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Building Effective

Virtual Project Collaboration

A study of the benefits and challenges of

geographically distributed virtual project work

ERIK KARLSSON

Master of Science Thesis

Stockholm, Sweden 2014

Building Effective Virtual Project Collaboration A study of the benefits and challenges of geographically distributed virtual project work

Erik Karlsson

June 2014 Master Thesis no. 329, 2014

©Erik Karlsson, 2014 Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Department of Real Estate and Construction Management Degree Programme in Civil Engineering and Urban Management Architectural Design and Construction Project Management Stockholm, Sweden, 2014

Preface

After being accepted to participate in the 2014 version of the AEC Global Teamwork organized by the PBL Lab at Stanford University, I contacted my friend, collAEC Global Teamwork student Gustav Westphal who provided me with the idea of combining my upcoming master thesis with the AEC Global Teamwork. I would like to extend a special thank you to Gustav for this idea

I would also like to thank KTH, NCC, the PBL Lab at Stanford University and especially Dr. Renate Fruchter for the opportunity to particbeen an invaluable personal experience and a prerequisite for the

Thank you to my supervisors, Väino Tarandi at KTH and Maria Freeney and Erik Dahl at NCC, your feedback and guidance in forming the subject and the research question have been highly valuable.

Lastly, I would like to thank ththe interview study.

Stockholm, June 2014

Erik Karlsson

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After being accepted to participate in the 2014 version of the AEC Global Teamwork organized by the PBL Lab at Stanford University, I contacted my friend, collAEC Global Teamwork student Gustav Westphal who provided me with the idea of combining my upcoming master thesis with the AEC Global Teamwork. I would like to

to Gustav for this idea which resulted in this thesis

I would also like to thank KTH, NCC, the PBL Lab at Stanford University and especially Dr. Renate Fruchter for the opportunity to participate in the 2014 AEC Global Teamwork, it has been an invaluable personal experience and a prerequisite for the writing of this master thesis.

Thank you to my supervisors, Väino Tarandi at KTH and Maria Freeney and Erik Dahl at NCC, your feedback and guidance in forming the subject and the research question have been

Lastly, I would like to thank the interviewees who took time to answer my questions during

After being accepted to participate in the 2014 version of the AEC Global Teamwork organized by the PBL Lab at Stanford University, I contacted my friend, colleague and former AEC Global Teamwork student Gustav Westphal who provided me with the idea of combining my upcoming master thesis with the AEC Global Teamwork. I would like to

which resulted in this thesis.

I would also like to thank KTH, NCC, the PBL Lab at Stanford University and especially Dr. AEC Global Teamwork, it has

writing of this master thesis.

Thank you to my supervisors, Väino Tarandi at KTH and Maria Freeney and Erik Dahl at NCC, your feedback and guidance in forming the subject and the research question have been

e interviewees who took time to answer my questions during

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Abstract

Virtual project work is a phenomena that occurs more and more often in the globalized world of today. Organizations extend their area of business to new regions, competences from different geographical regions are used in projects in other parts of the world, joint ventures to win projects are formed between companies from different geographical regions etc. These scenarios have become possible due to the development of effective collaboration tools and techniques. Although, even if advanced technical tools exist today, a number of challenges have to be overcome in order to achieve effective virtual project collaboration.

The objective of this master thesis has been to examine the subject of effective project collaboration in geographically distributed virtual project teams and to identify certain key elements that are necessary to keep in mind in order to achieve an effective work process in geographically distributed virtual project teams.

The results in this master thesis consist of a compilation of the findings from a literature study, a case study and an interview study where many things reported in literature were found both in the case study and in the interview study.

The conclusions of the findings from the three studies have been summarized in a recommendation list, or framework, for effective virtual project collaboration presented at the end of the thesis. The most important features of the framework are the necessity to have a well-defined organization and decision-making process, clear definition of formal communication channels for backtracking of communicated information, planning the work well beforehand and only use technical tools that can be mastered by the project participants. Consequently, put the focus on the process of using the technical tools instead of the technical tools themselves.

Keywords: Virtual projects, geographically distributed work

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Sammanfattning

Virtuellt projektarbete är ett allt oftare förekommande fenomen i dagens globaliserade värld. Organisationer utvidgar sitt verksamhetsområde till nya regioner, kompetenser från andra geografiska regioner nyttjas i projekt över hela världen, företag från olika delar av världen samarbetar för att vinna upphandlingar av projekt mm. Dessa scenarion har möjliggjorts av den tekniska utvecklingen av effektiva tekniska samarbetsverktyg. Även om avancerade tekniska verktyg existerar idag återfinns en rad utmaningar som behöver övervinnas för att skapa effektivt virtuellt samarbete.

Målet med detta examensarbete har varit att undersöka ämnet effektivt samarbete i distansarbetande virtuella projektgrupper samt att identifiera vissa nyckelfaktorer för att åstadkomma en effektiv arbetsprocess i distansarbetande virtuella projektgrupper.

Resultaten i detta examensarbete består av en sammanställning av undersökningsresultaten från en litteraturstudie, en fallstudie och en intervjustudie där många av resultaten från litteraturstudien även återfinns i fallstudien och i intervjustudien.

Slutsatserna dragna utifrån resultaten av de tre studierna har summerats i en rekommendationslista som ämnar att fungera som ett ramverk för att skapa effektivt samarbete i virtuella projektgrupper. Denna rekommendationslista återfinns i slutet av examensarbetet. De viktigaste delarna i ramverket är vikten av att ha en väldefinierad organisation och beslutsprocess, tydlig definition av formella kommunikationsvägar för att underlätta spårning av vad som tidigare kommunicerats, välplanerat arbete före projektstart samt att endast använda tekniska verktyg med hög grad av användarvänlighet och istället lägga fokus på att utforma en effektiv arbetsprocess för användandet av dessa tekniska verktyg.

Nyckelord: Virtuella projekt, distansarbete

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Contents

Preface ........................................................................................................................................ i

Abstract .................................................................................................................................... iii

Sammanfattning ....................................................................................................................... v

1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 9

1.1 Background ............................................................................................................. 9

1.2 AEC Global Teamwork ........................................................................................... 9

1.3 NCC Project Studio ................................................................................................. 9

1.3.1 Co-location ............................................................................................... 10

1.3.2 VDC, Virtual Design and Construction ................................................... 10

1.3.3 Working method ....................................................................................... 11

1.4 Purpose .................................................................................................................. 11

1.5 Goal ....................................................................................................................... 11

1.6 Research question .................................................................................................. 11

1.7 Advice to the reader / Author’s comments ............................................................ 11

2 Research method ............................................................................................................ 13

2.1 Literature study ...................................................................................................... 13

2.2 Case study .............................................................................................................. 13

2.3 Interview study ...................................................................................................... 13

2.4 Selection ................................................................................................................ 14

2.5 Theoretical framework .......................................................................................... 14

2.6 Discussion regarding choice of research method .................................................. 16

3 Theoretical chapter ........................................................................................................ 17

3.1 Definition of virtual project team .......................................................................... 17

3.2 When to use a virtual project team ........................................................................ 17

3.3 Benefits of virtual project teams ........................................................................... 18

3.4 Challenges of virtual project teams ....................................................................... 18

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3.4.1 Organization ............................................................................................. 18

3.4.2 Communication ........................................................................................ 19

3.4.3 Time ......................................................................................................... 19

3.4.4 Trust ......................................................................................................... 19

3.4.5 Motivation and dedication ........................................................................ 20

3.5 Tools for virtual project teams .............................................................................. 20

4 Empirical chapter .......................................................................................................... 22

4.1 Case study – AEC Global Teamwork ................................................................... 22

4.1.1 Benefits of AEC Global Teamwork ......................................................... 24

4.1.2 Challenges of AEC Global Teamwork ..................................................... 24

4.1.3 Technical tools ......................................................................................... 26

4.2 Interview study ...................................................................................................... 31

4.2.1 Interviewees ............................................................................................. 31

4.2.2 Benefits of virtual project teams .............................................................. 31

4.2.3 Challenges of virtual project teams .......................................................... 32

4.2.4 Tools for virtual project teams ................................................................. 34

5 Analysis ........................................................................................................................... 36

5.1 Benefits of virtual project teams ........................................................................... 36

5.2 Challenges of virtual project teams ....................................................................... 36

5.2.1 Organization ............................................................................................. 36

5.2.2 Communication ........................................................................................ 37

5.2.3 Time ......................................................................................................... 37

5.2.4 Trust ......................................................................................................... 37

5.2.5 Motivation and dedication ........................................................................ 38

5.3 Tools for virtual project teams .............................................................................. 38

6 Discussion and conclusion ............................................................................................. 39

6.1 Discussion and conclusion .................................................................................... 39

List of references .................................................................................................................... 43

A ......................................................................................................................................... 45

A.1 Interview questions ................................................................................................ 45

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1 Introduction

1.1 Background

During the fall of 2013 the author was accepted to participate in an international student building design project arranged by Stanford University. The project used a geographically distributed virtual project team with team members from the United States, Sweden, Germany and Slovenia and was carried out simultaneously with the writing of this master thesis.

