MANAGIND A PROJECT IN A GLOBAL MARKET
I have never managed a project before. The only thing I can recall from memory is that the Project Life Cycle has four stages:
- Defining
- Planning
- Executing
- Closing
Before I go any further I want to start with the basics. I want to know what a project is and what are some of the major characteristics of a project? Once I have the basic understanding of a project, I can explore the idea of how projects leads manage projects on a global scale.
Larson and Gray, authors of our textbook “project management the managerial process” define a project as a “temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result”. Some of the major characteristics of a project that Larson and Gray talk about are:
- A defined objective.
- Each project has a beginning and an end date.
- Usually, several people and departments are involved.
- Typically, doing something that has never been done before.
In my opinion, managing a project has to be very stressful and time consuming. So, how do managers manage a project on a global scale? To answer this question I turned to Neil Stolovitsky’s article “Strategic Project Management in a Global Economy:
Best Practices in Managing Geographically Dispersed Project Teams”
According to Stolovitskly communications across borders, oceans, and time zones have been eliminated due to technological advances. As customers become more demanding and impatient, businesses face the challenge of delivering superior product and services faster than ever. Stolovitsky explains the challenges that project leaders face while managing projects on a global scale.
These challenges are:
- Cultural diversity, people in different countries speak different language, probability of miscommunication.
- Remote team members don’t have regular contact with their project lead. This makes communication challenging.
- Application of traditional project management techniques to their global reality (planning, adhering to timelines, specifications, and costs). Own styles of communications are often implemented.
What should organizations do to improve the communication between team members located thousands of miles away? Stolovitsky proposes few solutions;
- Distance: “Nothing can replace real human interactions”; organizations should make a conscious effort and allow for occasional face-to-face interaction.
- Language: “Appoint a lead resource to address translation”; multi-lingual companies will benefit when there is an appointed translator translating all correspondence. This will decrease the probability of inaccurate information being communicated between tea members.
- Business Culture: different work styles should be recognized in order to avoid issues.
- Time Zones: project leads should schedule meeting so the team members from different time zones are available.
- Access to Information: information on any project related matter should be made available 24/7.
Stolotiskly suggested few solutions to better manage geographically dispersed project teams. Having a better understanding of what a project is, and what are some of its main characteristics, what are some other solutions you can think of, to make managing project on a global scale more efficient?
Marzena, thank you for posting this interesting article. I agree that when you’re dealing with people far away, there are extra steps to take into consideration. I think the first point is the most important. You mentioned one of the challenges is a cultural diversity. If you have a face-to-face interaction then you eliminate miscommunication via the web. I also think body language plays a huge part in communication across borders, so it’s another reason to meet someone in person.
The third point is the next important piece. Business culture can be very contrasting, and it’s important to empathize with that. Some cultures like to develop relationships with their partners. They will take their time getting to work. They think titles are to be respected. It’s essential to take that into consideration so nobody get offended at a person’s actions.
The company that I work for is head quartered in Schaumburg, IL, but has offices in Alpharetta, GA; Bloomington, MN; Verdun and Oakville Canada. I was part of a task force working on projects to help better serve our customers and improve our internal processes. Group members were selected from our home and remote offices to ensure diverse representation. If one of the project sponsors (one of the executives) wasn’t present at a meeting to encourage participation from the members calling into the meeting, it would almost be a guaranty that we wouldn’t hear a peep through the phone from the remote offices. The meetings became so frustrating that the home office team stopped calling into the conference number and met without including the offsite members. To manage those projects more efficiently, participation from the remote office members should have been encouraged. A stronger project leader would have also helped in leading a more efficient meeting so members from the home office don’t feel like they just wasted an hour of their time or as if they are carrying the entire project.
Working on a project with a team that is overseas can be both rewarding and challenging. My experience with such projects involved being the team leader for a software development project. Our software provider was in India and Detroit. Following the project life cycle proved to be beneficial because it helped the team stay on track. However, like any project, we had our share of challenges. Some of the challenges I encountered had to do more with agreeing on the content of the software and the timeline. In regards to the challenges that you list, my team was able to adjust to these as much as possible because we formed a good working relationship with our software provider. Even though distance was a challenge, we would travel to Detroit a few days before the software would get released for a review session to make sure everything was addressed in the new software. The team from India would call into this phone conference as well. Language was not an issue since everyone spoke English, and business culture was not something we had an issues with. Time Zone differences were both good and bad. Good in the sense that while I slept, the team in India would be developing the software. When I would arrive to work the following morning, the software was in my inbox; and I still had an hour in the morning before they left work for the day if I had a fast question. Bad in the sense, that if I had a question, I would have to wait until the following day for a response. Regarding access to information; sometimes this was challenging because some of the information was proprietary and confidential so it couldn’t be shared with our software supplier easily.