(revision date: 02/25/2014)

Current State of Virtual Project Management and Global Project Implementations

Felix J Ekpo Northcentral University

School of Business & Technology ManagementPrescott Valley, AZ

May 2015

Committee Chair: Dr. Gary White

Committee Member: Dr. Vanessa Claus

Committee Member: Dr. Rachel Piferi

Overview

• Introduction- Background- Statement of the Problem

- Support for Statement of the Problem- Purpose of the Study- Research Questions

• Literature Review• Research Method and Design• Data Collection, Processing, and Analysis• Findings• Conclusions• Recommendations

2

Background

Introduction•The focus of this dissertation was to identify the perceptions of project managers and corporate project coordinators on the current state of virtual project management and global project implementations.

•Although virtual projects rely mostly on the technology for information sharing and communication across the organization, very little is known about the perceptions of project managers and corporate project coordinators on the use of virtual project tools.

Background:•In every organization, project management is developed to control, plan, manage and coordinate the diverse and complex operations of large projects (Dinsmore & Cabanis-Brewin, 2011). The common cause of all these projects is the projection of activities and ideas into new endeavors (Frolunde et al., 2011). The objective of project management is to forecast and analyze all possible problems and issues that may disrupt the defined objectives of the projects (Kerzner, 2013).

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Statement of the Problem/ Purpose of the Study

Statement of the Problem For an organization to achieve project goals and objectives, a structure has to be put into place to efficiently integrate human and technical resources (Aubrey et al., 2009).

•Support for Statement of the Problem- Lack of global partner’s ability to provide the services required for a project (García

et al., 2010).

- Global acquisitions in 2014 were 34% higher compared to 2013 with $719 billion and that represents the highest since 2008 (Pervaiz, & Zafar, 2014). No evidence of any study that examines project managers’ and corporate project coordinators’ perceptions as it relates to virtual project management environment challenges and practices

Purpose of the StudyThe purpose of this qualitative embedded case study was to obtain the perceptions of project managers and corporate project coordinators from project management offices (PMOs) in U.S. based multinational organizations with regard to the current state of virtual project management environment challenges and practices. 4

Research QuestionsResearch Questions: The research questions address the perceptions of project managers and corporate project coordinators with regard to the current state of virtual project management environment challenges and practices. The results from these research questions allowed me to identify possible solutions, critical to the success of virtual project performance.

•Q 1. How does the current state of environment challenges and practices of virtual project

management tools in a global project environment vary, as perceived by project managers

and corporate project coordinators from U.S. based multinational organizations?

•Q 2. How does the current state of environment challenges and practices of virtual project

management tools influence the process of project management as perceived by project

managers and corporate project coordinators from U.S. based multinational organizations?

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Research Questions Contd.

• Q 3. How does the current state of environment challenges and

practices of virtual project management tools optimize the value

of virtual project management within the global project

environment as perceived by project managers and corporate

project coordinators from U.S. based multinational organizations?

• Q 4. How does the current state of environment challenges and

practices of virtual project management tools used in global

project management influence overall organization project

performance as perceived by project managers and corporate

project coordinators from U.S. based multinational organizations?

Nature of the Study/ Significance of the Study

Nature of the Study

•The nature of the research develops the perceptions from a qualitative method by means of an embedded case study (Yin, 2009). An embedded case study approach was used to develop constructs of comparative analysis of the perceptions for the experienced project managers and corporate project coordinators about their understanding of virtual project management tools in the global project management environment.

Significance of the Study

•The study identified how the use of virtual project management tools can mitigate the challenges facing virtual project management and improve overall organizational project performance.

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Literature Review

• Literature review was used to understand the current state of virtual project management and global project implementations and identify the gap in the literature to be addressed in this dissertation as it relates to project management, virtual project management, building virtual communities, virtual management tools, challenges of virtual project management and contribution of project management to organizational performance

Project Management:• Project management techniques became easier due to the use of PC and

information technology and telecommunication systems (Pasian, Sankaran, & Boydell, 2012; Xu et al., 2014). It is used by organizations to perform tasks, solve problems and undertake complex projects (Dinsmore & Cabanis-Brewin, 2011). And to address some of the organizational problems in an organized manner (Meredith & Mantel, 2011; Xu et al., 2014).

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Literature Review Cont.

Virtual Project Management:•Virtual project management is the framework by which virtual groups cooperate for the determinate of time for particular objective (Anantatmula & Thomas, 2010; Meredith & Mantel, 2011; Ward & Daniel, 2013).

•Existing studies revealed that virtual operations enhanced financial gain by improving productivity, reducing travel time and cutting back on other costs (Anantatmula & Thomas, 2010; Drouin et al., 2010; Kuruppuarachchi, 2009).

