Managing virtual project teams

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2010 im Fachbereich BWL - Unternehmensführung, Management, Organisation, Note: 1,7, FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management gemeinnützige GmbH, Düsseldorf früher Fachhochschule, Veranstaltung: Project Management Tools and Organisation , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: While a project is a form of organisation which is characterised through its uniqueness,

its novelty and a fixed end date, a virtual project team is distributed over different

locations worldwide, but working together as one team. Remote communication

between the team members is done through synchronous and asynchronous means of

virtual communication. Because these media cannot transmit the full bandwidth of

human communication, there must be rules set how to act with these different means of

virtual communication in order to prevent frustration and communication problems.

Additional difficulties may arise when a virtual project team is composed of people with

different cultural backgrounds. In such a case, a project manager of a virtual team has to

join communication skills with intercultural skills.

In order to work together under these circumstances, team building is crucial to make a

virtual project a success. Successful team building in a virtual project first of all means

that people with the right characteristics have to be chosen to form a virtual project

team. For example, they must have a high level of self-organisation and social

competence. Furthermore, building trust is crucial in order to make people who may

never see each other in real life successfully work together.

In order to manage the task of a virtual project, a project manager of such a team needs

a high level of social skills coupled with the skills of a motivator.

The Blended Delivery model of Logica, a global provider of IT services, where a local

core team works together with an extended virtual team, may be a good compromise

between virtual and non-virtual project work and may combine benefits of both

organisation forms.