Virtual Project Management: Software Solutions for Today and the Future

Rating:
Summary: Ahead of its time - especially relevant today
Review: When this book was first published nearly four years ago from the date of this review, it addressed a narrow niche - managing virtual teams in large-scale engineering projects. Moreover, the book is more biased towards product management than project management, although there is considerable overlap in the two domains. Fast forward to today, and the material no longer addresses a narrow niche, making this book an important resource to a much wider audience. I am evaluating this book from the perspective of an IT professional, and see the audience as follows:
- project and program managers overseeing development that has been outsourced to off-shore providers, especially in the IT environment
- IT professionals who have (or are in danger of) losing their jobs because of the trend towards off shore outsourcing. Managing virtual teams is a viable, alternative career option in which this audience segment can employ their technical knowledge and gain the management knowledge to be successful.
- executive management exploring the feasibility, risks and challenges of outsourcing to off shore providers and who are seeking a management strategy for making it work

Of course, the audience is wider than I've cited, and the best way to determine if you are among it I'm giving my assessment of the knowledge and approach the book imparts. First, the author weaves in cases, personal experience and anecdotal stories into the text making the book highly readable. He approaches the way to establish and effectively manage a virtual team by focusing on the key barriers and offering solutions.

The biggest barriers are communication and cultural differences (both company and human varieties), so much of the book is devoted to overcoming those in all of their forms. I particularly liked the knowledge dissemination and retention strategies the author provides because knowledge management is directly linked to communication, but is an often overlooked element that will make or break a geographically and culturally dispersed team's success. The core of this book, however, is the structured and methodical eight-step framework in which you can establish a virtual team. This framework has the following steps:

1 - Careful selection of team leaders with an emphasis on leadership and conflict resolution skills.
2 - A clearly defined architecture upon which work splitting and tasking are based.
3 - Develop a build plan and ensure that the proper supporting infrastructure is in place.
4 - Establish and enforce communication rules.
5 - Identify and implement the low level project organization.
6 - Detailed planning that takes into account all elements of the virtual team.
7 - Test the organizational concept.
8 - Execute.

For each of the above steps the author provides in-depth details, challenges and how to overcome them, and supporting rationale. In addition, the appendices in this book are invaluable in that they contain templates, checklists, and other information that fleshes out what is required to effectively manage a virtual team. Appendix L, "Synopsis of 34 Insights and 50 Solutions", is especially valuable because it summarizes the key challenges of virtual team management.

Rating:
Summary: Ahead of its time - especially relevant today
Review: When this book was first published nearly four years ago from the date of this review, it addressed a narrow niche - managing virtual teams in large-scale engineering projects. Moreover, the book is more biased towards product management than project management, although there is considerable overlap in the two domains. Fast forward to today, and the material no longer addresses a narrow niche, making this book an important resource to a much wider audience. I am evaluating this book from the perspective of an IT professional, and see the audience as follows:
- project and program managers overseeing development that has been outsourced to off-shore providers, especially in the IT environment
- IT professionals who have (or are in danger of) losing their jobs because of the trend towards off shore outsourcing. Managing virtual teams is a viable, alternative career option in which this audience segment can employ their technical knowledge and gain the management knowledge to be successful.
- executive management exploring the feasibility, risks and challenges of outsourcing to off shore providers and who are seeking a management strategy for making it work

Of course, the audience is wider than I've cited, and the best way to determine if you are among it I'm giving my assessment of the knowledge and approach the book imparts. First, the author weaves in cases, personal experience and anecdotal stories into the text making the book highly readable. He approaches the way to establish and effectively manage a virtual team by focusing on the key barriers and offering solutions.

The biggest barriers are communication and cultural differences (both company and human varieties), so much of the book is devoted to overcoming those in all of their forms. I particularly liked the knowledge dissemination and retention strategies the author provides because knowledge management is directly linked to communication, but is an often overlooked element that will make or break a geographically and culturally dispersed team's success. The core of this book, however, is the structured and methodical eight-step framework in which you can establish a virtual team. This framework has the following steps:

1 - Careful selection of team leaders with an emphasis on leadership and conflict resolution skills.
2 - A clearly defined architecture upon which work splitting and tasking are based.
3 - Develop a build plan and ensure that the proper supporting infrastructure is in place.
4 - Establish and enforce communication rules.
5 - Identify and implement the low level project organization.
6 - Detailed planning that takes into account all elements of the virtual team.
7 - Test the organizational concept.
8 - Execute.

For each of the above steps the author provides in-depth details, challenges and how to overcome them, and supporting rationale. In addition, the appendices in this book are invaluable in that they contain templates, checklists, and other information that fleshes out what is required to effectively manage a virtual team. Appendix L, "Synopsis of 34 Insights and 50 Solutions", is especially valuable because it summarizes the key challenges of virtual team management.