Virtual Project Management Research Articles

Virtual teams and software project management success in a developing country: an empirical study

Virtual teams and software project management success in a developing country: an empirical study

The role of technology in transforming leadership management practices

Technology is transforming today's rapidly changing corporate environment. This examination highlights how technology has changed leadership management across industries. The study investigates how technology has changed leadership, decision-making, communication, and organizational effectiveness in the digital age. Our analysis of current trends and real-world case studies shows how technology has impacted leadership practices, helping leaders navigate the modern workplace. The rise of corporate technology has touched all levels of leadership. CEOs and frontline supervisors use technology to improve decision-making and leadership. Technology enhances traditional leadership techniques. Data analytics and AI have changed decision-making. Leaders who want to make informed decisions utilize AI to uncover patterns in big data. Real-time insights and predictive analytics help leaders identify issues and grasp opportunities. This supports agile decision-making and company competitiveness. Technology also changed corporate communication. Virtual communication, collaboration, and project management tools unify global teams. Leadership can now chat with remote workers in real time, fostering knowledgesharing and collaboration. Technology-driven communication platforms enable transparent and accessible leadership, motivating and engaging staff. Technology has accelerated remote work, causing senior management concerns. Virtual teams require different leadership techniques. This approach includes emotional intelligence, teamwork, and the Stock market and securities index prediction using artificialability to include remote workers. Virtual meeting platforms, online team-building events, and remote performance management help executives bridge physical distance and ensure teamwork. Technology has altered leadership training. Virtual training and e-learning platforms have changed leadership training. Flexible, customized, and cost-effective digital leadership development solutions make this process easier. Executives can now be trained to innovate and adapt to changing company conditions. Technology provides tremendous benefits but also creates ethical concerns. Leaders must address cybersecurity and data privacy issues to maintain stakeholder trust. Leaders must blend technology and humanity. Technology should enhance leadership and decision-making.

A digital twin-based green construction management method for prefabricated buildings

Background: Site pollution in construction can be reduced by using high levels of prefabrication and industrialization. However, the lack of green concepts and methods during the prefabrication assembly process hinders its environmental benefits. Digital twin technology can monitor sites in real-time and provide data visualization for decision support, which has been used in construction management and risk control. Methods: We propose a six-dimensional digital twin framework that includes physical and virtual spaces, project management and service layers, twin data, and component connections. The framework integrates green factors of prefabricated construction into a model evolution framework and mechanism that enables real-time green services throughout the process. Results: The proposed framework, modeling method, and evolution method were tested in prefabrication projects in Tianjin. By applying these methods, inadequate management measures were promptly identified and strengthened. Energy consumption and pollution were reduced by comparing with the plan before construction. In addition, the model evolution method optimized green management measures and improved the level of green construction management on site. Conclusions: The application results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed framework, the model building method, and the evolution method in improving the green level of prefabricated construction.

Моделирование жизненного цикла здания спортивного комплекса на стадии проектирования, эксплуатации и реконструкции

Building Information Modeling (BIM) and lifecycle management (PLM) is becoming an innovative way of virtual design and project management. In recent years, corresponding successes have been achieved in the field of modeling, analysis, design, monitoring and maintenance of facilities. The construction industry is currently undergoing a transition to a life-cycle-oriented design philosophy.
 This study examines the modeling of the life cycle of a building at the stage of design, operation and reconstruction in the Revit software package.

The Role of Digital and Virtual Teams in Project Management: Zambia Centre for Communications

The study was designed to explore the role of digital and virtual teams in project management. The study addressed three specific objectives and these were: To identify the benefits of digital and virtual teams in project management; to compare and contrast the elements and components of virtual project management and the traditional project management and to establish challenges of the digital and virtual teams in project management. Within a standard quantitative research methodology, the study used an embedded mixed methods design, which entailed the collection and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. Questionnaires and interviews were utilized to obtain quantitative and qualitative data from 80 individuals who were chosen for their purpose and convenience. The study established the following as benefits for teams working in remote: Less efforts required, flexible scheduling, lack of commute, cost saving, reduced anxiety/stress, freedom of travel/relocate, reduced office politics and able to live where ever one wanted. With regard to the second objective, the study established that in both modes of project management, there was diversity in national background and culture. There was also communication, setting of goals to be achieved and evaluation of the project outcomes in both modes. Virtual teams, on the other hand, were very different from regular teams. Members of traditional teams worked close to one another, but members of virtual teams worked in various locations. A virtual team also functioned beyond place, time, and organizational boundaries, with linkages strengthened by webs of communication technology, unlike a typical team. On the third objective, the study etablished that virtual project management challenges were categorised into seven classes thus: communication; isolation and confusion; developing trust; performance, diversity and virtual work-cycle management; free ride; cultural differences; and time zones. Based on the findings, the study recommends that to avoid the aspect of employee isolation, project managers must frequently use audio-video calls during virtual meetings. Second, virtual managers and their employers should build on the perceived benefits found in this study both before and throughout the development and management of virtual project teams.

