Project Management Assignment: Managing the Virtual Project

Question

Task: You are required to write a project management assignment addressing the following questions:

Question 1
Knowing the need to be inclusive in bringing the remote working team members together as one project team, what types of activities might you suggest to the project manager to make this happen? How would you then go about developing, documenting and implementing the communications and team-building strategy? What activities would you have the project manager responsible for? What aspects are better leveraged from the main organization?

Question 2
Projects distributed or otherwise are hosted through an organization and must report their delivery status and performance to the parent business. In contrast to a ‘local’ project team what reporting aspects are unique to a geographically distributed project? What role will technology play in information collection and report generation?

Question 3
Select any two issues from those listed in the Virtual Project Management Suggestions in Chapter 5 of Meredith, Mantel and Shafer (2017) and describe a personal ‘project management’ experience dealing with each. Issue one: Understanding information. Issue two: Developing Group Identity

Answer

1. Introduction
Project management consideration and a good project manager perform more than just simply managing the stages of the project. They like to manage the team so that their teams remain productive and happy. They also include team-building strategies intended for boosting morale, specifically after challenging stages of the project. The significance of Information Technology in business applications is very much fast, digitized and broad. It supports every sphere of the business sector for automating the procedure and the concerned systems for targeting the objectives, generating revenue and reducing the inefficiency of the activities.

2. Question 1: Communications and Team Building
2.1 Activities to build a resilient team
Since past years the remote working capacity has been increased too much and is beneficial but it possesses some disadvantages too. The biggest struggle of remote-work struggle is figured as communication, loneliness and collaboration.

To bring Teams Together among Departments, activities considered:

• Organize time for live co-working
  If the team delves too much deep into a project and don’t have time to disrupt the bonding, the co-working is revered as a great way to enhance collaboration and binding with each other and some casual conversations (Stuart, and Moore, 2017).
• Encouraging ice breaker conversations
  To keep rolling the conversation, it is important to have icebreaking talks rather than just working.

Trying tiny desk activities
Sometimes it requires a little creativity for team bonding activities like tiny desk campfires t enlighten the mood

2.2 Establishing the communications and team-building strategy
* Determining Method to engage Stakeholders and Partners The most common technique to engage stakeholders is by holding a participative stakeholder workshop where program stakeholders and staff developed jointly develop every point of the strategy respectively.

• Writing a Brief Summary of evaluation
  For attaining an effective communication strategy, the team requires to build a team understanding assessing every determinant that could influence thecommunication efforts.
• Selecting Audiences
  The audience and situation analyses recognize probable audience to engage every stakeholder in developing the communication strategy for final decisions made as a priority and impacting the audiences.

2.3 Responsibilities of a project manager
* Communicating with team individuals:
Project Management is mainly concerned with communication by calls, daily check-ins, team meetings and emails. Project managers should communicate with the team members continually for determining the position of several projects and probable roadblocks required to be sorted out.

• Communicating with key stakeholders:
  Communicating with the team is vital by continually updating vital stakeholders concerned to project progress and ensures the project is aligned to fluctuating business initiatives. Communicating the data is very much important and may assume several forms, entailing regularly weekly or monthly status continually updating dashboards, or meetings.
• Issue identification and resolution:
  In the project, it is revered very much common concerning resource allocation, budget, time, and different issues arising. Therefore the responsibilities and role of the project manager ensure that such challenges should be resolved efficiently for maintaining the project on track.
• Budgeting
  In several, cost estimation can be a monthly or quarterly event but in some projects of different expenditures, project managers spend time reviewing budgets continually for ensuring the project may not cross the resource allocations. This could also entail processing, reviewing, as well as approving invoices by external vendors if any project entails such partnerships.
• Time management and approval:
  For ensuring the project is on the track, different project managers changetto project or timesheets allowing them to observe how their team is utilizing the vital time. Additionally, ensure the project is moving planned, would support project managers in shifting the resources connecting projects as vital.

