across distance , is difficult in virtual teams.lack of

formal opportunities to discuss work-related issues and lack of a common system to transmit

information across distances makes the information sharing difficult.

iii. Developing clear structures:

It is difficult to develop clear organizational structure in the virtual teams due to the uncertain

roles and responsibilities of team members, clashing cultures create different expectations and

not clearly defined processes for decision making.

iv. Formation of cliques or informal subgroups:

Cliques tend to create antagonism and competition between the project manager or among

cliques themselves.

v. Understanding Information:

Each Member in the virtual team has different levels of the information and different

perspective about the information which leads towards inconsistency and incompleteness of

information. Problems which are in any project can be related to the scarcity of resources,

lack of fundings, poor management , inadequate knowledge and lack of skills and abilities in

the team members.

2.what new electronic technologies have contributed to the problems, and solutions , of

virtual project teams?

Many of the new technologies have contributed to the problems and solutions of virtual project

teams ,some of those technologies are internet, pager , teleconferencing and

videoconferencing.These new electronic technologies have made the communication more easy

among all the team members in a virtual project team.Through these means the project managers
can convey their messages easily . Ambiguities related to task and responsibilities would be less

and there will be no communication gap at all.

3.Of the solutions to virtual team problems , which would apply to regular project teams

also?

Of the solutions to virtual team problems the following would apply to regular project teams

also :

1) providing and using a variety of communication alternative to make the combination clear to

each and every member of the team.

2) Conducting regular meetings and conferences whenever it is required.

3) Making it sure that every member is involved in the discussion.

4) Define goals, objectives , problems and concerns at the meetings.

5) Asking members to share their viewpoints and giving them appreciation.

4.Which problems described in the article are the most serious for virtual projects?which

might be fatal?

The first most serious problem described in the article is developing trust among team members

of a virtual project team, since , in these type of teams the team members are not familiar to each

other, they have not work together before and do not have the same work-place so the issue of

developing trust is always there.the second most serious problem described in the article is

formation of cliques as formation of cliques results in antagonism and competition among team

members or between managers and team members,it allows the team members to work for their

personal benefits rather than as a team for the same goal and objectives.
5.How might the difficulties of matrix organization change when implementing virtual

projects?

The matrix organization is complex , and can be challenging to implement.some of challenges are

increased in the virtual environments. Implementing virtual projects into a matrix organization can

change the essential dynamics and increase the member of virtual working relationships. Unless

the organization has already implemented virtual projects it may not be recommended for this

organization. One of the most difficult challenges occurs when people working on the same project

have different goals. Working at cross-purposes , they often end up in interpersonal conflicts.