97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know

Chapter 65. Aggressively Promote Communication in Distributed Projects

Anupam Kundu

DISTRIBUTED PROJECTS CREATE UNUSUAL CHALLENGES since the project team members are not colocated (not physically together). As a result, the following issues can become impediments to the success of a project:

• Lack of trust between the geographically dispersed teams.

• Unwieldy amounts of time spent on communication.

• Inability to foster a "one-team" feeling due to cultural differences.

• Lack of participation from team members during common meetings.

• Lack of identity with the project team, as team members in different geographies may speak different languages and/or have different project practices.

These stumbling blocks have become nightmares for many software project managers facilitating distributed projects. Here are few to-dos to add to your communication arsenal if you are assigned to manage a distributed project:

• Find and document the overlap time between different geographically distributed teams (don't forget Daylight Savings Time).

• Publish the instant messaging (IM) addresses of all the team members (and the best time to reach them).

• Make sure that each key stakeholder has all conference call access details (web and telephone).

• Gather and share the vacation details for different teams on a shared calendar.

• Publish a schedule of daily stand-up meeting between geographically dispersed teams. Stand-up meetings ...