Virtual teams: A literature review

In the competitive market, virtual teams represent a growing response to the need for fasting time-to-market, low-cost and rapid solutions to complex organizational problems. Virtual teams enable organizations to pool the talents and expertise of employees and non-employees by eliminating time and space barriers. Nowadays, companies are heavily investing in virtual team to enhance their performance and competitiveness. Despite virtual teams growing prevalence, relatively little is known about this new form of team. Hence the study offers an extensive literature review with definitions of virtual teams and a structured analysis of the present body of knowledge of virtual teams. First, we distinguish virtual teams from conventional teams, different types of virtual teams to identify where current knowledge applies. Second, we distinguish what is needed for effective virtual team considering the people, process and technology point of view and underlying characteristics of virtual teams and challenges they entail. Finally, we have identified and extended 12 key factors that need to be considered, and describes a methodology focused on supporting virtual team working, with a new approach that has not been specifically addressed in the existing literature and some guide line for future research extracted.Virtual team, Literature review, Effective virtual team,

Control, Process Facilitation, and Requirements Change in Offshore Requirements Analysis: The Provider Perspective

Process, technology, and project factors have been increasingly driving organizations to offshore early software development phases, such as requirements analysis. This emerging trend necessitates greater control and process facilitation between client and vendor sites. The effectiveness of control and facilitation has, however, not been examined within the context of requirements analysis and change. In this study, we examine the role of control and facilitation in managing changing requirements and on success of requirements gathering in the Indian offshore software development environment. Firms found that control by client-site coordinators had a positive impact on requirements analysis success while vender site-coordinators did not have similar influence. Process facilitation by client site-coordinators affected requirements phase success indirectly through control. The study concludes with recommendations for research and practice

Virtual teams: A literature review

In the competitive market, virtual teams represent a growing response to the need for fasting time-to-market, low-cost and rapid solutions to complex organizational problems. Virtual teams enable organizations to pool the talents and expertise of employees and non-employees by eliminating time and space barriers. Nowadays, companies are heavily investing in virtual team to enhance their performance and competitiveness. Despite virtual teams growing prevalence, relatively little is known about this new form of team. Hence the study offers an extensive literature review with definitions of virtual teams and a structured analysis of the present body of knowledge of virtual teams. First, we distinguish virtual teams from conventional teams, different types of virtual teams to identify where current knowledge applies. Second, we distinguish what is needed for effective virtual team considering the people, process and technology point of view and underlying characteristics of virtual teams and challenges they entail. Finally, we have identified and extended 12 key factors that need to be considered, and describes a methodology focused on supporting virtual team working, with a new approach that has not been specifically addressed in the existing literature and some guide line for future research extracted

Effective Virtual Teams for New Product Development

At present, the existing literature shows that the factors which influence the effectiveness of virtual teams for new product development are still ambiguous. To address this problem, a research design was developed, which includes detailed literature review, preliminary model and field survey. From literature review, the factors which influence the effectiveness of virtual teams are identified and these factors are modified using a field survey. The relationship between knowledge workers (people), process and technology in virtual teams is explored in this study. The results of the study suggest that technology and process are tightly correlated and need to be considered early in virtual teams. The use of software as a service, web solution, report generator and tracking system should be incorporated for effectiveness virtual teams

Prosessifasilitoinnin käyttö globaalin tuotekehitystiimin tukena – Tutkimus yliopisto-opetuksen kontekstissa

