Projects Without Boundaries

CHAPTER 3BUILDING A HIGH-PERFORMANCE VIRTUAL TEAM

It is well understood that the mission of any project is to create and deliver a solution that advances the business goals of the sponsoring company. It is also understood that there are two primary parts to any project: managing the project process and leading the project team. These fundamentals of project work exist in both traditional and virtual environments. However, how the project work is performed by the project team differs between the two environments.

As described in Chapter 2, management of the project process through a project management methodology with its associated practices, processes, and procedures does not change significantly between traditional and virtual projects. All projects must be initiated and planned to a certain scope of work and must be managed from cost, schedule, scope, risk, and change perspectives. In addition, work outcomes must be integrated to create a solution and then effectively brought to closure. Leading the project team, however, can vary vastly between traditional and virtual projects.

In essence, project team members perform their work in two ways: individual work and teamwork.¹ People perform their individual work in identical fashion whether they are part of a traditional project or a virtual project. How they perform their work within the context of the team can differ significantly between the two types of projects, however. Effective teamwork is dependent on effective cross-member ...