Virtual Project Teams Managing Virtual Project Teams

Virtual Project Teams

Managing Virtual Project Teams

The purpose of this project is to present definitive and formal analysis of virtual project teams and their successful management. Additionally, this project will provide evidentiary information from peer review and scholarly research as well as synthesis and conclusions regarding the subject matter.

Successfully initiation and executing a virtual team is increasingly gaining attention in the workplace. From opportunities to integrate multidisciplinary and international teams to the chance to leverage the best possible resources within an organization on a particular project, virtual teams can be transformative and significantly alter the concept of project planning and execution. However, because the concept of virtual teams, virtual team building and the effective and efficient management of virtual teams is in its nascent stage, little guidance is currently available to assist with successful implementation and management of these teams (Chinowsky & Rojas, 2003).

Some of today's companies are large multi-state and even multinational businesses. In large part, advances in technology have allowed organizations to resolve workforce shortages by using nomadic workers in virtual project teams that provides complexity to the responsibilities of the project manager. In many cases, project success is contingent upon skilled human resources of ever declining availability. Schedules must often accommodate what amounts to paradigm shifts in regulatory requirements, customer requirements, hardware, software and technology (Elkins, 2000). Many times, basic project management techniques fall short thereby increasing risks. The proposed answer is directing the right staff to the right work via virtual workforce management.

Workforce management, and in this instance, virtual project team management, is a concept that allows organizations to take on work according to the availability and skills of staff, both present and forecasted. Integrated with service and project management, it is a way to direct the staff as well as virtual staff of the enterprise to the right work. For example, there are often leverage points, individuals with critical skills, that have been underused or overbooked that has the most significant effect on the amount of work the organization successfully completes. With organizations that are dependent on a skilled but limited labor force, an effective project management system must provide insight on how all staff time is effectively and efficiently utilized, as well as a view of all the work the organization is responsible for, both planned and proposed (Elkin, 2000).