Nowadays developing new products is not only the task of companies’ R&D departments. The increased global competition, the introduction of customer involvement, and the employee specialization have all been factors, which have driven the companies to use more of a holistic approach to the new product development (NPD) process. As a result, a lot of the design work is carried out in interdisciplinary teams, in which the existing knowledge of various specialists is transformed into new products. However, due to the challenges created by the nature of NPD and the global interdisciplinary teamwork, there is a need for practical tools, which can enhance the communication and collaboration within the team. One possibility is the utilization of process facilitation as a supportive method for the teamwork. The objective of this study is to identify the facilitation needs of global interdisciplinary teams in NPD context, and to outline the requirements and the role of facilitator in long-term process facilitation. The study is conducted in university education setting, in which two master level courses from Aalto University joined their forces to provide the students the most authentic project based learning experience. The data is collected from five product development projects, which all had been accompanied by a facilitator pair. Based on the literature review and the empirical study, it seems that the critical success factors and needs of the team are in alignment with the facilitator competences and activities. However, the research revealed that in NPD, the short-term intervention driven facilitation model was not sufficient enough to meet the needs of the teams. Identifying team needs and transferring intervention results were identified as two key challenges that hindered the process facilitators from supporting the teams. It seems that when engaging in such long-term facilitation process, the requirements for the role of the facilitator changes. As a solution, this study presents a framework, which emphasizes the setting up of the collaboration, integration of facilitators to the team and the importance of agile learning process through the transfer-phase.Nykyään tuotekehitys ei ole ainoastaan yritysten T&K-osastojen tehtävä. Yritykset käyttävät enenevissä määrin kokonaisvaltaista lähestymistapaa koko tuotekehitysprosessiinsa. Syitä tähän ovat muun muassa kiristynyt maailmanlaajuinen kilpailu, ajatus asiakkaiden osallistamisen tärkeydestä ja työntekijöiden erikoistuminen. Suuri osa design työstä tehdäänkin tieteidenvälisenä tiimityönä, jossa useiden alojen spesialistien tieto muuntautuu uusiksi tuotteiksi. Uusien tuotteiden kehitykseen liittyy kuitenkin myös haasteita, jotka johtuvat niin prosessista kuin globaalista tieteidenvälisestä tiimistä. Yksi mahdollinen tapa helpottaa tiimin yhteistyötä ja kommunikaatiota on prosessifasilitoinnin käyttöönotto. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tunnistaa erilaisia fasilitointitarpeita, joita globaalilla tieteidenvälisellä tiimillä tuotekehityskontekstissa tulee vastaan sekä selvittää mitä vaatimuksia ja minkälainen rooli fasilitaattorilla on pitkäaikaisessa prosessifasilitoinnissa. Tutkimus on toteutettu osana Aalto yliopiston maisteritason projektityökurssien yhteistyötä. Työssä tutkitaan viittä tuotekehitystiimiä, joilla jokaisella oli oma fasilitaattoriparinsa. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen ja empiirisen tutkimuksen perusteella vaikuttaa siltä, että tiimin kriittiset menestystekijät ja tarpeet vastaavat fasilitaattoreiden kyvykkyyksiä ja fasilitointiaktiviteetteja. Tutkimus kuitenkin paljasti, että kirjallisuudesta tuttu lyhytkestoinen väliintuloihin keskittynyt prosessifasilitointimalli ei vastannut riittävän hyvin tiimin tarpeisiin. Isoimpina prosessifasilitointihaasteina nähtiinkin tiimin tarpeiden tunnistaminen ja väliintulojen tulosten vieminen osaksi tiiminprosessia. Vaikuttaakin siltä, että fasilitaattorin rooli muuttuu pitkäaikaisessa prosessifasilitoinnissa. Tässä työssä ratkaisuksi ehdotetaan viitekehystä, joka painottaa yhteistyön käynnistysvaihetta, fasilitaattoreiden integrointia osaksi tiimiä ja prosessin muuttamista agiiliksi oppimisprosessiksi

Innovation Process is Facilitated in Virtual Environment of R&D Teams

Innovation is becoming the most important key issue for company's success in the 21st century. In the competitive environment it is necessary for the enterprises to put together different capabilities and services with the goal. It is widely accepted that innovation can be better achieved by working in team particularly in the virtual environments. The employed web services technology, although very popular nowadays but it is still not mature enough, so dealing with it can bring new findings. Virtual teams base on information technology are formed to facilitate transnational innovation processes and it should be noted that innovation has a positive impact on corporate performance if it is well guided. This has the pronounced effect when it comes to the learning issues as the virtual preconditions persist. In this environment the possibility of getting closer to the interest of learner from the new environment raise as the barriers being imposed by the service provider is reduced and the freedom of what is require to learn is improved. Information and communication technology has brought about significant changes in organizations and produced important benefits, including in the areas of innovation which is recognized as a prime source of national competitive advantage. This contribution proposes a conceptual model for understanding and analyzing the process of virtual R&D team as an innovation and technology assimilation facilitator when it comes to the issue of conveying innovative message for learning by individuals. The context of the knowledge-based economy introduces a major shift from serial to simultaneous R&D in the way of idea conception to technology creation is conceived. This paper briefly reviews the existing perspectives on virtual teams and their effect on innovation and technology regarding the learning capability which is being altered. It also discusses the main characteristics of virtual teams and clarifies the different aspects of virtual team application in the topic. To support the theoretical analysis, this paper provides a comprehensive review based on authentic and reputed publications. We argue that scanty research has been conducted to facilitate understanding the problem of systematically governing creative innovation toward a technology through virtual R&D teams in the atmosphere of educating individuals based on what they interest them to learn.Virtual team; e-learning; Innovation; Research and development, Learning

Internationalizing education: evaluating the growth of intercultural communication and competency in students through an international negotiation project using an online law office

Graduates will need to be able to recognize and appreciate culture in a way that minimizes conflict, promote understanding and to establish a relationship of trust and confidence. The need for competency in intercultural communication and an awareness of ethical challenges sets out a challenge for academics. This study examines the types of learning and characteristics developed by students when working on a ten‐week international negotiation project. It questions whether the study was an effective learning tool to raise consciousness of cultural diversity and effectively address the ‘stumbling blocks’ identified in intercultural communication. Using the findings from this, the study will consider the factors academics should consider when designing high quality, equitable and global study programmes in order for students to develop cross‐cultural capacities and aptitudes in order to be able to perform, professionally and socially, in a multicultural environment

Enhancing project-related behavioral competence in education

The workforce has increasingly been demanding an educational model that produces students experienced in real project management (PM) practices. This includes producing technically competent students--one who can manage real-world project constraints of cost and schedule but also possess critical project related behavioral competence. Such soft skills are essential if a project is to run smoothly and eventually succeed. In this paper, we describe an educational framework grounded in outcomes based education to enhance project-related behavioral competence. Instructors can leverage this framework to augment their existing courses and develop the critical career skill sets of graduating students