Please respond to the 2 separate student discussion responses below in 150 to 200 words each and 1 APA citation each.

References

Harrington, R. (2017). Understanding the core features needed for
online systems. . Retrieved from
https://www.lynda.com/Video-tutorials/Understandin…

Harrington, R. (2017). Using online project management tools.
[Lynda.com video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.lynda.com/Video-tutorials/Using-online…

Meredith, J. R., Mantel, S. J., & Shafer, S. M. (2017). Project management: A managerial approach (10th ed.). Hoboken: Wiley.

Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) (6th ed.). Newton Square, PA: PMI Publications.

Required

• Chapter 10 in Project Management: A Strategic Managerial Approach
• Chapter 10 PowerPoints from Project Management: A Strategic Managerial Approach
• PMSRC – Project Management System Resource Center.

Recommended

• Ahonen, J., Savolainen, P., Merikoski, H., & Nevalainen, J. (2015). Reported project management effort, project size, and contract type. The Journal of Systems and Software, 109, 205.
• Al Khatib, S., & Noppen, J. (2017). Benchmarking and comparison of software project human resource allocation optimization approaches. ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, 41(6), 1-6.

POST1:

Managing
projects in a virtual and global environment provides the project
manager with a unique set of requirements to ensure the project runs
smoothly. The project manager will have to consider differences in
culture, language skills, and time zones (Binder, 2009). The company I
currently work at has multiple sites throughout the country, and also
does outsource a lot of it’s technical work to a company in India. The
company uses virtual collaboration through web meetings and instant
messaging software which allows the individuals to bridge the
geographical gap. With a site in Charlotte, Denver, and India, it does
make it difficult coordinating times to do a daily meeting as Denver is 2
hours behind Charlotte and 11.5 hours behind India. Most project
conform to the Eastern time zone, which requires the Denver employees to
attend fairly early meetings, and Individuals in India to attend very
late meetings in the evening.

It is also common for multiple individuals on a project team to be
working remotely from their homes, which also add to the complexity for
logistics. As O’Conchuir (2012) indicates, another challenge of working
virtually is the lack of teambuilding that happens because people don’t
know each other, and do not have regular face to face meetings. In my
experience, team building does happen, it just takes longer to do so
virtually. There have been situations where project managers working
from home had to cancel or reschedule meetings because they were having
some issues with their internet connection, or something going on at
their home during a meeting.

There have been situations where there is a language barrier, but
typically what helps overcome those language barriers has been
prototyping or providing examples to ensure the requirements are being
captured correctly. Another key strategy when working a virtual or
global project is the use of SaaS applications that allow the tracking
of project tasks and statuses. The company I work for uses Jira to track
project work, including tasks and issues. These tasks and statuses from
the system are used to report project progress to all of the
stakeholders.

Reference

Binder, J. (2009). The global project management framework:
communication, collaboration, and management across borders. Retrieved
from
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/global-projec…

O’Conchuir, D. (2012). Human challenges of multi-location projects.
Retrieved from
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/human-challen…

POST 2:

In my current profession, I work rather remotely from my company. The
actual company is based in New York and we have regionals all over the
nation, not global but still dealing with different time zones and
culture change from coast to coast. With the help of technology, such as
webinars and even basic email a good deal of work can be done without
actually having the entire sales team in one location. It also saves the
company a great deal of money to not have to buy a hotel, meals, and
flights each time we need to get together. As I am the youngest of all
the sales team, I have somehow to become the tech expert. I think this
may be the first hurdle of a global project manager, the fear the older
generation seems to have with learning new technology. Going global may
sound intimidating at first. Binder explains that “multicultural teams
can increase the level of innovation when various standpoints are
fostered and harvested” (2018). When properly ran a multicultural or
global team can prove different ideas and ways of thinking creating a
much more dynamic system for the project manager to use.

The unique requirements of project teams and other stakeholders in a
global environment can be as simple as being abreast of other countries
and cultures vacation time and religious holidays. According to the
writers at the College of St. Scholastica, “add to that different time
zones, cultures, potential language barriers and locations around the
world, and a global project manager becomes all the more important to
the viability of a project” (2018). Now not only are you managing a
project but also all these other variables that must line up perfectly.
You will have to allow extra time for different time zones and plan
meetings around them. Virtual collaboration platforms such as Skype or
Zoom allow you to talk and sometimes even share your screen with
multiple people at once. This allows for seamless sharing of information
between multiple offices anywhere with internet access.

References:

Binder, J. (2009). The global project management framework:
communication, collaboration, and management across borders. Retrieved
from https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/global-project-management-framework-6863 (Links to an external site.)

The College of St. Scholastica. (May 14, 2018). What is global

project management? The framework shaping multicultural teams of the

future. Retrieved from http://www.css.edu/the-sentinel-blog/what-is-global-project-management.html