Managing Virtual Team Work in IT Projects: Survey

Abstract

the nature of managing team work has changed significantly because of changes in organizations and the nature of the work they do. Organizations have become more distributed across geography and across industries. Relationships between people inside an organization and those previously considered outside (customers, suppliers, managers of collaborating organizations, other stakeholders) are becoming more important. Organizations have discovered the value of collaborative work. When implementing IT projects in a global environment, a popular strategy is the establishment of virtual teams. The objective of this paper is to examine what competence an IT project manager has to have to lead a virtual IT team successfully. The question is approached from the perspective of competences presented in the IPMA (International Project Management Association) competence baseline, or The Eye of Competences. Results from research, as well as a survey conducted, highlighted that both soft and hard skills are needed for the optimal IT project manager to lead a virtual team. To be successful in this area it is not sufficient to be outstanding in technical competences. Soft skills like communication, teamwork and leadership are no less essential. The competences scoring highest in the survey were: clarity of objectives, leadership & project management, communication, reliability & efficiency, teamwork and quality management.