Standing strong amid a pandemic: How a global online team project stands up to the public health crisis.

The annual instructional virtual team Project X brings together professors and students from across the globe to engage in client projects. The 2020 project was challenged by the global disruption of the COVID‐19 pandemic. This paper draws on a quantitative dataset from a post‐project survey among 500 participating students and a qualitative narrative inquiry of personal experiences of the faculty members. The findings reveal how innovative use of a variety of collaboration and communication technologies helped students and their professors in building emotional connection and compassion to support each other in the midst of the crisis, and to accomplish the project despite connectivity disruptions. The results suggest that the role of an instructor changed to a coach and mentor, and technology was used to create a greater sense of inclusion and co‐presence in student‐faculty interactions. Ultimately, the paper highlights the role of technology to help the participants navigate sudden crisis affecting a global online instructional team project. The adaptive instructional teaching strategies and technologies depicted in this study offer transformative potential for future developments in higher education. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic The modern workplace calls for cross‐cultural, digital collaboration skills, and this need has increased potentially after the impacts of the pandemic on moving a lot of work to remote settings—permanently.While instructional virtual teams are being used as part of diverse curricula to add an international, experiential element for students, universities still struggle helping students to acquire the whole spectrum of skills needed for the global digital workplace: virtual teamwork, project management, and comfort on working with digital business collaboration platforms.Virtual team research has studied impacts of the pandemic on organizational teams but there is little research on instructional online teams during the pandemic crisis. What this paper adds This paper adds evidence‐based knowledge how virtual instructional teams, and their instructors navigated the broken connectivity situation when a global external health crisis forced students to transition from campuses to home environments in the middle of the collaboration project.It offers practical ideas how faculty used technology to connect with students and maintain class community in cases of inequal access to technology from home environments by using multiple platforms, and both, computer, and mobile enabled communication.It offers examples of student‐centered, coaching‐like teaching strategies and how these were applied when the global health crisis affected students in instructional teams. Implications for practice and policy The study offers implications for development of digital pedagogies for future; specifically, how to develop students' virtual intelligence and to promote intercultural awareness and collaboration skills in future higher education.The pandemic experiences shed additional light on the need to develop and acquire soft skills among students, for them to be able to navigate struggles and crisis in global, digital real workplace.

Virtual Project Management (VPM) in Project Execution

This research study will focus mainly on the LNG sector. The objective is to determine, investigate, and seek the operability opportunity in a virtual environment’s project management, engineering, and construction. The researcher will tackle the importance and issues it addresses the virtual project management (VPM) platform demands without compromising the quality and safety of services during the execution of the project. This virtual platform simulated the model using conventional project management stated in PMBOKS. The researcher will randomly pick the possible solution and improve the existing project management consultancy (PMC) operation and processes, initially to virtualize the system to meet the technical personnel demand, lapses, and labor vacuum within the available time. The goal is to achieve this conversion, minimize face-to-face interaction, promote work at home, reduce operational costs, minimize technical human resource risk, and facilitate working space area capacity. This study divides virtual project management (VPM) into operational possibility, effectivity, and capability (OPEC). Operational Possibility and Effectivity are the primary concern in this research, and it discusses the elemental process attributes such as [1] Leadership Style, [2] Design Planning, [3] Functional Management, and [4] Performance Evaluation. However, conventional project management is the basis of this study’s viewpoint and is translated into virtual. Moreover, this study still shows the operational capability and discusses it in the logical analysis as part of the OPEC overall model. The gathered data, discussion, and analysis in two (2) groups, the possibility and effectivity of this virtual platform, and the respondent’s opinion, the virtual team from domestically is preferred by the experts in the field over offshoring or overseas. Moreover, the operational effectiveness with the two (2) highest attributes, as per the expert’s opinion, the VPM should focus on the virtual team’s Performance Evaluation [1st] and the Project manager’s (PM) Leadership Style [2nd]. The virtual team’s Performance Evaluation concentrates mainly on efficiency and completion of assigned product deliverables. PM’s Leadership Style focuses primarily on communication and personality. However, the other attributes of Functional Management [3rd] and Design Planning [4th] can be applied to the overall project execution concept. In this research, the highest recommended source of a virtual team (vT) and VPM operation effectiveness are preferred accordingly. However, the PM has fully responsible for this VPM operational effectiveness and outsourcing virtual teams in particular projects. In this regard, further verification is required for this research focuses on the implementation and application with collaborative software is needed.