Building Virtual Communities:•Engaging virtual project teams in a global project gives the organization flexibility, awareness, lower labor costs, and better deployment of resources necessary to meet project requirements in global project management environments (Anantatmula & Thomas, 2010; Bierly et al., 2009; Curlee, 2008; Drouin et al., 2010; García et al., 2010; Ren et al., 2012).

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Literature Review Cont.

Virtual Management Tools:•The virtual management tools play important roles in coordinating virtual teams toward a cohesive environment (Hamilton et al., 2010; Ren et al., 2012; Sotomayor, Montero, Llorente, & Foster, 2009). Attachment among team members are initiated with the use of virtual management tools between a member and the organization (Hamilton et al., 2010; Ren et al., 2012; Sotomayor et al., 2009; Tohidi, 2011). •While virtual tools application that facilitates trust may be beneficial towards effective management and achievement of a solid virtual team, poor virtual tools or even poor management of such tools may be detrimental to managing such environments like global projects that is becoming heavily dependent on virtual teams (Bierly et al., 2009; Curlee, 2008).

Challenges of Virtual Project Management:•The challenges encountered within the project management circles are vast and how the project teams optimize the worth of virtual management within projects is desirable•The main reasons for global organizations’ adoption of the virtual teams are to respond to decentralization and globalization and to meet the increasing challenges related to market competition and turbulence (Lee-Kelley & Sankey, 2007; Zander et al., 2012). •Due to the distance between virtual project team members, they must depend on technology to build effective communication (Lee-Kelley & Sankey, 2007; Zander et al., 2012).

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Literature Review Cont.

Contribution of Project Management to Organizational Performance:•A cluster of studies have concluded that project management contributions to organizational performance is an on-going phenomenon of change in the global scenario as a driver of organizational aspirations towards growth and subsequent contributions of effective project management on the overall performance of business entities (Aubry & Hobbs, 2011; Fernandez & Fernandez, 2009; Lee, 2008; Nambisan, 2003; Reed & Knight, 2011; Thomas & Mengel, 2008).

•Virtual project teams are hardly in corporal proximity, which means that the attachment and acquaintance of conventional environments of group dynamic is absent (Curlee, 2008; Drouin et al., 2010; Ren et al., 2012).

•The contributions of virtual project teams to organizational performance are the results and outcomes of individual performance in creating the value of the team to the organization through the use of communication, trust, team formation and collaboration (Glückler & Schrott, 2007).

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Research Method and Design

• An embedded case study design approach - An embedded case study was selected to acquire the information that was needed in the

research. - An embedded case study approach was selected over other qualitative approaches because

of the closer alignment with the problem and research question. - Cooper and Schindler (2006) stated that one of the most crucial parts of an embedded case

study is the selection of right methodology to enhance the integrity of the study and acquire better outcomes.

• The qualitative research method helped explain the how and why:- According to Yin (2009), a qualitative case study is the suitable research method after it is

established that (a) answer to statement of the problem can be found by asking “why” and “how” research questions, (b) the researcher and research has limited or no control over the events of the study or the subjects of the research and (c) the case study is of contemporary nature.

- Characteristic of qualitative studies are the development of themes, achieved from evidences and the showing of data to create a clear and consistent depiction (Yin, 2009).

- Qualitative research comprises of the understanding of different perspectives, experiences, and meanings that individuals or groups attribute to a human or social problem (Borrego, Elliot, & Catherine, 2009; Creswell, 2013; Yin, 2009).

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Population & Sample

• Population- The population was Project Managers and Corporate Project Coordinators who are senior

decision-making executives in the field of health information technology and oil producing project management.

- The health information systems and oil producing organizations implement virtual projects that varied in durations, costs, project team sizes, and complexities. These projects represents a diverse variety of industries in scopes, disperse locations and have the characteristics similar to those of most multinational organizations.

• Sample- Final sample was 12 project managers and corporate project coordinators- Have virtual project management experience and - have led virtual projects within the last three years

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Field-Tested

• The interview questions were field-tested - By one project manager and two corporate project coordinators who were not

members of the study’s sample - To test the procedures

• These non-participating members of the study were qualified to comment on the interview protocol because of the similarity in interests to those that participated in the study (Raiyani, 2012; Salkind, 2010; Venkatesh et al., 2013).

• Field test results were used to improve the interview questions and formats (Raiyani, 2012; Salkind, 2010; Venkatesh et al., 2013).

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Data Collection, Processing, and Analysis

• Prior to the start of the data collection, informed consent forms were distributed to each participant to signed and return.

• The research participants were briefed before the interview on the research topic, purpose of the study, informed consent, duration and structure of the interview (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009).