The idea and subject of this master thesis derives from the expectations of the author on the student design project as well as the possibility to combine both the geographically distributed project and the master thesis by writing the thesis within a similar subject as the project was carried out in. This and a suggestion of from the author’s supervisor at NCC led to the choice of the thesis subject.

1.2 AEC Global Teamwork

During spring 2014 the author participated in a student project known as AEC Global Teamwork1 organized by the PBL Lab at Stanford University. The project included seven geographically distributed teams which designed one school building per team in various locations all over the world. The team that the author was part of had one architect, two structural engineers, one MEP engineer2, one construction manager and one life-cycle financial manager. The author served as a construction manager throughout the project. The project is more thoroughly described in section 4.1, where a case study of the project is presented. For more information about the AEC Global Teamwork, go to the website for the PBL Lab at Stanford University: http://pbl.stanford.edu/index.html

1.3 NCC Project Studio

This section is based on an information brochure from NCC that was summarized by the author. The section is included in the thesis solely to clarify for the reader what the final recommendation list at the end of the thesis is intended to provide input for.

1 AEC is an acronym for Architecture, Engineering and Construction.

2 MEP is an acronym for Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing.

CHAPTER FEL ! ANVÄND FLIKEN START OM DU VILL TILLÄMPA HEADING 1 FÖR TEXTEN SOM

SKA VISAS HÄR .. INTRODUCTION

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NCC Project Studio is a working method developed at the construction company NCC with the intention to increase efficiency during the design phase of a construction project. NCC Project Studio is based on three fundamental elements: co-location, VDC (Virtual Design and Construction) and a specially developed working method. The idea is to get all the three elements to work together and thereby achieve an effective design process which both save resources and provides the best possible prerequisites when the construction project moves into the production phase.

The following sections describe the NCC Project Studio more in detail in order for the reader to get an overview of the working method.

1.3.1 Co-location

The name NCC Project Studio derives from the actual co-location of the project participants, the room where the participants are co-located is referred to as the Project Studio. In the Project Studio project participants from different disciplines (e.g. client, architect, structural engineer, design manager, production manager etc.) work together, all in the same room. The idea behind the co-location is to facilitate the involvement of all affected parties in decision making. The co-location is in this way supposed to facilitate quick decision making and consultation with others. Everyone that works in the Project Studio is supposed to be authorized to make decisions within their field of work in order to at all times keep the work going forward.

In order to achieve the involvement and to take advantage of the specific skills of each of the project participants in the decision making, scheduled attendance is used. Depending on the characteristics of the project, the number of days with scheduled co-location per week differs between projects. In the Project Studio, technology for visualization is used in order to communicate e.g. design changes or other important information for the project participants.

1.3.2 VDC, Virtual Design and Construction

The second element of the NCC Project Studio is VDC. VDC is based on the usage of BIM models, models that can represent the design in 3D but also contain information about the different construction elements in the 3D model. The idea of using VDC is to clarify and simplify the communication between the different project participants which often have different backgrounds and different technical training and therefore might interpret information in different ways.

The VDC usage is supposed to result in a joint 3D model that includes information from the architect, the structural engineer and other disciplines within the project. The idea is that everyone should work with the same model and in that way have the same base of information. By using this technology the idea is to identify as many problems as possible in the design phase and thereby reduce the amount of problems in the production phase caused by design errors.

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1.3.3 Working method

The third element in the NCC Project Studio is the working method. The working method is based on participation, quick decision making, joint scheduling, clear decision making processes and joint targets.

The project participation is intended to be facilitated by using visual scheduling. In the Project Studio boards or walls with post-it notes are used for time scheduling. Every project participant is assigned a different color of their post-it notes in order to separate the different disciplines from each other. Every participant writes down their responsibilities and what data they need from others in order to carry out their work. The post-it notes are the arranged along a time line and organized in collaboration so that data deliveries are combined into an intended schedule of events. The intention of this visual time planning is to illustrate how the different disciplines interact and affect each other in the project work. The boards or walls are also used when trying to visualize other parts of the project work, e.g. targets and question lists.

1.4 Purpose

The purpose of this master thesis has been to examine the subject of effective project collaboration in geographically distributed virtual project teams and thereby identify certain key elements that are necessary to keep in mind in order to achieve an effective work process.

1.5 Goal

The goal for this master thesis has been to identify key elements that are important when forming an effective work process for geographically distributed virtual project teams. Since the master thesis has been written in collaboration with the Swedish construction company NCC, the research has also been used to provide NCC with guidelines and suggestions of how to form a framework for effective geographically distributed virtual project teamwork, especially for their current work method NCC Project Studio which is used during the design phase of construction projects.

1.6 Research question

“What framework is required to build effective virtual project collaboration?”

1.7 Advice to the reader / Author’s comments

Virtual design and construction is by CIFE – Center of Integrated Facility Engineering at Stanford University defined as “the use of Multidisciplinary performance models of design-


SKA VISAS HÄR .. INTRODUCTION

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construction projects, including the product (i.e., facilities), organization of the design-construction-operation team, and work processes, to support explicit and public business objectives” (Fischer e Kunz, 2004). The definition of Virtual design and construction (VDC) used for NCC Project Studio differs from the one above in the way that it solely refers to the usage of multidisciplinary performance models.

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2 Research method

This chapter describes the methods used for collection of data during the work with this master thesis. Additionally, the chapter also includes a discussion regarding the choice of methods.

2.1 Literature study

To gain knowledge about the benefits and challenges of geographically distributed virtual project teams a literature study was carried out. The literature study almost exclusively consists of data from research papers and scientific journals, only a few other sources were used for collecting the data for the literature study. The papers and the articles from the scientific journals are mainly on the subject of virtual teamwork. For the literature search the main databases used were Google Scholar and KTH’s online library catalog.

2.2 Case study

The case study was written by the author himself as he was part of a geographically distributed virtual project team during the writing of this master thesis. In order to gain maximum benefit of the authors own experiences, the decision to write a case study on the virtual project teamwork was taken in agreement with the author’s supervisors at both KTH and NCC. The case study was based on the author’s perception of the work process during the virtual project.

2.3 Interview study

In order to find practical examples of how geographically distributed virtual project teams have worked in the past, an interview study was carried out.

The interview study was carried out to answer questions on the following subjects:

• Benefits of virtual project work • Challenges of virtual project work

• Technical tools for virtual project work

To answer the questions within the three subjects above, interviewees with experience of working in geographically distributed project teams were chosen. The interviews were carried


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out through personal meetings between the author and the interviewees. The same question template was used for all interviews and can be found in appendix A.

All interviews were recorded by the author.

2.4 Selection

The selection of interviewees did not follow any specific procedure. Since the master thesis was written in collaboration with NCC, the interviewees were found through contacts at NCC or through personal contacts of the author himself. The only criteria the author had for the interviewees was that they at some point had worked in a geographically distributed project team.

2.5 Theoretical framework

The theoretical framework for the master thesis is based on the findings of the author when starting the literature study. The author found benefits and challenges of virtual project teams presented in reports and in articles from scientific journals which make up the basis for the theoretical chapter. In order to link the theoretical chapter with the case study and the interview study, a theoretical framework where some of the described benefits and challenges of virtual project teams was used when writing the case study and forming the interview questions.

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Figure 1. Picture showing an overview of challenges for virtual project teams (Nemiro, 2008). The challenges in the red circles were among others included in the theoretical framework.

The rest of the included themes and issues derive from frequently occurring themes and issues found during the literature study.