A 4-Layered Plan-Driven Model (4LPdM) to Improve Software Development

Quality is the degree of excellence of a product and one of the most important factors of software projects that mainly defines user satisfaction and success of the project. Software methodologies represent a variety of tasks, processes, and roles to manage time, cost, and quality. The invention, innovation, and diffusion for technological advancement creates challenges of software projects, thus several existing methodologies albeit with limited scope. A software product is highly influenced by the latest technology and distributed project management opportunities. Management issues are introduced for a virtual project management environment when resource persons are in another corner of the world. To resolve the problem, this research presents a new software project management model (4-LPdM) with alternative actions and practices to effectively manage. The model was presented to 20 different organizations and 29 respondents gave feedback who had experience between 1-16 years in multiple sections of software engineering. The model is evaluated based on the factors of advanced PMBOK 4.0 (scope, cost, quality, resource, risk, plan) and two (management, sustainability) additional features according to the demand of experts. This research illustrates statistical analyses to examine the significance of the proposed model besides a comprehensive comparative study of the traditional methodology.

Development and research of a model for optimizing the composition of a project-oriented forwarding company’ suppliers

The object of this research is the composition of the suppliers of a project-oriented transport and forwarding company. The work is aimed at determining the composition of the suppliers of a project-oriented transport and forwarding company, the purpose of which is to obtain a synergistic effect, which manifests itself in reducing the costs of performing individual operations of the transport process while meeting local requirements for each project. This study proposes an optimization model that allows to determine the composition of suppliers of a project-oriented organization in order to obtain the maximum systemic effect – a synergistic effect. The proposed approach is based on the creation of a virtual project management office, the work of which is based on the corresponding information system. The proposed model is a flexible tool that allows to quickly form the composition of suppliers of a project-oriented company. The model is developed for the service sector and, in particular, for the transport industry, where suppliers are not responsible for material objects, resources, but for services, the set of which forms the essence of the project. Thus, the product of the project and its parameters in such a situation are directly formed due to the specifics of suppliers and the parameters of their services. For the transport industry, this approach has not been used before and can serve as a theoretical basis for building a project-oriented management system in the transport sector. The synergistic effect taken as a basis in this model provides the greatest difference between the «declared» delivery costs and the «actual» ones, which are formed taking into account the amount of work for all projects. Since the freight forwarding company is the «holder» of the portfolio of all deliveries/projects, a certain part of the synergy effect can be used to reduce delivery costs for customers in order to increase competitiveness and attractiveness. Experimental studies have substantiated the reliability of the results of the developed model and confirmed its practical applicability. This model is quite universal and can be supplemented with restrictions that take into account the specifics of a project-oriented organization, its projects and requirements for suppliers.

Homeworking Project Management & Agility as the New Normal in a COVID-19 World

The COVID-19 global pandemic crisis has had a deep and profound impact on fundamental elements of society, the economy, and the environment as a whole. Key organisations, businesses, sectors and industries vital for delivering crucial projects have been affected by the relatively fast onset of COVID-19 on a global scale. As a result, organisational routines and project management processes that would have focused on established methods and practices have incurred dramatic changes leading to a greater emphasis on agility as part of a more exhaustive strategic COVID-19 world, where new routines and processes become embedded as the new normal. This research focuses on the increased demand in Homeworking Project Management (HPM) and more significant agility requirements across dispersed virtual project management teams. Initial insights from semi-structured interviews with a cross-section of 12 high-level project professionals suggest that; (i) Transitional homeworking project management processes have a direct impact on collaborative and operational routines; (ii) There is a greater level of demand on agility with HPM teams which do not necessarily have the organisational infrastructure to support these, (iii) Technological resources are becoming a primary concern with inequality of information across HPM teams, and (iv) Increasing critical bottlenecks across dispersed HPM teams is adversely affecting tenable project outcomes.