• Data collection came from semi-structured interviews of project managers and corporate project coordinators. Semi-structured interviews were appropriate as the research sought to obtain or explore participant insights (Yin, 2009).

• The semi-structured, open-ended questions provided rich information regarding the phenomenon of virtual project management (Creswell, 2009; 2013).

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Data Collection, Processing, and Analysis

• Telephone interviews lasted 30 – 45 and were digitally recorded and note taken on every interview sessions.

• Verbatim data was manually transcribed immediately after every interview session. Data collected was kept in a fully encrypted storage device(s).

• Data collection concluded following the saturation of emerging responses from the nine project managers and three corporate project coordinators.

Data Analysis• The analysis of the collected data started once the interviews were completed• The constant comparative method was used to identify emerging themes pertaining to

virtual project management tools and information technology. • The emerging themes were identified, analyzed and grouped into themes or codes

(Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). • Triangulation was used to address the techniques for accuracy and trustworthiness

(Buyukkaya, & Abdallah, 2009; Flick, 2009; Homburg, Klarmann, Reimann, & Schilke, 2012; Jonsen, & Jehn, 2009).

• According to Yin (2009), triangulation method is technique used to increase the trustworthiness of the data collection and interpretation.

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Demographic Characteristics of the Participants

• Demographic information was obtained from each participant and indicated that all twelve participants, are in project management occupation, have over 3 years of project management experiences and all college graduates with project locations in United States. The participants were seven males and five females, and represented three organizations.

Table 1: shows the demographic profile of the participants.

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Participant # and PositionYear of Service

Gender

Age Level of Education Project Location

Organization

# 1 Corporate Project Coordinator 17 Male

MBA USA Meditech

# 2 Project Manager 12 Female BSc USA Meditech

# 3 Project Manager 5 Female MBA USA Meditech

# 4 Project Manager 12 Male MSc USA Meditech

# 5 Project Manager 13 Male MA USA Meditech

# 6 Project Manager 7 Female MBA USA Meditech# 7 Corporate Project Coordinator 5 Female MBA USA Murphy Oil

# 8 Project Manager 24 Male MSc USA PPI# 9 Project Manager 4 Male BSc USA PPI# 10 Project Manager 6 Male BSc USA Meditech# 11 Corporate Project Coordinator 12 Male BSc USA PPI

# 12 Project Manager 16 Female BSc USA PPI

Findings

• Results• During the data collections, all of the participants were assigned a unique identifier

(e.g., Participant #) to ensure privacy and confidentiality. The transcribed interviews were analyzed through NVivo software to group, categorize, and analyze the data. This software tool helped to identify themes present in the research questions.

• To begin, research participants were asked how often they had face-to-face encounters with their virtual project members per year.

• Research participants’ responses reveal that how often virtual project members meet face-to-face often depends on the particular project and its location, although half of the participants prefer monthly face-to-face encounters.

• Responses reveal the importance of technologies for overcoming the limits of distance in research participants’ perceptions of the current state of virtual project management tools based on their own experiences as a project manager in both conventional and virtual project environments.

• Responses reveal that communication, issues related to personality, documents, software, team and time management are the most influential challenges of the virtual project environment with relation to the process of project management.

• When asked about their perceptions of working as member of a virtual project team, research participants reveal the importance of both communication and relationships.

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Findings Cont.

• Participants were asked to discuss their experiences of a virtual project team’s contribution to projects in relations to: global project environments, team cooperation and collaboration (teamwork), team productivity, the use of information technologies, communications, information sharing and overall organization project performance (outcomes).

Responses were reveal as follows:

- In relations to global project environments: communication, efficiency, geography and team work were important themes.

- In relation to team cooperation and collaboration: trust, communication and team leadership as important themes.

- In relation to use of information technologies. The responses reveal that virtual projects rely on information technologies.

- In relation to communications. The responses reveal the importance of utilizing the right tools and technologies.

- In relation to information sharing. The responses reveal the importance of tools and technologies as well as the importance of information sharing for virtual projects.

- In relation to organization project performance. The responses reveal the importance of selecting the right tools and technologies as well as the importance of communication for organization project performance. 19

Findings Cont.

• Research participants were asked to describe how successful or unsuccessful the use of virtual project management tools are based on their experiences in virtual project environments. Their responses reveal that the use of virtual project management tools were most successful when good communication and trust were present, and least successful when these areas were lacking.

• Research participants were asked how virtual project environment practices optimize the value of virtual project management. Their responses reveal the importance of information technologies, communication and communication tools and technologies for optimizing the value of virtual project management.

• Research participants were asked whether virtual project teams are more advantageous or disadvantageous to successful project team performance than those of conventional team settings. Research participants overwhelmingly saw virtual project teams as more advantageous than conventional team settings and noted the use of information technology, cost saving and team collaboration as the aspects that make virtual project teams more advantageous.

