virtual teams pros and cons

 I do not agree with packaged business model solutions. Every model has its own pros and cons to it. I rather optimize the model for a requirement so that the pros are weighted.

We will now take major aspects of project managing virtual teams and compare it with stationed team.

Performance :
In general principles, team processes can be classified into two categories: task-related — including those that help ensure each member is contributing fully; and socio-emotional — including those that increase the cohesion of the group

Project postmortem data has taught us that the task related process gives best value, where as organizational values increase when the team is not dispersed.

Agile project management principles are based on task related process. However Agile principles state that two brains working towards a common task from a single shared computer gives better results than a single brain.

Quality Control:
It is always good to build quality standards within the organization and use trained employees to improve overall quality. However quality works hand in hand with cutting edge process and technology, hence organizations recruit people from different companies with higher quality standards to inherit best practices and principles.

I have noted that virtual teams can be propagated/upgraded to inherit quality standards much more easily than stationed teams. However there should be a base minimum benchmark to quality and standards laid out. Methodical documentation should be followed by every virtual team member during the development process.


Project Co-ordination:

Common coordination challenges faced by virtual teams are as follows:

1. Time zone differences
2. Power and infrastructure facility breakdown
3. Language issues within teams
   
4. Communication issues and failure to understand the tasks assigned to them.

I plan descriptive posts that will help you overcome these specific challenges of virtual teams and build solutions to give more weight to pros.