Assessing the Utilization of Building Information Modelling Software for Project Planning in Construction Industries in Ondo State

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the utilization of building information modelling (BIM) software for project planning in construction industries in Ondo-State. Approach/Methodology/Design: Three research questions guided the study. A survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study comprised of 31 construction industries with 126 Contractors and Building consultants in construction industries in Ondo-State, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire consisting of 41 items developed by the ERASMUS + programme was used for data collection. Two experts from the Department of Industrial Technical Education (Building/Woodwork), University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and one expert from Bablor Construction Company, Akure South, Ondo-State validated the instrument. The reliability co-efficient of the instrument was 0.86. Data collected were analyzed using mean to answer the research questions, while t-test was used to answer the hypotheses. Findings: It was found that the extent to which building information modelling (BIM) software are utilized are still very low. The study therefore, recommend that education and training programmes on BIM software uses should be organized for construction industries, BIM should be made compulsory for all personnel involved in construction process and a standard contract document should be made available by the government/professional bodies for all building constructors to ensure the usability of BIM for construction project to enhance the construction design, process, analyze and resolve potential hazards and ensure that the building project is completed timely. Practical Implications: The study revealed the benefit of BIM software application for project planning Hence, the importance of BIM software cannot be overemphasized in achieving high building quality, innovative virtual design and project management in the modern world. Originality/value: This paper shows that Building information modelling software is an innovative way to practically design and manage project plan. BIM adoption is needed to enhance building performance and operation.

Panoramic Display and Planning Simulation of Civil Engineering Project Based on Virtual Reality Technology

In the traditional civil engineering industry, only abstract theoretical concepts are applied to express complex realistic contents, but this method of information transmission is sometimes very limited for engineering participants, because its expression is not comprehensive and specific and also makes the recipients have difficulty in understanding its information. The rise and development of virtual reality (VR) technology has become a good assistant to overcome this difficulty, providing an extremely effective means for displaying and simulating civil engineering project in real time. This paper introduced the methods and principles of VR platform system and structure dynamic analysis, conducted virtual scene design and three-dimensional modeling of civil engineering project, analyzed the synthetic debugging and simulation roaming of the virtual environment, proposed the engineering model of virtual construction process and planning structure calculation, discussed the realization method of virtual project management and visualization, and finally performed the simulation and its result analysis of panoramic display and planning of civil engineering project based on VR technology. The results show that the VR technology can simulate various environments and activities of civil engineering projects in advance, analyze the rationality of various schemes, and modify their different functional parameters, so it can achieve the simulation optimization of project planning, design, and construction.

Virtual global project management in eighteenth-century astronomy

PurposeThis paper aims to demonstrate that virtual project management can be based on a common spirit and mutual trust to achieve project objectives, rather than the use of modern electronic devices to lower communication costs.Design/methodology/approachEvidence from the eighteenth-century files of Academies of Science and from astronomical literature is used to characterize the projects and to show how major elements of project management (such as identification of benefits to stakeholders, management of uncertainties, communication and data aggregation across related projects) were applied.FindingsThe analysis shows how the initiative to better measure the Astronomical Unit defined a megaproject, and how this was broken down at local Academies of Science into major projects or programs. This, in turn, resulted in individual expeditions. It demonstrates that innovations arose from the projects, and that learning from earlier expeditions resulted in the final success of the megaproject.Research limitations/implicationsThe literature used was not written to demonstrate project management. In this respect, both the original sources and the later reports may lack information with respect to the present topic. Today’s project management might learn from the study that coordination and communication can greatly benefit from a joint vision of the project if based on a common spirit and mutual trust.Practical implicationsPresent day project management might benefit from the finding that common values reduce communication costs in a similar way as recent electronic communication devices.Originality/valueThe author believes that this is the first paper to analyze the Venus transit projects from the project management perspective. This was a complex and global megaproject. The approaches taken to achieve the objectives relevant to different stakeholders provide lessons for today’s management of megaprojects.

