Virtual project management : software solutions for today and the future /: software solutions for today and the future. (2001)

• Record Type: Book
• Further Information: Note: Paul E. McMahon.
• Other Names: McMahon, Paul E, 1949-
• Contents: Introduction; Why do many collaborative ventures fail?; Background; What do we mean by Virtual Collaboration?; Today's Virtual Collaborative project characteristics; Why should you care about Virtual Collaboration?; Why was this book written?; Specifically, what problems will this book help you solve?; A note about the recommendations in this book; What does the future hold?; An Overview and a Roadmap - For Busy Project Leaders; 1. TRADITIONAL COLLOCATED ENGINEERING FROM THE INSIDE; 1.1 HOW DOES AN ENGINEER BECOME EFFECTIVE AT HIS JOB?; 1.2 THE ROLE OF INFORMAL COMMUNICATION; 1.3 ORGANIZATIONAL SUBCULTURES; 1.3.1 Engineering effectiveness and subcultures; 1.4 ORGANIZATIONAL VARIATION; 1.4.1 Large and Small Engineering Organizations; 1.4.2 Systems and Software; 1.5 ORGANIZATIONAL EVOLUTION; 1.5.1 Push-Pull Organizational Tale; 1.5.2 Common Key Characteristics of Successful Organizations; 1.6 ORGANIZATIONAL EXPECTATIONS; 1.7 FORMALITY AND INFORMALITY; 1.8 PROCESS MATURITY; 1.8.1 Is it easy to physically distribute a mature process?; 1.8.2 What makes a mature process mature?; 2. THE TALE OF TWO CULTURES (THE SCHIZOPHRENIC PROJECT); 2.1 THE TALE; 2.1.1 Observations on the effect of personal experience; 2.1.2 Culture, adversity and communication; 2.1.3 Hindrances to effective virtual team communication; 2.1.4 Why conflict resolution often fails on virtual projects; 2.2 A FUNDAMENTAL DILEMMA FACING VIRTUAL PROJECT LEADERS; 2.2.1 The schizophrenic project memory; 2.2.2 The integrated project memory; 2.3 THE ADJACENT CUBICLE HEAD POPPING (ACHP) TALE; 2.4 ABOUT THE CREATIVE DESIGN PROCESS; 2.4.1 Light bulbs in our heads; 2.4.2 Relationship to past experience; 2.4.3 Incubation and assimilation; 2.4.4 Virtual projects and the creative process; 2.5 COLLOCATION AT THE RIGHT TIME; 2.6 AN IMPLEMENTATION OF A VIRTUAL CULTURE; 2.7 CONCLUSION; 3. REMOTE TASK MANAGEMENT: AM I DOING WHAT YOU THINK I'M DOING?; 3.1 THE ARCHITECTURE TALE; 3.1.1 Causes of task miscommunication; 3.2 WHY ARCHITECTURE IS CRITICAL to Effective Remote Tasking; 3.3 A VIEW OF ARCHITECTURE; 3.4 EVOLUTION OF LOCAL MEANING OF TERMS & ITS RELATIONSHIP TO ORGANIZATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES; 3.5 RELATIONSHIP AMONG CRITICAL ISSUES, RISK AND PAST EXPERIENCE; 3.6 USE ARCHITECTU RE TO AID TASK COMMUNICATION; 3.7 The database process tale; 3.8 FUNDAMENTALS, STRONGLY HELD BELIEFS, AND RISK; 3.9 BACK TO OUR TALE; 3.10 CONCLUSION; 4. AN IMPLEMENTATION OF A VIRTUAL CULTURE: THE RAPID FILTERED PROJECT MEMORY (RFPM); 4.1 RFPM CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE GUIDANCE; 4.2 WHY DO WE NEED INCREASED FORMALITY ON TASK ASSIGNMENT DEFINITIONS?; 4.3 WHAT IS A CPDM AND HOW CAN IT HELP?; 4.4 EXAMPLES OF VIRTUAL PROJECT PITFALL AVOIDANCE THROUGH THE USE OF A CPDM; 4.5 CPDM BENEFIT 1-INTEGRATION OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE; 4.6 CPDM BENEFIT 2-FLEXIBILITY OF END-PRODUCT DELIVERABLES; 4.7 Conclusion; 5. TEAM COMMUNICATION: THE RULES OF THE GAME HAVE CHANGED; 5.1 THE TEAM LOYALTY TALE; 5.1.1 Tale observations; 5.1.2 Categorizing team information; 5.1.3 Team rule 1-Be true to your team; 5.1.4 Virtual projects and multiple team allegiances; 5.1.5 Are we asking too much of our remote teammates?; 5.1.6 Back to our tale-the predicament; 5.1.7 Self-directed teams, tiger teams, and control-oriented managers; 5.1.8 The tiger team; 5.1.9 An alternate approach; 5.1.10 "Having a say differs from having a vote"; 5.1.11 More on team loyalty; 5.2 THE USE OF VIRTUAL COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES; 5.2.1 Electronic mail; 5.2.2 Teleconferencing; 5.2.3 Small things and big things; 5.3 THE RULES FOR EFFECTIVE VIRTUAL OPERATIONS; 5.3.1 Recommended rules and maintenance of an RFPM; 5.4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION; 6. THE INTEGRATION SIDE: IT ISN'T A SEAMLESS WORLD JUST YET; 6.1 THE DOCUMENT PRODUCTION DISASTER TALE; 6.1.1 Stepping back-the good news; 6.1.2 The not so good news; 6.2 THE TALE OF "DOWN HERE, AND UP THERE"; 6.2.1 The tale; 6.2.2 The "lets use the most mature process available"; 6.2.3 Observations on process; 6.3 WORK