•

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Evaluation of Findings

• Research participants were asked how often they had face-to-face encounters with their virtual project members per year. Half of the research participants (6 out of 12 research participants) stated that they had face-to-face encounters with their virtual project members once per month. In addition, half of the research participants stated that it depended on other factors regarding how often they had face-to-face encounters with their virtual project members.

- The findings are in support of various literatures that showed regularity of face-to-face contacts as the supplementary basis for categorization in virtual project (Verburg et al., 2013; Fayard, & Weeks, 2011).

• When asked about their perceptions of the current state of virtual project management tools based on their own experiences as a project manager in both conventional and virtual project environments, the majority (8 out of the 12 research participants) mentioned technologies in their answer. In particular, half (4 out of 8) describe technologies as essential.

- This is in agreement with studies that indicated that virtual project management tools play important roles in virtual projects environment (Hamilton et al., 2010; Ren et al., 2012; Sotomayor, Montero, Llorente, & Foster, 2009). For example, Participant 4 stated, “The current state of virtual project management tools are dependent on technology in order to work properly.”

• On how virtual tools overcome the limits of distance- The findings concur with previous evidence that suggests virtual project management tools in a virtual

project environment are interconnected and communally supportive attributes of communication, technology, trust, and leadership (Bierly et al., 2009; Curlee, 2008; Drouin et al., 2010; García et al., 2010; Hamilton et al., 2010; Reed & Knight, 2011).

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Evaluation of Findings

• Research participants were asked about the challenges of virtual project environments that influence the process of project management. Their responses reveal that communication, issues related to personality, documents, software, team and time management are the most influential challenges of the virtual project environment with relation to the process of project management.

- The findings align with previous studies of the challenges in virtual management of projects, dislocation of team members, utilization of interactive media for communication, distinctions in time, and disparities related to culture (Lee-Kelley & Sankey, 2007; Zander et al., 2012).

• When asked about their perceptions of working as member of a virtual project team half of the research participants (6 out of 12) mentioned communication in their answers.

- The findings agrees with a previous study that stated that virtual project team members are keen to using virtual communication tools and willing to share the acquired knowledge with others in the virtual community with the leadership of project manager or project management office (Gilson et al., 2013).

• When asked how virtual project environment practices optimize the value of virtual project management, half of the research participants (6 out of 12) mentioned information technologies in their responses.

- The findings concur with the study that revealed communication within virtual project teams to optimize the value of virtual project management through instant messages, e-mails and other technologically-oriented tools (Anantatmula & Thomas, 2010).

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Conclusions

Implications for Practice•Information that assists in recognizing and identifying the challenges that the use of digital collaboration tools such webinars, audio, and video conferencing posed with virtual project teams, can be found in this study. •This useful information can aid in making informed decisions on selecting the right virtual project management tools that can increase the potential for successful project implementation in a virtual project environments.

- The research concurs with the findings in the study by Lee-Kelley and Sankey (2007) that found virtual project management teams generally utilize innovative technologies to attain their predetermined organizational objectives.

•The benefit this study provides to the practice of virtual project management is that information technologies are one of the most desired tools of project managers and corporate coordinators and they relied on these tools as the ways for interaction among team members. •The research community can benefit from this research. The advantage to the research community is that this study adds valuable research evidence on virtual project management tools, the perceptions of project managers and corporate project coordinators where a clear gap exists.

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Recommendations

• As a result of the research findings, the following recommendations were developed:

- that formal training be developed and made available to virtual project team members before their participation in a virtual project. The training should cover such innovations as e-mail, member’s portal, SharePoint, audio/video/data conferencing, and automated workflow.

- the use of standardized information technologies in a virtual project environment. The standardized of information technologies should be tailored to the needs of the virtual project teams and in turn will minimize the need for face-to-face interaction.

- incorporating a series of weekly or biweekly virtual meetings that allows for frequent interactions and sharing of project information. Virtual meetings facilitate emotions and feelings, while documents sharing through the use of SharePoint assist in a richer communication of the virtual project message.

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Future Research

The following future research areas were recommended:

• Study on perceptions of project managers and corporate project coordinators that compare worldwide responses against US based responses. Understanding the perceptions of other countries will help strengthen the results, beneficial to global PMOs and project team members working on international projects.

• A quantitative study to complement the qualitative research. This aims at the limitation of being unable to generalize results. The results of this study could be tested using quantitative methods by examining responses by both project managers and corporate project coordinators who are experienced in virtual project management.

• To expand the research to participants who are member of a virtual project team. The study should focused on all virtual project team members because their perceptions might be different than that of only the project managers and corporate project coordinators.

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Thank You for Your Attendance

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