2.4 Leveraging project expertise
A significant or core approachconsideredby organizations for applying expertise within the project solutions is by the utilization of multidisciplinary and cross-functional teams. The significance of including expertise through distinctive disciplines within the project team is always identified as a vital feature of project management. In an organization, the project team encompasses several specialists representing the disciplines required to deliver the project towards the necessary conclusion. The premise motivates inusing the cross-functional teams by designating the suitable assemblage of experts taken together. Activities and team decisions are very much possibly contemplate the whole range of perspectives that is important project success. The team members contain knowledge concerned with non-overlapping aspects of the project and view the project information distinctively.

3. Question 2: Project distribution and report generation
3.1 Delivery status and performance reports
The distinctive portion of a project status report structures several portions into a cohesive whole. The objective of a status report is in keeping the stakeholders informed as well as exposing areas concerning the project that require higher organizational support (Kerzner, 2017).

The delivery status concerning the project will generally entail the following subjective element:

• The activities that have been finished, planning for what would be followed, a detailed summary of the project schedule and budget, a list of actionable items, and distinctive risks and issues and risks, and how they area been dealt with.
• Performance Reporting is a procedure of controlling and the project works that impart inputs to different managing and controlling approaches.

The Performance Reports uses the concern inputs in the procedure such as
• Consolidated Change Control
• Managing Communication
• Controlling Procurement
• Managing Project Team
• Controlling Risks

Performance Reports entail technical data and progressive indication for vital project deliverables and tasks.

3.2 Unique reports in a geographically dispersed team
When picking individuals within a geographically dispersed team, select individuals possessing the right qualities for any situation for generating required information reports. Look for the following qualities:

Choosing the Right Team Players
• Must be self-motivated – It's vital in selecting team members possessing above-average self-motivation and working independently,

• Must possess communication skills – Employees should possess strong communication skills and should be capable to deal with internet technologies like webcams.

• Must be honest and open- In the geographically dispersed team members, users can deliver instant suggestions, to problems and other feedback. And this requires employees with straightforward and open personalities.

• Defining the Team Purpose
Generatinga team charter is served as a deliberate way to achieve by creating a roadmap. The Team charters prepared is generally utilized in the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) to deliver the right set of objectives and goals(Noguera et al. 2018).

• Developing Strong Team Dynamics
To create a fresh team or consolidating employees in an existing team, that requires being aware of the team dynamics. Managing relationships within the team members may be a little tough enough among a divided office space.

• Giving Feedback and Reward Performance
Feedback is considered imperative for morale and team performance, and specifically vitalin a geographically dispersed context. The team members should be Stay in contact with every team member by a feedback processor telephone conversation working in different time zone.

• Promoting Team Bonding
Most individuals working in an office environment should enjoy occasional drinks or lunches with co-workers. Team bonding helps in providing a boost and encouragement to make the geographically dispersed team a successful one. This would help in sorting out the discussion fair enough and set a relationship among the members and develop a collaborative bonding.

3.3 Role of technology in information collection and report generation
Information technology (IT) entails the application and study of computers and technological devices or equipment that helps in storing, retrieving, transmitting, manipulating, studying data and then sends data. Information technology supports building and growing the business and commerce sector and accumulating information and generating a report to deliver maximum output (Mao, et al. 2016). The time utilized to procure the project or business value can be reduced by progress in Information technology. It imparts electronic storage, security, and effective communication.

IT helps in report generation allowing the business or user in extracting the data directly required to bring in from the database and then checks it directly online or exporting in a disclosed format. There is a makes it possible to revert the data back and then formatting by a medium of an external spreadsheet.

Open fliers can also be used for users depicting an extensive library of reports meeting the most general requirements. The concerned information would be generated by a graphical interface of the platform.

IT supports the organization in a software system, hardware system, and every change in procedures. By adequate technology management, would help in providing access to information and imparting flexibility to challenges in report generation and data accumulation. Information technology helps in effectively combining skillsand communication technology to develop competency in information.

4. Question 3: Issues of Virtual Project Management
4.1 Understanding Information
In virtual project management, members taking place at different parts of cities or nations in anew way to make the business success to a new height. Communication is very vital in project information involvingparties represent a critical portion in successful project management. Being diverse within the team members through location and culture and location, ambiguity may result as aserious failure factor (Zuofa, and Ochieng, 2017).