SPLIT OPTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS; 6.3.1 Development phases; 6.3.2 Architecture considerations (subsystems); 6.4 THE INTEGRATION DILEMMA; 6.5 GLOBAL COMPONENT RECOMMENDATIONS; 6.5.1 What is a global component?; 6.5.2 Advantages of global components; 6.5.3 Does the global component approach contradict the virtual concept?; 6.5.4 Terminology clarification; 6.5.5 Three key characteristics of the global component; 6.6 ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS; 6.6.1 Tasking; 6.6.2 Quality; 6.6.3 Integration; 6.7 CONCLUSION; 7. EIGHT PRACTICAL AND AFFORDABLE STEPS TO SET UP AND MAINTAIN A SUCCESSFUL VIRTUAL PROJECT; 7.1 ELEVEN VIRTUAL PITFALLS; 7.2 INTRODUCTION TO THE EIGHT (8) STEP PLAN; 7.2.1 How to use the material in this chapter; Section I - Project Creation; 7.3 STEP 1-ESTABLISH THE HIGH LEVEL PROJECT ORGANIZATION; 7.3.1 Assign team leaders; 7.3.2 Develop charters with clearly defined responsibilities; 7.3.3 Initiate RFPM; 7.4 STEP 2-ESTABLISH WORK SPLIT; 7.4.1 Establish approach; 7.4.2 Establish initial system architecture; 7.4.3 Establish CPDM-a bridge from architecture to subsystems; 7.4.4 Define work split; 7.4.5 Delaying work split definition for the wrong reasons; 7.5 STEP 3-SYSTEM PLANNING; 7.5.1 System build planning; 7.5.2 Requirements allocation; 7.5.3 Integration planning; 7.6 STEP 4-SPECIAL TASKS-INFRASTRUCTURE AND PROJECT RULES; 7.6.1What is infrastructure and how do I determine my project needs; 7.6.2Project rules-communicating the lessons; 7.7 STEP 5-ESTABLISH THE THIRD LEVEL OF THE ORGANIZATION; 7.8 STEP 6-DETAILED PLANNING; 7.8.1 Cultural differences in approaches to detailed planning; 7.8.2 A closer look at three prerequisite tasks; 7.8.3 First things first; Section II - Project Dynamic "testing"; 7.9 STEP 7-TESTING THE CONCEPT OF OPERATION OF THE PROJECT ORGANIZATION; 7.9.1 Task direction-when roving and hierarchical leaders collide; 7.9.2 Task management-a strict versus integration approach; 7.9.3 Cross-site or cross organizational interaction-using a checklist; 7.9.4 Integrated engineering responsibilities-using a checklist; 7.9.5 Customer communication-establishing a well-defined policy; Section III - Execution Phase Warning Signs; 7.10 Step 8-Execution-with a focus on conflict management; 7.10.1 The non-technical side of project execution; 7.10.2 Two forms of conflict; 7.10.3 A sign of healthy conflict; 7.10.4 Key warning signs of destructive conflict; 7.10.5 Preventative maintenance; 7.10.6 Conclusion; 8. Conclusion; 8.1 THE VIRTUAL COMPANY; 8.2 SUMMARIZING OUR APPROACH TO THE COLLABORATIVE CHALLENGE; 8.3 A FINAL NOTE ON THE "INFORMAL" SIDE; 8.4 VIRTUAL PROJECT STRATEGIES OF THE FUTURE; 8.5 MAKING THE STRATEGY WORK; 8.6 SUMMARIZING THE VIRTUAL CULTURE CONCEPT; 8.7 SAMPLE PRODUCTS FROM A VIRTUAL CULTURE; 8.8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF A VIRTUAL CULTURE; 8.9 VIRTUAL CULTURES OF THE FUTURE; 8.10 WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NOW?; 8.10.1 New Projects; 8.10.2 Existing Projects; 8.11 THE VIRTUAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK; 8.12 HOW TO USE THE FRAMEWORK; APPENDIX ACPDM GUIDE; APPENDIX BDEFINITIONS; APPENDIX CTEMPLATES; APPENDIX DFORMS; APPENDIX ESAMPLE FORMS; APPENDIX FCRITERIA; Appendix GWarning signs; Appendix HChecklists; APPENDIX IRULES; APPENDIX JFAQS; Appendix K The "Big Picture" Views; Appendix LSynopsis of 34 Insights and 50 Solutions
• Publisher Details: Boca Raton, FL : St. Lucie Press
• Publication Date: 2001
• Extent: 1 online resource (xxiv, 319 pages)
• Subjects: 005.1/068; Computer software -- Development -- Management; COMPUTERS -- Software Development & Engineering -- Project Management; Computer software -- Development -- Management; Projectmanagement; Software; Teamwork; Organisatiecultuur; Electronic books
• Languages: English
• ISBNs: 9781420025521; 9781574442984; 1574442988
• Related ISBNs: 142002552X; 1574442988
• Notes: Note: Includes bibliographical references and index.; Note: Print version record.
• Access Rights: Legal Deposit; Only available on premises controlled by the deposit library and to one user at any one time; The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK).
• Access Usage: Restricted: Printing from this resource is governed by The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK) and UK copyright law currently in force.