The following issues and themes were included in the theoretical framework:

• Benefits of virtual project teams

• Challenges of virtual project teams (where the following subcategories where investigated based on the findings from the literature study)

o Organization o Communication o Time o Trust o Motivation and dedication

• Technical tools

These issues and themes are investigated in both the literature study, the case study and the interview study. The interview questions were based on these issues and themes.


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2.6 Discussion regarding choice of research method

The research method used should provide a result that answer the research question. By carrying out a neutral factually based literature study, complimenting it with a case study based on the author’s own experiences and an interview study with professionals that have worked in geographically distributed virtual teams, a solid framework for analysis, discussion and conclusions is provided. The literature study is based on well-cited research papers and articles from scientific journals which provides a high degree of validity and trustworthiness when later drawing conclusions based on a combination of the findings from the literature study, the case study and the interview study.

Section 1.3, NCC Project Studio, is based on an information brochure from the company NCC itself and therefore has a highly questionable scientific content. The author chose to include it solely to inform the reader of the thesis about the working method and consequently what the final recommendation list aims to provide input for.

The case study performed and written by the author himself is the weakest part regarding scientific trustworthiness and reliability. Even though the reader might perceive the case study as less trustworthy than the literature study and the interview study, it was by the author and his supervisors regarded to be a valid and relevant part to include for backing up the analysis, discussion and conclusions.

By interviewing professionals from different companies with experience of different professional industries, a diversity in perspective was achieved. This adds validity to the research if the interviewees describe the same phenomena from different professional industries and perspectives. Due to the difficulties of finding interviewees with the sufficient experience to answer the interview questions, only three interviewees were found for the interview study. This lowers the scientific validity of the findings in the interview study compared to if more interviewees would have been used. The low number of interviewees found also implies that a quantitative research method, which would have required a significantly higher number of responders, was not possible to use.

The data and the method used for the study have been of sufficient quality to reach a result which good conclusions could be drawn from. The author has been careful to use well-known and well-cited articles for the literature study to make sure that the theoretical basis is valid to draw conclusions from. The only other remark that the author has to make regarding the research method is that the literature used in the literature study mainly are from the United States and since the case study is written by the author who is Swedish and the interview study was carried out using interviewees from Sweden, a cultural difference in perception of phenomena might occur and possibly cause inconsistency between the literature study and the other two studies.

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3 Theoretical chapter

The theoretical chapter is divided into four parts, definition of virtual project team, when to use a virtual project team, benefits of virtual project teams and challenges for virtual project teams. The four parts consist of a compilation of ideas and views presented in literature on the subject.

3.1 Definition of virtual project team

Virtual project teams are for this master thesis defined as “groups of geographically, organizationally and/or time dispersed workers brought together by information and telecommunication technologies to accomplish one or more organizational tasks” (Powell, Piccoli e Ives, 2004).

3.2 When to use a virtual project team

The reason for the possible need of virtual project teams during the design phase of a construction project can e.g. be motivated by the following scenarios:

• The specific competence(s) needed is/are not available in the nearby area.

• Procurement of the projects design phase has resulted in the project involving participants that are geographically distributed.

• Material suppliers are non-local and their specific product influences the design of other disciplines.

• The client is non-local and is not represented locally by an agent. • The project is a joint venture between different companies located in different

geographical places.

If a scenario like the ones mentioned above, or a combination of them, occurs in a project, it might be useful for an organization to investigate the possibility to setup a virtual project team to facilitate the work.


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3.3 Benefits of virtual project teams

The main benefit of using a virtual project team is that the range of possible team members is increasingly widened compared to a co-located project team due to the fact that the geographical location is a non-factor for the participation. By including competences from other geographical regions in a virtual project team, knowledge and experience sharing can also be facilitated (Furst et al., 2004). According to Boudreau et al. (1998) virtual project teams gain the advantage of high adaptability and flexibility due to temporal and spatial independence. Boudreau et al. (1998) derive these advantages from the characteristics of a virtual project team such as geographical distribution of members within the team and devolution of responsibilities among the team members.

If geographically distributed resources are used in a project team, the amount of travel can be heavily reduced or even eliminated by using a virtual project team since much or all of the work can be carried out from distance instead of having the geographically distributed virtual project team members travel to the main project office or project site for reconciliations, meetings or other activities that involve interaction with other team members. Reduced travel expenses for companies are a direct result of using a virtual project team if geographically distributed team members are used (Fruchter, Bosch-Sijtsema e Ruohomäki, 2010). Furthermore, time differences can be used to create an almost twenty-four-hour workday if the team members are dispersed in a certain way over world’s time zones (Kimble, Li e Barlow, 2000).

3.4 Challenges of virtual project teams

Even though a number of advantages for virtual project teams have been described in the previous section, many challenges occur for virtual project teams that for ordinary co-located teams seldom are considered as problems or challenges. In this section the author describes some of the main challenges that previously have been studied in literature.

3.4.1 Organization

A geographically distributed team during the design phase of a construction project relies exclusively on good coordination between different disciplines to achieve the designated goal for the project. This requires a well-functioning organizational structure to facilitate the coordination. The author has found two different approaches in literature on how to form this organizational structure. Camarinha-Matos e Afsarmanesh (2007) suggests that a well-defined structure where responsibilities and expectations of the members in the organization is clearly outspoken is preferable to avoid misunderstandings between participants regarding responsibilities and what should be delivered by each participant.

The other view found by the author is that in order to ensure that an organization stays innovative and flexible, the formal organizational structure must be flexible enough to be able to be changed temporarily to create different relationships between units and team members when necessary (Moss Kanter, 2004). Organizational structures that enhance this flexibility regarding structure are according to Moss Kanter (2004) typically subject to a low degree of

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formality and centrality, a high flow of information and horizontal communication is often more frequently occurring than vertical communication in the organizational structure.

3.4.2 Communication

One of the major challenges for a virtual project team is the communication and coordination between team members. Whereas some team members might be co-located in a team formation and thereby have the possibility of using face-to-face communication, other team members are dependent on using technology for communication with the rest of the team. This might create a discontinuity in the possibility of delivering and receiving information where some team members that are co-located will receive information on a more frequent basis than what geographically distributed team members do (Fruchter, Bosch-Sijtsema e Ruohomäki, 2010). The geographically distributed team members will only receive and share information through formal communication channels where the co-located team members have the opportunity to share information between each other in an informal context, e.g. in the lunch room.

Furthermore, if the virtual project team includes team members where the first language differ between the team members communicational difficulties in technical contexts are prone to happen (Nemiro, 2008). When discussing advanced technical solutions and thereby using technical terms, the perception of these terms may differ in between cultures, regions and professions.

3.4.3 Time

The aspect of time is an issue that a virtual project team will have to deal with, especially if the virtual project team is dispersed over several time zones. Problems occur when trying to set meeting times that are suitable for all team members since the time slots where all team members are available might be outside office hours for some team members (Nemiro, 2008). Time zones pose the problem of limiting quick responses to questions during normal working hours if team members are located many time zones away from each other (Lee-Kelley e Sankey, 2008) (Nemiro, 2008). This is especially problematic when working towards tight deadlines and collaboration between disciplines is the main focus. On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, the time differences can offer an almost twenty-four-hour workday if the team members are dispersed in a certain way over world’s time zones (Kimble, Li e Barlow, 2000).

3.4.4 Trust

Trust between project participants is clearly an important ingredient when working in a virtual project team. The absence of face-to-face communication, cultural differences and the geographical distance between team members all contribute to impede the development of trust between members of a virtual project team (Zolin et al., 2004). Trust may be especially important in cross-disciplinary work setups, as those during the design phase of a construction project. This due to that many sub-tasks are interdependent of each other and the team members are then forced to trust the other team members’ competence to perform the interdependent tasks in such a way that the final product meets the expectations of the client


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(Zolin et al., 2004). Studies by Jarvenpaa, Knoll e Leidner (1998) suggests that trust in geographically distributed virtual project teams are highly dependent on early interaction between team members and that trust in these teams are very fragile compared to the trust between members of co-located teams.

Cultural values are an aspect that influence the way people perceive things and how they behave in various situations (Maznevski e Chudoba, 2000). Cultural diversity is a factor that influences trust where team members of virtual project teams in general perceive team members that belong to the same culture as more trustworthy than team members that belong to other cultures (Zolin et al., 2004). Additional problems might occur in a virtual project team due to the fact that the project normally develops its own culture which might be non-problematic for some team members that have a similar native culture and highly-problematic for other team members that are used to an entirely different culture (Nemiro, 2008). This is a factor that not only affects the way the different team members perceive different phenomena, it is also a factor that can create conflicts within the virtual project team.