The VPM also losses tough times instilling trust within the virtual team, utilizing v-mail to rant and rave may eradicate that trust. With the help of proto-typing, the ambiguity may get reduced and also ensures that the project objectives are achieved for the initial time (Meredith et al. 2017

Personal experience in project management entails time used in the spent planning, directing, and managing projects. Understanding information has helped to connect to the client requirement and passing to the other team members to tackle the challenges and move forward. The utilization of VMail chips away on the trust created up among the team members may serve as destructive to the team.

A derived single vision or utilizing the decision tool required, member’s actions may get diluted and energy would be applied to the wrong activities. The VPM should not allow the communication policies to be completely ignored and should try to monitor compliance continuously.

4.2 Developing group identity
Developing a group identity is equally important as other activities. Group identity is a vital factor for project managers and team members for ensuring their recognition concerning a certain project. The project manager needs to develop an identity of being able to manage the team well, direct the project operations and develop positive relations with different team members. Group identity can help in ensuring recognition of status for project development processes in regards to a client meeting as expressing themselves with creative understanding and discussingplanned activitiesfor reaching the necessary conclusion.

It helps in Clarifying the team vision and working relationships, defining the team process, and clarifying the authority of every team member. The cultural issue within the team can arise within the virtual project management and requires to be developed accordingly so that every individual is mutually collaborating along with focused on their objectives (Binder, 2016). Virtual project management requires developing cooperation that may arise when sitting at different places. In developing a group identity to become more effective there is a need for communication that can be adversely affected within the virtual project management.

Communication in a virtual scenario requires to closely bonding to share the information as needed and accomplish the project objectives.

5. Recommendations
The recommendations for project management would help in ensuring departmental wide accountability as well as ownership to accomplish the objectives of project management objectives. The recommendations considered will impart a leadership direction for strengthening the culture among departmental project management.

Recommendation 1: Developing the team's project management culture by imparting transparent, constant, executive leadership and communication concerning the department-wide significance of project management objectives and accomplishing them.

Recommendation 2: Establishing department enabled accountability and ownership and through senior management concerning strategic objective accomplishment to budget, scope, quality and schedule.

Recommendation 3: Establishing measurable segmental strategic objectives concerning budget, scope, schedule, and quality to measure the accomplishment.

6. Conclusion
Project management is linked value is enhanced every day in different spheres of the commercial transactions, to fulfil the project requirements and regulatory needs. Information technology enables the generation of the required data that can help in designating the required use of it in every sphere. Report generation and collecting information is necessary and for a geographically dispersed team, is considered vital for members to be attached to project goals. Team bonding helps in mutually discussing the work and discussion with small tasks can help them to discuss their problems. It should be ensured that feedback should be consistent and far enough by imparting feedback within the dispersed teams, and requires to be paid special attention to fairness.

The purpose behind Business
Information Technology helps in fulfilling the required information that needs to generate every day and helps in facilitating the requirements and fulfilling the growing expectations. Virtual project management is a good approach to understand and addressing the vital issue and responding to the feedback and helps in dealing with challenging situations

Reference List
Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management across borders. Routledge. Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and monitoring project performance.John Wiley & Sons.

Mao, H., Liu, S., Zhang, J. and Deng, Z., 2016. Information technology resource, knowledge management capability, and competitive advantage: The moderating role of resource commitment. International Journal of Information Management, 36(6), pp.1062-1074.

Meredith, J.R., Shafer, S.M. and Mantel Jr, S.J., 2017. Project management: a strategic managerial approach.Project management assignment John Wiley & Sons.

Noguera, I., Guerrero-Roldán, A.E. and Masó, R., 2018. Collaborative agile learning in online environments: Strategies for improving team regulation and project management. Computers & Education, 116, pp.110-129.

Stuart, H.C. and Moore, C., 2017. Shady characters: The implications of illicit organizational roles for resilient team performance. Academy of Management Journal, 60(5), pp.1963-1985.

Zuofa, T &Ochieng, E 2017, 'Working separately but together: Appraising virtual project team challenges' Team Performance Management: An International Journal, vol (in press), pp. (in press) https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/TPM-06-2016-0030