Virtual Global Team

Krutika Nayak

1.Using learning from our course, what was John's biggest failure?

“Success in managing global projects begins with an understanding of what a global project is and what makes a global project different from a local or other virtual project that are managed within the country” [Kerzner]

John’s biggest failure was that he thought working on the projects within Unites states was similar to managing the projects globally.He went ahead with his US team to process the documents required, the scope of statement and work breakdown structure and did not take other countries considerations, different countries had different issues and required different timeline, also he did not know about different rules and regulations that took place in different countries, he assumed it to be similar to United States which delayed projects by a month. He assigned to time for the work based on his previous project experiences but in global project it is different, this lead to over promising to customers in very less time and it lead to hurrying other team members to reach that deadline which lead to poor quality product to the customer.There was no proper introduction, he just added a single line in the email telling he is the project manager for this team, there was no team spirit developed, so no one opened up completely and did not tell the problems they were facing unless and until the deadline was on top of their head. John should have spent some time understanding different country different culture and work pattern and trying to build trust among each other before starting the project.

2.Using learning from our course, what should John have done to effectively plan and launch/kickoff the project?

“Managing global projects is not same as managing a co-located project or even a national project. Global projects have an increased level of complexity” [Kerzner]

John should have understood this quote, he thought managing global project is similar to managing the local projects. There are few things John should have followed to make this project successful:

1. John should have taken out some time to understand team members of different countries, their work culture and the rules and regulations followed by those countries. And should have spent time in developing trust among each other.
2. He should have included all the team members from different countries to develop statement of purpose, WBS. Taking notes from their point of view was very important.
3. If time for each process was assigned taking other team members point of view into consideration it would not lead to delivery of poor quality products.
4. Rajesh had replaced Vijay and was new to the project and had skipped many important details regarding to the project. John should have take personal interest in making Rajesh comfortable in the team instead of just emailing him all the stuffs at once.
5. John should have rotated the meeting time so that all the time zones are treated fairly because the present meeting time was super late for Australia.
6. He should have arranged meetings at regular interval of time to understand the team development.

3.Using learning from our course, what should John have done to improve understanding of the various country cultures involved?

https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/managing-cross-cultural-differences-projects-6736

In the above paper on managing the cross cultural differences in projects the author tells that The project manager should spend sufficient time in understanding his team members and their working culture, meeting times need to be flexible because of difference in time zones. In the beginning of the project there should be motivational orientation that will keep the team motivated during entire project. there should be regular meetings held and the PM should be updated with the progress at regular interval of time. PM should keep himself available to clarify the doubts the team members face during the execution of the project.