In order to achieve trust and thereby an effective work process, face-to-face meetings to form a basic relationship and mutual understanding between team members, either at the start of the project or continuously throughout the project, is beneficial (Maznevski e Chudoba, 2000) (Lee-Kelley e Sankey, 2008).

3.4.5 Motivation and dedication

Linked with the issues mentioned in previous sections, motivation and dedication of team members is another important issue for virtual project teams. If the project team is distributed over several time zones it implies a freedom for the team members to plan their individual work, tasks and individual responsibilities independent of other team members which may lead to a reduced dedication to the work due to the team member feeling distant to the final product (Wiesenfeld, Raghuram e Garud, 1998). Nevertheless, some virtual project teams have achieved good results regarding work dedication because a family-like feeling has been created which reaches beyond the project goals and normal commitment to the work (Nemiro, 2008). According to Nemiro (2004) a family-like feeling can be achieved by having face-to-face get-togethers, by sharing personal experiences virtually in an informal way, by showing personal interest in the other team members etc.

3.5 Tools for virtual project teams

Technical tools for communication between team members in virtual project teams are a recurring theme in literature. The technical tools are in general divided into three separate categories defined by technical generation (Lee-Kelley e Sankey, 2008). First generation tools include e-mails and conference calls while second generation tools include online discussion boards, PowerPoint presentations, video tools and online meeting tools. The most advanced virtual project collaboration tools, referred to as third generation tools, are typically web-enabled shared workspaces via an intranet or the internet.

Virtual project teams are highly dependent on technical tools and can in some cases have an over-reliance on the technical tools which may limit the extension of organizations and teams

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because of insufficient technical infrastructure in places where possible team members are located (Morris e Mcmanus, 2002).

The usage of technology for communication in a virtual project team creates a number of challenges by itself. As a first step, the team members must learn and understand the technology as well as how to use it in an effective way (Nemiro, 2008). The next step is to get the skill level of the team members up to the designated level and teach them how to be able to determine which technical tool that is applicable for each task.

Cross-disciplinary teams, such as those working in the design phase of a construction project, often have the additional problem of incompatible technology platforms and communication tools (Nemiro, 2008). This leads to insufficient work processes and thereby longer project schedules and additional costs.


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4 Empirical chapter

The empirical chapter includes two separate parts, a case study of the AEC Global Teamwork and an interview study carried out by the author. The case study was written by the author after participating in the 2014 version of the AEC Global Teamwork arranged by the PBL Lab at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. The case study is based on the author’s own perception of occurring phenomena during the AEC Global Teamwork. The interview study is based on information collected by the author about virtual project work through three separate interviews with professionals that have had experience of working in geographically distributed teams. The focus of the interviews have been to collect information about the specific projects that the interviewees have participated in by asking them questions based on the theoretical framework of the thesis. The interview questions can be found in Appendix A.

4.1 Case study – AEC Global Teamwork

AEC Global Teamwork (Architecture – Engineering – Construction) is a student project organized by the PBL Lab at Stanford University annually since 1993. The goal is to conceptually design school buildings in various locations all over the globe using geographically distributed cross-disciplinary virtual project teams consisting of students from universities all over the world. During the spring of 2014, concurrently with the writing of this master thesis, the author participated in the AEC Global Teamwork as a member of a team in which he had the position of Construction Manager. This case study has been written based on the author’s own experiences and perception of the work during the project.

The teams in the 2014 AEC Global Teamwork included the following disciplines:

• Architect • Structural Engineer • MEP Engineer (Mechanical – Electrical – Plumbing) • Construction Manager • Life Cycle Financial Manager • Apprentice

The project started with a three day co-located kick-off event at Stanford University in January 2014 where the teams for the project were formed. The author’s team consisted of an Architect from the University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, one Structural Engineer from Stanford University, one Structural Engineer from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, one MEP Engineer from Stanford University, the author himself as a Construction Manager from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden and one Life-Cycle Financial Manager

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from Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany as well as one Architecture apprentice from Stanford University.

At the kick-off event the teams were assigned a project site with an associated project program describing the site, local conditions, special requirements regarding environmental classification etc., building program requirements as well as special requirements for the different disciplines in the project team. The author’s team was assigned a site at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Each team was also assigned an owner’s group consisting of AEC alumni’s which worked as the client for the project. Throughout the project the students had access to a mentor group consisting of different professionals in the construction industry all over the world.

During the first half of the project, known as the concept development phase, the teams were supposed to develop and present two conceptual architectural designs of buildings with two alternative structural systems for both designs. The MEP engineer was supposed to present two options for technical systems for both architectural designs, the Construction Manager was supposed to look into logistics for transportations and site logistics as well as using a tool known as Target Value Design (TVD) in order to keep track of the cost for construction. The Life-Cycle Financial Manager (LCFM) was responsible for calculating the life cycle costs of the proposed designs. The result of the first half of the project was presented in a cyber-presentation in the middle of March 2014 where one conceptual design was chosen to be further developed in the second half of the project.

The second half of the project included further development of the chosen conceptual design where the design was modelled separately in Revit for the disciplines of architecture, structural and MEP. These three separate models were then put together in Navisworks and clash detection was performed. Additionally a project schedule was linked to the coordinated model to create a 4D CAD simulation. From the coordinated model, quantities of components and materials was used to create a model-based cost estimation for the project. Furthermore, the requirements from the first half of the project was refined throughout the second half project.

The actual project work started during the kick-off event with brainstorming sessions and presentations of the ideas of the teams’ first concepts for their buildings. After the kick-off event the project team members traveled back to their respective home universities where the project work resumed using technical tools for communication, these tools are described more in detail further on. The project team set one fixed time for a weekly online meeting, which for the author’s team took place on Sunday’s at 6 PM CET. The meeting time varied from in between two and four hours. Additionally, on Friday’s at 9 PM CET, all teams participated in a four hour online session which had a different theme every time throughout the project. The Friday sessions included e.g. lectures, team presentation’s and mentor feedback sessions.

Several milestones were setup by the course administrators such as a peer review session where the different teams gave each other feedback and a mentor critique session with industry mentors. These sessions served as intermediate milestones in between the two formal presentations, the winter quarter cyber presentation and the final presentation at the end of the spring quarter at Stanford University.



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4.1.1 Benefits of AEC Global Teamwork

The foundation of the AEC Global Teamwork is its greatest benefit, the geographically distributed team which makes the teamwork possible. Furthermore, the project gives the participating students a unique possibility to interact and learn from other cultures and from other disciplines in which the students do not have any professional training. In this way the AEC Global Teamwork serves as a great preparation for the future professional careers of the participating students.

4.1.2 Challenges of AEC Global Teamwork

The 2014 AEC Global Teamwork had a number of benefits with its geographically distributed team that connects the team members from all over the world into one project. Even though the work reached its designated goal, the team faced a number of challenges on the way. This section presents the setup and challenges regarding the aspects of organization, communication, time, trust, motivation and dedication and technical tools.

Organization

Within the team a clear organization was given at the starting point. The organizational structure was a flat structure where all team members were supposed to have the same mandate in decision making, i.e. no project leader was formally assigned. The perceived organizational structure between the project participants changed depending on what stage the project was in or which task or which disciplines work that was discussed in the team. At the beginning of the project, the architect had a clear leading role since the architectural design was the starting point for the development of the work within all the other disciplines. This changed over time as the project developed and the architectural designs became more developed and the discussions went into a more technical phase when e.g. technical or structural systems were discussed and chosen. The joint decision making process was a distinctive characteristic of the work throughout the project. The joint decision making process had many benefits, especially the fact that all team members were involved and could give their opinion before making decisions. Even though the decision making process worked quite well, the involvement of almost every team member in every decision in many cases led to a long decision making process and in some cases decisions that had to be made were postponed due to requests for more information from some discipline(s). The project sometimes became obstructed by the joint decision making, causing extra work for the team members.

Communication

Even though the setup of the project was a virtual project team where the team members were geographically distributed, three of the seven team members went to the same university (Stanford University) and could thereby in some sense be viewed as co-located with the possibility of having personal meetings throughout the project. Even though this was not used to a large extent, it was a factor that differed from the other four team members that were geographically distributed.

