Virtual Project Risk Research In Progress April Reed Linda Knight DePaul University May 23, 2006.

Virtual Project Risk Research In Progress

April ReedLinda KnightDePaul UniversityMay 23, 2006

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Outline

• Research Question• Purpose of Research• Importance of Research

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The Research Question

Are there significant differences between virtual and traditional software development projects critical to successful project completion?

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Virtual teams

"Virtual teams are groups of geographically, organizationally and/or time dispersed workers brought together by information and telecommunication technologies to accomplish one or more organizational tasks“ (Powell et al., 2004)

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Purpose of this Research

Identification of differences useful to corporations:

1. In determining most effective type of team to use

2. In decreasing project failure rates

Boehm suggested focusing on top critical risks of a project to improve project success.

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Importance of this Research

Many drivers creating greater dependence on virtual teams:

•Offshoring – working with global resources

•Outsourcing•Increased cost of travel•Fear of travel due to security concerns

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Importance of this Research – Project Failure Statistics

• Project failures not decreasing• Project failures extremely costly to

organizationsCHAOS report statistics on project

failure:• 2000 rpt: 23% failed, 49% challenged• 3rd Qtr 2004 rpt: 18% failed, 53%

challenged (Standish Group International, I. (2001). Extreme chaos. & (2004). Chaos demographics - 2004 third quarter research report)

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Hypothesis

• There are many similarities in the risk factors of virtual versus traditional projects

• Critical risk factors in these two types of projects are different

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Research Methodology

1. Development of survey instrument2. Pilot Group: face-to-face interviews using

survey instrument to identify risk factors3. Focus Group to verify identified risk factors4. Revision of risk factor list5. Mass distribution of survey using risk factor

list6. Analysis of results

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Research Progress

• Face-to-face interviews - completed• Focus Group session - completed• Focus Group data analysis – In Progress

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Preliminary Results

Some identified risk factors from the face-to-face interviews:

• Communication• Management of Remote Resources• Trust

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Other Results

• Use of Virtual versus traditional teams•Virtual teaming is more common than expected

•More participants in focus group had worked on a virtual project

• There are many many risk factors

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Communication Risk

• Different aspects of communication• Vehicle – technical & non-technical tools to

share project information, i.e. e-mail, web conference

• Methods & type of information - quick questions or messages vs. important project documents, i.e. requirements, coding specs, etc.

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Communication Vehicle

Virtual teams:• technical communications tools may be only method

to share vital project information & documents• must be accessible by all team members• tools must be compatible

Traditional teams:• have choice of technical & non-technical tools, i.e.

face-to-face meetings• Can mix technical with non-technical for best fit

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Quote on Communication

“It is more difficult to communicate over the phone than walking over to the persons’ desk to talk.”

Kirkman and Mathieu believe the resources important to virtual team success are: software tools and accompanying hardware….

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Management of Remote Resources

• Difference in management style • Comfort level with remote resources• Working with people you may never

see

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Quote on Resource Management

“It takes longer (to do the project) when learning how to manage remote resources while doing it.”

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Trust

•Difficult to tell what remote team members are really doing

•Can trust be built without face-to-face communication?

•If trust is damaged, can it be rebuilt without face-to-face communication?

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Quote on Trust

“I couldn’t see if the people were working.”

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Conclusion

•Unexpected results•Some managers had not worked on

a traditional project in a number of years

•Companies evolved into using virtual teams without the accompanying change in processes or training

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Conclusion

•Any type of project can have risk•Do certain risk occur more often

or with greater intensity on virtual projects?

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Next Steps

• Revision of survey instrument• Mass distribution of survey to

project managers and analysts using a purchased mailing list

• Collection and analysis of data

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Questions

??????

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References

• Boehm, B. W. (1991). Software risk management: Principles and practices. IEEE Software(January 1991), 32-41.

• Jones, R., Oyung, R., & Pace, L. (2005). Working virtually: Challenges of virtual teams: Idea Group Inc.

• Kirkman, B., & Mathieu, J. (2005). The dimensions and antecedents of team virtuality. Journal of Management, 31(5), 700-718.

• Powell, A., Piccoli, G., & Ives, B. (2004). Virtual teams: A review of current literature and directions for future research. The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, 35(1), 6-33.

• Standish Group International, I. (2001). Extreme chaos.• Walther, J. B., Bunz, U., & Bazarova, N. (2005, 2005). The rules of virtual

groups. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2005, Hawaii.