Projects Without Boundaries

CHAPTER 1WORKING IN A VIRTUAL WORLD

As Jeremy Bouchard adjourned his weekly team meeting, he paused to reflect how much his project environment had changed in less than six months. Until that time, the projects that he managed were traditional in that the project team was co-located, allowing the team members to conduct their team meetings across the table from one another and Jeremy to “manage by walking around” on a daily basis. Today, as he adjourned the meeting while sitting alone in his office staring at his computer screen, he realized how drastically things had changed now that he is the manager of a virtual project.

Jeremy's story is one of sudden change—change that was driven by the acquisition of his company by a much larger company with a global presence, Sensor Dynamics, a manufacturer of specialized sensor products in an emerging technology segment called the Internet of Things. Unlike many of his colleagues, he welcomed the change and looked forward to applying his well-honed project management skills on a larger scale with Sensor Dynamics.

That opportunity came quickly. Jeremy was assigned the project manager role for a new human biometric sensor product—an emerging market with rapid growth potential. Through a recent company reorganization, which is common following an acquisition, Jeremy is now reporting to the Project Management Office director, a veteran employee of Sensor Dynamics. His project team is a combination of people from his old organization and ...