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The official language of the project was English and since only one out of seven team members had English as a first language, communicational difficulties occurred. Especially when discussing advanced technical solutions where the non-native English speakers in some cases lacked the adequate words to explain the technical solutions that they wanted to propose to the other team members.

The communication was extensive throughout the project where the project members interacted with each other every day even if there were no formal meeting or event. This communication mostly occurred through a chat-function.

Time

Since the team members of the project were distributed over three different time zones where the maximum time difference was nine hours, the project work was highly influenced by the time aspect. The first major problem occurred when trying to set the weekly team meeting time. Even though all team members preferred to have the team meeting on a weekday the only time when all team members were available with respect to the time of the day and scheduled events outside the project was during the weekend. Because of these issues, the weekly project meeting was scheduled on Sunday’s at 6 PM CET, which implies 9 AM in California and 1 PM in Puerto Rico. Furthermore, when subgroup meetings, which only included a few team members, were supposed to be scheduled the time difference posed a problem when including team members in both the United States and Europe. The time difference required the team members to be very flexible and often have meetings outside their normal working hours.

The other major challenge with the time differences was that it limited the amount of quick responses to questions during certain time of the day. E.g. if a European team member needed to ask a team member in California a question at 10 AM CET it implied that the US team member probably was asleep since the time was 1 AM in California when the question was asked. Even if the California based team member replied instantly when he or she woke up, the response time was several hours.

Trust

Trust was an invaluable ingredient throughout the project work since no team member had the competence to evaluate the other team members’ work in all disciplines. In that way, the team members were forced to trust the competence of the other team members in order to achieve the designated final result for the project. The author’s perception of the trustworthiness of the other team members was generally based on the perceived dedication to their role, the punctuality when attending team meetings and subgroup meetings and how well the delivered results corresponded to the expected results of the author. The expected results of the author was in general based on the outspoken expected result of the delivering team member.

Overall the author perceived the other team members as highly trustworthy even though the trustworthiness fluctuated throughout the project based on various parameters, e.g. long response time to questions or a difference in the delivered result and the expected result. Although, even if the perceived trustworthiness in some cases was lowered by a non-correspondence between expectations of results and actual results, the opposite phenomena occurred as well, where the author’s trust in a team member competence increased because of a higher quality of a delivery than what the author expected.



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The cultural aspect within the team is a factor that surely influenced the way the author perceived the other team members. The European team members’ general culture was more similar to the author’s own culture. Even though the cross-Atlantic team members’ culture differed in some cases from the author’s own, the author did not experience any great difficulties based on solely cultural differences since the team from the start put up guidelines on how to behave and how to raise questions and difficulties in the most appropriate way in order to minimize the number of conflicts between team members.

Motivation and dedication

The general view of the author regarding his team’s dedication to the project work was that the team was very dedicated to the project. In some cases some team members even seemed to be too dedicated to their own and the team’s work which in some cases resulted in discussions that were not entirely relevant for the progress of the project. The dedication to the project was strengthened by the family-like feeling that the team established throughout the project.

The author himself experienced a lack of motivation in some phases of the project, especially close to deadlines when the workload and the amount of stress increased rapidly. The author experienced the increased amount of stress due to the feeling of a shortage of time to perform the expected tasks for the delivery. The lowering of the level of motivation for the author occurred in phases when the amount of interaction with the other team members was low compared to the amount of individual work without interaction.

4.1.3 Technical tools

The virtual project team used a variety of technical tools that are presented in this section. The different disciplines themselves used a lot of other technical tools for discipline specific tasks such as simulations, scheduling, modelling etc. These tools will not be presented in this thesis. The technical tools that are presented are those that were used for communicative, collaborative and file sharing purposes.

The used tools are in this thesis divided into three subgroups depending on the characteristics of the tools:

Written communication tools

• E-mails • Facebook

File sharing tools

• Box • Dropbox

Oral communication and visualization tools

• GoToMeeting

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• Skype • 3D ICC Terf

Written communication tools

The simplest technological tool used in the project was e-mails. The communication through e-mails was not used extensively since it was desire from the team members to minimize the number of e-mails within the project. Mostly requested information from team members was shared through e-mails.

The by far most used channel for communication was Facebook. The project team had a Facebook group where the team members posted messages that were of interest to all or at least the majority of the team members. The Facebook group was complimented with chats involving both the whole team and for specific tasks and phases of the project a selection of team members that were involved in the development of the specific task or phase.

The author’s view on the usage of Facebook as a communication platform was both positive and negative. The positive aspects were that most of the team members were available during a significant part of their time awake and that led to a good foundation for quick responses to questions from other team members. The negative aspect of using Facebook as a communication platform mainly has to do with the backtracking of communication and information sharing. Since Facebook is not developed for a professional context it resulted in difficulties when trying to find information and posts from earlier phases of the project.

The chats were also used to share information that was not entirely relevant for the progress of the project, which impeded the backtracking of information and communication even more. The positive aspect of the sharing of information irrelevant to the project was that it contributed to create a family-like feeling within the team which in turn facilitated the collaboration between team members.

File sharing tools

The major file sharing tool used was Box, where each discipline had a main folder that consisted of a number of sub-folders in order to structure the extensive amount of files that were created and used throughout the project. All folders were named and structured according to the same standard in order to minimize the amount of confusion for the team members when trying to find and access files.

The team also had a standard format for the naming of files so that the files could easily be ordered according to discipline, name, date or type.



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The second file sharing platform that was used was Dropbox. The reason for using two different file sharing platforms were that limitations in form of maximum file size and accessibility to files differed between the two platforms. Where the Box platform was considered better for some purposes the Dropbox was better for other, mainly the linking of files during the BIM coordination that took place in the second half of the project.

Oral communication and visualization tools

For the team meetings two tools were used, GoToMeeting and 3D ICC Terf. Both are presented more in detail below.

GoToMeeting is a tool for virtual meetings or videoconferences that was used throughout the project. The tool allowed the team members to speak to each other, collaborate face-to-face using webcams and share their screens (one at a time). All sessions could be recorded and viewed by team members that could not attend a meeting in order to keep non-attending team members up-to-date with the latest changes and progress of the project. This tool was used to a large extent and was by far the most used tool for meetings.

3D ICC Terf is a virtual 3D internet platform developed by the company 3D ICC which uses an avatar based 3D environment for collaboration. The 3D world used in the project consisted of a virtual office with a main open space where the team members could arrange e.g. display

Figure 2. Screenshot of the team's file sharing cloud database Box showing an example of naming of folders.

stands containing PowerPoint presentations, drawings, pictuown choice.

Additionally, meeting rooms were also located next to the main open space where team members could split up and have subgroup meetings concurrently without hearing each other. For example, if two team membersother team members remained in the main open spaceroom could no longer hear the rest of the team talk even though they still were in the 3D environment. In this way, subgroup meetings could be held easily within a team meeting if necessary.

Figure 3. Screenshot of the main environment in 3D ICC Terf showing display stands with presentations and digital post it notes. The meeting rooms are on the picture.

The 3D environment was very their ideas concurrently and then arrange them next to each other, the team members could

Figure 4. Screenshot from 3D ICC Terf of a vdifferent colors depending on which person that added them to the display stand.

Figure 5. Screenshot from 3D ICC Terf where different façade ideas were evaluated for two different building designsand Neuron, using imported pictures and virtual

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containing PowerPoint presentations, drawings, pictures, notes etc. according to their

Additionally, meeting rooms were also located next to the main open space where team members could split up and have subgroup meetings concurrently without hearing each other. For example, if two team members walked with their avatars into a meeting room and the other team members remained in the main open space, the two team members in the meeting room could no longer hear the rest of the team talk even though they still were in the 3D

y, subgroup meetings could be held easily within a team meeting if

. Screenshot of the main environment in 3D ICC Terf showing display stands with presentations and digital post it notes. The meeting rooms are located to the right of the avatar

The 3D environment was very helpful when sharing ideas since all team members could share their ideas concurrently and then arrange them next to each other, the team members could

4. Screenshot from 3D ICC Terf of a virtual display stand with virtualdifferent colors depending on which person that added them to the display stand.

rom 3D ICC Terf of a wall inside the team's virtual 3D environment where different façade ideas were evaluated for two different building designs

ing imported pictures and virtual post-it notes.

res, notes etc. according to their

Additionally, meeting rooms were also located next to the main open space where team members could split up and have subgroup meetings concurrently without hearing each other.

walked with their avatars into a meeting room and the the two team members in the meeting

room could no longer hear the rest of the team talk even though they still were in the 3D y, subgroup meetings could be held easily within a team meeting if

. Screenshot of the main environment in 3D ICC Terf showing display stands with located to the right of the avatar

helpful when sharing ideas since all team members could share their ideas concurrently and then arrange them next to each other, the team members could

virtual post-it notes in different colors depending on which person that added them to the display stand.

of a wall inside the team's virtual 3D environment where different façade ideas were evaluated for two different building designs, called Puzzle



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look at presentations, draw ideas on virtual white boards and create virtual post-it notes to illustrate different points.

