Global Project Management Case Study

There are many similarities and differences between domestic and global project management. A project manager must realize that what might work in their country may not work in a foreign environment. Project managers might find themselves using practices that have worked for them in the past, without even thinking of the new environment, and issues may arise. Project managers need to understand the differences in a different country's environment to avoid and reduce any obstacles that there may be. Some considerations global project managers must consider are the legal, political, security, geographical, economic infrastructure, and culture implications of working with different countries (Gray, 2006).

Some legal and political issues project

Project managers must be aware of other nationalities' social customs, religious beliefs and work practices (Gray, 2006). Being open and flexible to differences in team member's backgrounds is important to being effective when managing global teams. In some countries, bartering and even bribery is an expected part of the business process. The labor supply, skill level and education of other nationalities is not necessarily on par with our standards, some have higher standards, and some have lower standards (Gray, 2006).

Even the idea of time as a resource in the United States is foreign to other nationalities. The Hispanic culture puts relationship and people before deadlines and timelines (Gray, 2006). In Japan, team members are used to being pushed and directed as a team, while Americans will go it alone, and want to work more independently. Various holidays among the cultures can influence a project manager's time line and ability to achieve milestones if the team member's ethnic customs are not factored in (Alexander,

If they do not do this, their projects will not be successful.

Outsourcing has increased over the past few years, creating virtual teams. There have been several forms of project management systems used by this type of team such as Web-based project management systems. Software continues to develop at a rapid pace, and the need for improved communications with virtual teams is a necessity. Currently, incompatible networks, expensive videoconferencing, broadband services not available everywhere, and the inability (due to cost) for virtual teams to meet face to face make virtual team communications much more difficult (Alexander, 2000).

Time delays in other parts of the world are also a challenge for a project manager working with a virtual team. When communication is compromised, trust between virtual team members is at risk. Virtual team members do not have the advantage of assessing other team member's body language or facial expressions. They can only infer meaning through word choice and tone, and this makes virtual communication much more challenging as well (Alexander, 2000). Face to face interactions have been proven to be more than twice as productive as videoconferencing so virtual team meetings have a definite disadvantage (McKinnon,