The value of virtual project management in the Albanian market

The value of virtual project management in the Albanian market

The value of virtual project management in the Albanian market

The growth of the internet and the development of collaborative software have introduced a new dimension of project management. This paper explores the literature evaluating virtual project management and virtual teams to determine the extent of new technologies affecting projects with members in distributed locations. It has been found the new communication channels offer opportunities for participation, but it is even more difficult to manage a virtual team than a team on site. The ever-increasing importance of projects in the market is leaving businesses looking for better integration techniques to virtualize their project environments. Through virtualization, organizations can have positive impacts on communities across geographic boundaries and resource constraints.Virtual project management is a discipline that embodies the potential of connection when talented are geographically dispersed to achieve shared project success. Available research confirms that this is a challenging goal. Factors like time difference, different cultures, or lack of face presence results in added complexity to managing virtual teams. However, if one is able to overcome these obstacles, the results are promising. Empirical research emphasizes that the demand for VPM is constantly increasing, and it even seems clear that there is no going back.

Mobile social media in inter-organizational projects: Aligning tool, task and team for virtual collaboration effectiveness

Inter-organizational projects face unique challenges and opportunities due to team diversities and task complexity. Mobile social media like WhatsApp and WeChat emerge as new-generation collaboration tools in such endeavors. Based on a literature review, this study posits that how well team-tool, task-tool and team-task relationships are handled shape virtual collaboration effectiveness. The conceptual framework, validated with the interviews from inter-organizational project team members in China and the USA, leads to a research model. The results of a larger-scale survey confirm that tool usability, task fit and team connectivity contribute to virtual collaboration effectiveness, which affects project management success and team appreciation. In addition, there are noticeable cross-country differences, especially the opposite moderating effects that degree of use imposes on the relationship between virtual collaboration effectiveness and project management success. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Interventions for effectively leading in a virtual setting

Abstract At least a decade ago, researchers recognized the importance of leaders being able to effectively execute interventions in teams. Now, advances in collaboration technologies have changed the way teams work together in addition to the challenges they face with regard to technology and collaboration. Due to these changes, it is important to take a look at interventions and how they can be technology driven or administered. Advances in technology-driven interventions can have a substantial impact on virtual project management and online education. In this article, we explore the role of interventions in improving technology choice in a virtual setting. We argue that both proactive and reactive interventions can be used to address virtual team challenges when it comes to technology choice. We identify six interventions (proactive and reactive) that were used to lead seven global offshore development teams, as well as the findings from their use. We also advise managers and online educators on ways to effectively identify and use interventions in virtual settings.

Virtual Project Management: Examining The Roles And Functions Of Online Instructors In Creating Learning Applications With Value

While many students and instructors are transitioning from the brick-and-mortar classrooms to virtual classrooms, labs, and simulations, this requires a higher-level of expertise, control, and perseverance by the instructor. Traditional methods of teaching, leading, managing, and organizing learn activities has changed in terms of the virtual learning environment with regard to the use of technology and how learning can be delivered virtually. What does this mean for instructors as more and more colleges and universities are now competing for students, as well as maintaining a required level of academic quality and standards? This paper will focus on the roles, functions, and multi-tasking skills of online instructors in order to be successful in meeting the academic, virtual, and career needs of their adult learners. This paper will demonstrate how one online program is redesigning their global management coursework to help accomplish the above stated needs and invigorate their course with more “hands on” application and student involvement. In the current global management course, the students learn about current issues facing companies working in other overseas locations or learning about other companies considering the possibility of becoming global. While many educators will agree that learning concepts, principles, and theories are necessary in establishing a good foundation of learning in any course, this may not be enough. While instructors may have a challenging position of motivating and keeping the attention of young learners, we can also see the same problem with adult learners. Equally important to note here is the challenges that online instructors may have in motivating and keeping the attention of virtual learners when there are issues of differences in generational learning, time zone challenges, technology skills, and perceptions of course value. Therefore, instructors for this course took another look at the current assignments and final project and realized a change in design and presentation could make a difference.

Book Review: The Virtual Project Management Office: Best Practices, Proven Methods

Book Review: The Virtual Project Management Office: Best Practices, Proven Methods

Interventions for effectively leading in a virtual setting

At least a decade ago, researchers recognized the importance of leaders being able to effectively execute interventions in teams. Now, advances in collaboration technologies have changed the way teams work together in addition to the challenges they face with regard to technology and collaboration. Due to these changes, it is important to take a look at interventions and how they can be technology driven or administered. Advances in technology-driven interventions can have a substantial impact on virtual project management and online education. In this article, we explore the role of interventions in improving technology choice in a virtual setting. We argue that both proactive and reactive interventions can be used to address virtual team challenges when it comes to technology choice. We identify six interventions (proactive and reactive) that were used to lead seven global offshore development teams, as well as the findings from their use. We also advise managers and online educators on ways to effectively identify and use interventions in virtual settings.