The main positive aspects experienced by the author was that the 3D environment created some of the main benefits of a co-located project team virtually, such as the possibility to divide the project team within a meeting and then come back to the main team in an quick and effective way and to share ideas quickly and in parallel with others. This is almost impossible in a video conference since the participants then have to take turns presenting their ideas and sharing their documents, pictures, drawings, models etc.

The main problems with the 3D ICC that the author experienced was related to technology. During many of the meetings, one or several team members had issues with the bandwidth of their internet connection which e.g. caused the sound quality of the team members to be bad. In some cases the internet connection of some team members where in such a bad state that they could not connect to the 3D ICC Terf which implied that the team in some cases had to switch to a videoconference with screen sharing instead. This caused less efficient collaboration when the tasks for the meeting were of a kind that would have been more efficient to perform in 3D ICC Terf than in a videoconference. In some rare cases, the 3D ICC Terf had problems with the sharing of files within the 3D environment which forced the team to switch to a video conference with screen sharing instead of using the 3D ICC Terf.

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4.2 Interview study

This section is based on information collected by the author about virtual project work through three separate interviews. The interviewees have been professionals with experience of working in geographically distributed teams. The interview questions also included questions regarding the interviewees’ general view on geographically distributed and virtual project work. The interview questions can be found in Appendix A.

4.2.1 Interviewees

The interviewees for this thesis have been; Mats Mattsson, Business Manager, department for commercial construction at NCC Construction, Staffan Schartner, Architect at Omniplan and Tom Almqvist, Structural Engineer at Omniplan.

4.2.2 Benefits of virtual project teams

The main benefit of working in a geographically distributed team is that it offers a unique possibility to widen the competence of the project team by including competences and experience that are geographically distributed with respect to the physical location of the project (Mattsson, 2014) (Almqvist, 2014) (Schartner, 2014). In the case of working with development projects to e.g. start up new areas of business or to extend organizations, a virtual project team provides the possible benefit of adding expertise temporarily during a start-up phase (Mattsson, 2014). Another benefit of virtual project teams is that, in the case a well-functioning team is formed, the team can then continue to work with future projects independent on the geographical location of the team members (Mattsson, 2014). Furthermore, a more discipline integrated process can also be achieved by having a virtual project team since the team then would be virtually co-located (Almqvist, 2014).

A virtual project team setup minimizes the amount of travelling between different offices due to the fact that most questions can be discussed and solved using virtual communication tools (Mattsson, 2014).

If a virtual project team is distributed over several time zones, the time difference can be used to provide more time for the team to process questions before replying to them (Mattsson, 2014). The way of achieving this is to create a questioning-answering frequency that correspond to the difference in office hours for the geographically distributed team members. The time difference then helps the replying side in the way that the answers to the questions can be thought through more thoroughly compared to if the answers are sent immediately when the questions occur. Mattsson (2014) mentioned the following scenario when working in a project that had an eight hour time difference: The questions that occurred during the working day were packaged and sent to the geographically distributed project participants at the end of the working day. This implied that the geographically distributed project participants had the question package to go through during their following work day. They could then work on their answers to the questions during their office hours and reply to the questions at the end of their working day. In this way the answers to the questions were ready once the questioners got to work the following day.



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Mattsson (2014) also mentioned the benefit of virtual project teams to be very instructive due to the often occurring cultural and experiential diversity of virtual project team members. Another benefit is that many people find it very exciting to work in virtual project teams since it in many cases provides a possibility to work with projects and people that they in a co-located project would not have had the chance to work with (Mattsson, 2014).

4.2.3 Challenges of virtual project teams

This section aims to provide the reader with a summary of the challenges mentioned by the interviewees during the interview study. The findings are presented according to the theoretical framework of the thesis.

Organization

A well-defined organizational structure with clear outspoken responsibilities is important when working in a virtual project team (Almqvist, 2014). Mattsson (2014) stressed the necessity to use a time perspective when looking at the organization for a virtual project team since large projects often have a significant circulation of participants, especially if the project organization lasts from e.g. the tendering phase to the production phase. If the virtual project organization involves actors from different cultures, the normal way of organizing projects may differ between the different actors (Mattsson, 2014).

Mattsson (2014) also stressed that a clear project leader is preferable when making decisions. Although, if the virtual project team is multi-cultural, a joint leadership between the representatives from the different cultures is preferable in order to ensure that no actor feels excluded. Furthermore, if working in projects that involve several companies, it is good to at least have one co-located representative from each company in the office of the other company to ensure good communication (Almqvist, 2014).

Communication

If a virtual project team has team members with different native languages, a major linguistic challenge is often occurring. All three interviewees described the linguistic barrier as highly problematic. The persons that communicate from an organization are normally those that are the most proficient in the project’s documentation language which may imply that those that communicate are not always those that are most suited to reply to the question or deal with the issue (Mattsson, 2014).

In order to ensure good communication throughout the project it is important to know the people you are working with and to meet them physically in order to achieve good collaboration in the virtual project team (Schartner, 2014). If project participants do not know each other at the start of the project it will impede the communication and the collaboration (Mattsson, 2014).

Another challenge, closely correlated to the linguistic challenge, is the cultural challenge of virtual project work. Since processes, work flows, how matters are conducted and how people communicate within the same industry differs in between different parts of the world this poses a problem when working in a multi-cultural virtual project team (Mattsson, 2014) (Almqvist, 2014).

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“The cultural way of carrying out projects differ between the United States and Sweden. And it might become even bigger if you compare Silicon Valley with Luleå. It is perhaps the extremes of how you communicate and promote issues”

– Mats Mattsson on the cultural differences in the project of designing and constructing Facebook’s first server facility in Europe.

In order to ensure that effective communication is established within the virtual project team it is important to filter the communication paths and monitor them (Mattsson, 2014) (Almqvist, 2014). The communication paths should be well-defined for different stages of the project in order to facilitate the decision-making process (Mattsson, 2014). The well-defined communication paths should be established without limiting the amount of communication in the project since constant communication is important for a virtual project team (Mattsson, 2014) (Schartner, 2014).

The geographical distribution of a virtual project team also limits the amount of communication in the way that it is harder to raise minor issues and questions if one has to call the other part compared to just asking the person sitting next to you (Mattsson, 2014) (Schartner, 2014).

Time

Virtual project work that is dispersed over several time zones face a number of additional challenges compared to a virtual project team within the same time zone or a co-located project team. The virtual project team setup increases the complexity of the project and therefore tasks will take longer time to perform (Schartner, 2014). In many cases competences will have to be duplicated within the team because the specific competence is needed in several physical locations that the project spans over (Schartner, 2014).

Furthermore, if the virtual project team spans over many time zones it is hard to set meeting times that are suitable for all participants (Mattsson, 2014). The dispersal of the virtual project team over several time zones implies that the team members will have to break their old working habits in order to work and collaborate effectively with the rest of the team (Mattsson, 2014). If the time difference means that the office hours for some team members are entirely different than for others, questions that are raised outside office hours for the responding part will inevitably result in longer response times and possible delays for the project work (Almqvist, 2014).

Trust

Trust is an important ingredient in virtual project work (Almqvist, 2014) (Mattsson, 2014) (Schartner, 2014). In order for virtual project work to work well, the team members have to trust each other. Furthermore, Almqvist (2014) stressed that the team members not only have to trust each other, they must have something to base their trust upon in order for the project work to go well. It is important to have a high degree of transparency in the project work in order to avoid unnecessary conflicts within the project team (Mattsson, 2014).

In order to build trust in an effective way, it is important to meet the other team members in person (Mattsson, 2014) (Schartner, 2014). The development of trust is severely limited when communicating through technical tools compared to face-to-face communication (Schartner, 2014).



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Mattsson (2014) suggests that trust is not a matter of whether the work is carried out in a virtual setup or in a co-located setup, it is more a matter of the cultural differences between the team members. The cultural differences will influence how trust is built and how trustworthy a team member perceive the other team members.

Motivation and dedication

The issue of motivation and dedication is not clearly correlated with virtual project work (Mattsson, 2014) (Schartner, 2014). Mattsson (2014) stresses that it is also more a matter of culture, although it inevitably comes down to the motivation and dedication of the individuals involved in the project.

Motivation and dedication is affected by the virtual project setup in the way that it requires that the team members are more patient and more motivated and dedicated to constantly communicate (Mattsson, 2014). Almqvist (2014) also suggests that team members that do not have to be responsible face-to-face towards the client might feel a lower degree of motivation and dedication than those who constantly have to stand up for the result of the project to the client.

4.2.4 Tools for virtual project teams

The most important thing to consider in terms of technical tools for virtual project teams is to have a well-defined IT-structure including compatible software and a well-defined working process for decision making and division of responsibilities (Almqvist, 2014) (Mattsson, 2014).

The tools used does not have to be the most advanced ones, simple tools and a well-defined process is superior to an advanced technical toolbox with an vaguely defined process (Mattsson, 2014). The tools and the processes need to become more advanced if the organization grows bigger due to the fact that the amount of information flowing through and being stored within the organization increases (Mattsson, 2014). It is very important to have a plan for how to control and monitor the flow of documents and to have an effective system for keeping track of the original version of documents, drawings, models and other types of files (Mattsson, 2014).

In terms of actual technical tools, videoconferences where the participants can see each other at the same time as the participants are looking at the same document, drawing, file or model is a very powerful and useful tool (Mattsson, 2014) (Schartner, 2014). When using videoconferences it is important to have good videoconference equipment to ensure high sound quality, especially if the communication is carried out in a language which is not the native language of all participants (Schartner, 2014). When carrying out videoconferences, a so called big room approach could be beneficial if possible, meaning that project participants that have the same home office meet physically and connect towards another, or several, offices where the same co-location approach is used (Mattsson, 2014). This is done to eliminate some of the challenges of communication by minimizing the amount of communication through technical tools.

Mattsson (2014) stressed that it is important to choose a few good tools, stick to them and try to use them efficiently. Lastly, Mattsson (2014) also stressed the importance of being satisfied

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with a sufficient result. This due to the fact that it is very hard to change the tools and the processes to achieve a better result once the project has started.


SKA VISAS HÄR .. ANALYSIS

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5 Analysis

This chapter includes a presentation of the findings from the literature study, the case study and the interview study. The findings are presented according to the theoretical framework of the thesis.

5.1 Benefits of virtual project teams

The main benefit of virtual project teams, mentioned in the literature study as well as in both the case study and the interview study, is the possibility to widen the number of possible actors and competences compared to a co-located project setup. As mentioned in the interview study, if a well-functioning virtual team is formed it could be kept independent on the geographical location of the future projects. According to all three studies carried out, knowledge and experience sharing is facilitated by using a virtual project team due to the possibility of including team members with a high degree of diversity with respect to culture and past experience.

Furthermore, the virtual project team setup reduces the amount of necessary travel for the project participants since the main part of the work is carried out using the virtual setup. With respect to time, findings from the literature and interview study suggest that when working in a virtual project team where team members are located several time zones from each other, the time difference could be used as a benefit to either create a shift-like project with a longer working day or to use the time difference as a benefit to get more well thought through answers to questions compared to questions replied to instantly in a co-located project.

5.2 Challenges of virtual project teams

5.2.1 Organization

All three separate studies suggests that a clear and well-defined organizational structure is preferable when setting up a virtual project team. Even though the organizational structure should be clear and well-defined, it is important not to limit the organization in case of flexibility. This in order to be able to change the organizational structure temporarily when dealing with specific tasks that require a different approach than the normal project work. The findings from the interview study suggests that a clear project leader is preferable when working in a virtual project team that includes team members where the cultural difference between the team members is small, whereas a joint-decision-making process is preferable

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when working in a virtual project team where the cultural differences are large between team members. The case study presented had a joint decision-making process for almost every decision, it is described as both positive and negative. The positive aspect presented is that it engages all affected team members and thereby all involved disciplines have the possibility to influence the decision. The negative aspect presented is that it in some cases resulted in longer decision-making processes and in rare cases that decisions that would have needed to be taken at the specific point in time were postponed.

5.2.2 Communication

The communicational difficulties presented in the studies can be separated into two main challenges, communicational paths and linguistic challenges.

The challenge of communicational paths, mentioned in all three studies, mainly has to do with the often occurring scenario for a virtual project team where some of the team members are co-located and others are geographically distributed. The co-located team members have the possibility to communicate in an informal context as well as through the formal communication channels where the geographically distributed team members are limited to the formal communication channels. This can pose problems in form of a discontinuity in information sharing if the sharing of information is not properly monitored.

The linguistic challenge occurs when a virtual project team includes team members that have different native languages. This challenge has been described as problematic in all three studies. The linguistic challenge is closely correlated with the cultural aspect of virtual project teamwork since the way people communicate, organize and perform tasks differ between different cultures and parts of the world.

5.2.3 Time

Regarding virtual project teams that spans over several time zones, all three studies have found two major challenges that normally occurs.

The first challenge is the difficulty of setting meeting times that are suitable for all team members due to the possibility that the working days of team members might not overlap. This requires a high degree of flexibility from the team members. The second challenge is the limitation of quick responses due to the possible non-corresponding working hours of team members in different geographical locations.

5.2.4 Trust

All three studies have described trust as an invaluable ingredient in virtual project work. Virtual projects often include interdependent subtasks performed by different disciplines and, as the findings from the interview study suggests, it is important that team members trust each other but even more importantly that the team members can trust each other in order to reach the designated goal of the project.


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The literature study and the interview study suggest that it is important to meet in person to build basic trust before the project starts. This was the situation in the case study. Findings from the literature study and the interview study suggest that the development of trust is highly influenced by culture and more specifically by possible cultural diversity between team members. Additionally, in order to keep the level of trust high throughout the project high transparency in the work is preferable.

5.2.5 Motivation and dedication

The literature study suggests that a virtual project team can experience increased motivation and dedication to their project if a family-like feeling is established. This claim is backed up by the case study where this phenomena occurred. The literature study and one of the interviews suggested that some team members’ dedication can be reduced if the team members feel distant to the final product.

Furthermore, findings from the interview study point out that motivation and dedication might not be clearly correlated with virtual project work other than in the way that it will require more patience due to the sometimes ineffective work flow in a virtual project team. The findings suggest that it is simply a matter of personal dedication from the project participants rather than that the virtual setup of the project itself that affects the level of dedication of the project participants.

5.3 Tools for virtual project teams

Virtual project teams are highly dependent on well-functioning technical tools, the literature study suggests that virtual project teams might over-rely on the tools which in turn may result in that team members from geographical areas where the IT infrastructure is underdeveloped cannot be included in the virtual project team.

Findings from all three studies say that it is preferable to have a clear and well-defined IT structure with compatible software in order to achieve effective collaboration and a sufficient final result. Furthermore, the findings suggest that it is the process rather than the used technical tools themselves that limit the work and thereby serves as the critical factor for success for a virtual project team.

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6 Discussion and conclusion

In this section the author discusses the findings from the three studies carried out in the thesis as well providing a framework for effective virtual project collaboration. Lastly, the author gives suggestions for future research in the field of the thesis.

6.1 Discussion and conclusion

During the work with this thesis it has become clear for the author that in terms of the working process, the challenges for virtual project teams are greater than the benefits. As section 3.2, When to use a virtual project team describes, it is solely in special cases that a virtual project setup is beneficial to use.

The main benefit of a virtual project team compared to a co-located project team is according to the author that specific competences with greater knowledge and other perspectives can be used in projects where a similar competence is not available in the nearby area. By using this main benefit, a number of other benefits can be created within the virtual project team, such as effective knowledge sharing and a high degree of instructiveness due to cultural and perspectival diversity between the team members. Another benefit of the virtual project setup is the reduced amount of travel needed for meetings, reconciliations etc. that in a virtual project team can be carried out through technical tools instead of during a physical meeting. The challenges presented in this thesis are probably just a selection of all the challenges that a virtual project team faces during a project. What can be viewed as certain is that the challenges presented in this thesis are commonly occurring since they are described in literature, in the case study and in the interview study. Many of the challenges presented in this thesis can be solved by planning the project work thoroughly beforehand. This includes the organizational challenges, the time challenge and challenge of using the appropriate technical tools in a virtual project. The more problematic challenges are those related to the team members of a virtual project team. Of the challenges described and investigated in this thesis, the challenges of communication, trust, motivation and dedication are related to the people working in a virtual project team. The author regards the communicational challenge to be the most challenging one due to the limited amount of interaction with team members compared to working in a co-located project. When the communicational language of the project differs from the native language of one or several team members this becomes even more challenging. The planning challenges can, as the name says, be solved by planning well before the project starts. The organization should be well-defined to the extent that a formal organizational


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structure and formal decision-making process exists. The lack of a formal decision-making process was by the author considered to be the greatest problem when he participated in the 2014 version of the AEC Global Teamwork which the case study was written about. Even if the formal structure is set, as mentioned in the thesis, flexibility and transparency in the work is something that is very valuable. If a team member has his or her own agenda, it is important to make sure that the other team members are informed about it. It will help the teamwork a lot if all team members are aware of the other team members’ situation and view of the project. Regarding communication, the author’s view is that extensive communication is beneficial. Share as much as you think is necessary, even if it is not a formal requirement. If a linguistic barrier exists, do what you can to work around it. Visualization of things is very helpful to breach linguistic barriers. Time is an aspect that is hard to deal with for any team, no matter the formation of the team. The author’s suggestion is to set a few fixed times for meetings and other formal events and for the other communication one has to rely on the dedication of the other team members to perform their assigned tasks. Concerning trust and the development of trust, meeting your future colleagues before the project work starts is extremely important. This should preferably be done in a non-working environment to create a bond between the team members on a non-professional level. It is also important to share small stories and personal things throughout the work to feel that there is a personality behind the professional that you are interacting with. Motivation and dedication within a virtual project team is crucial, when the project progress is low it is very easy to feel less motivated than when the project progress is high. This puts high demands on the project participants’ patience and dedication to the project and the tasks that they should perform. Perhaps some sort of extra activity or bonus for the project participants could reduce the risk of this phenomena to occur. Technical tools for virtual project work is by the author not considered to be as important as what one might think. The important thing to keep in mind is that the tools should be user-friendly to the extent that no one chooses not to use them because they feel that it obstructs their work. In order to answer the research question: “What framework is required to build effective virtual project collaboration?” the author provides a recommendation list, or framework, to build effective virtual project collaboration.

Framework for effective virtual project collaborati on

• Have a well-defined organizational structure. But at the same time, be flexible, change the organizational structure temporarily if it is required to bring the project work forward.

• Define clearly the formal channels and paths of communication within the organization to be able to backtrack information and to know what information that has been shared and what has not been shared.

• Have a well-defined decision-making process.

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• Plan the project work well, put more time into planning the project than in a normal co-located project setup.

• Use technical tools that all team members can master and put the focus on having an effective process instead of having an advanced technical platform that the team members cannot use properly.

• If you have a time difference that impedes the normal work flow, investigate what you can do to minimize the negative effects of it.

• Communicate as much as needed, even if things are not formally required. If it helps the project, communicate it.

• Get to know your team on a personal level, everything works a lot better if you know the person you are working with. This is the first step towards building trust.

• Learn from each other in the team and be transparent with your work, the virtual setup makes it harder to work for everyone in the team.

• Make sure that everyone in the team is aware of that virtual project teamwork is more demanding and time consuming than co-located work. Stress this before you form your team.

For future research the author recommends a more extensive research in the field of cultural aspects of geographically distributed work, since it has by all interviewees in the interview study been described as highly influential of the project work. The aspect of effective leadership is an aspect that could be interesting for future research as well.

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List of references

Literature

BOUDREAU, M.-C. et al. Going global: Using information technology to advance the competitiveness of the virtual transnational organization. The Academy of Management Executive, v. 12, n. 4, p. 120-128, 1998. ISSN 1558-9080.

CAMARINHA-MATOS, L. M.; AFSARMANESH, H. A framework for virtual organization creation in a breeding environment. Annual Reviews in Control, v. 31, n. 1, p. 119-135, 2007. ISSN 1367-5788.

FISCHER, M.; KUNZ, J. The scope and role of information technology in construction. Proceedings-Japan Society of Civil Engineers, 2004, DOTOKU GAKKAI. p.1-32.

FRUCHTER, R.; BOSCH-SIJTSEMA, P.; RUOHOMÄKI, V. Tension between perceived collocation and actual geographic distribution in project teams. AI & society, v. 25, n. 2, p. 183-192, 2010. ISSN 0951-5666.

FURST, S. A. et al. Managing the life cycle of virtual teams. The Academy of Management Executive, v. 18, n. 2, p. 6-20, 2004. ISSN 1558-9080.

JARVENPAA, S. L.; KNOLL, K.; LEIDNER, D. E. Is Anybody Out There? Antecedents of Trust in Global. Journal 0/Management Information Systems/Spring I998, v. 4, n. 4, p. 29-64, 1998.

KIMBLE, C.; LI, F.; BARLOW, A. Effective virtual teams through communities of practice: Department of Management Science, University of Strathclyde 2000.

LEE-KELLEY, L.; SANKEY, T. Global virtual teams for value creation and project success: A case study. International journal of project management, v. 26, n. 1, p. 51-62, 2008. ISSN 0263-7863.

MAZNEVSKI, M. L.; CHUDOBA, K. M. Bridging space over time: Global virtual team dynamics and effectiveness. Organization science, v. 11, n. 5, p. 473-492, 2000. ISSN 1047-7039.

MORRIS, S. A.; MCMANUS, D. J. Information infrastructure centrality in the agile organization. Information systems management, v. 19, n. 4, p. 8-12, 2002. ISSN 1058-0530.

MOSS KANTER, R. The middle manager as innovator. Harvard business review, v. 82, n. 7-8, p. 150-161, 2004. ISSN 0017-8012.

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NEMIRO, J. Creativity in virtual teams: Key components for success. John Wiley & Sons, 2004. ISBN 078797336X.

NEMIRO, J. E. The handbook of high-performance virtual teams : a toolkit for collaborating across boundaries. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass ; Chichester : John Wiley [distributor], 2008. ISBN 9780470176429.

POWELL, A.; PICCOLI, G.; IVES, B. Virtual teams: a review of current literature and directions for future research. ACM Sigmis Database, v. 35, n. 1, p. 6-36, 2004. ISSN 0095-0033.

WIESENFELD, B. M.; RAGHURAM, S.; GARUD, R. Communication patterns as determinants of organizational identification in a virtual organization. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, v. 3, n. 4, p. 0-0, 1998. ISSN 1083-6101.

ZOLIN, R. et al. Interpersonal trust in cross-functional, geographically distributed work: A longitudinal study. Information and organization, v. 14, n. 1, p. 1-26, 2004. ISSN 1471-7727.

Interviews

ALMQVIST, T. 2014. Interview, Structural Engineer, Omniplan.

MATTSSON, M. 2014. Interview, Business Manager, NCC.

SCHARTNER, S. 2014. Interview, Architect, Omniplan.

Figures

Figure 1. NEMIRO, J. E. The handbook of high-performance virtual teams : a toolkit for collaborating across boundaries. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass ; Chichester : John Wiley [distributor], 2008, p. 5. ISBN 9780470176429.

Figure 2-5 are screenshots taken by the author.

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A

A.1 Interview questions

Who are you? (Name, age, profession)

What type of geographically distributed/virtual project work have you been involved in? (Project type/activity, when and how?)

What did the structure of the work look like? (Organization, communication etc.)

What technical tools did you use in your work?

What benefits did you have in your way of working?

What challenges/disadvantages did you have in your way of working?

What benefits do you see with geographically distributed/virtual project work in general?

What challenges/disadvantages do you see with geographically distributed/virtual project work in general?

What is your view on the following aspects within geographically distributed/virtual project work?

• Organization • Communication • Time • Trust • Motivation and dedication • Technical tools

Appendix

Master Thesis 329,

Department of Real Estate and

Construction Project Management 2014

www.kth.se

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