Improving Virtual Design Team Performance Through Use of a Collaborative Sketching Application

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Brett Stone ◽  
John Salmon ◽  
Ammon Hepworth ◽  
Steven Gorrell ◽  
Michael Richey
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Process Time ◽  
Virtual Design ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Virtual Teamwork ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
Virtual Design Team ◽  
Virtual Setting ◽  
Collaborative Sketching

As virtual teamwork in engineering becomes more central to the daily design activities of organizations around the world, it is increasingly important for team members to be able to easily and effectively share their visual ideas with remote teammates. However, sharing visual representations of ideas among virtual teammates is generally difficult and commonly hampered by various factors, making the process time-consuming and non-intuitive. In laboratory experiments and a case study, involving students from six different universities across the U.S. working as teams to build unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the authors quantify how a collaborative sketching application (CSA) provides a significant benefit to design engineering activities for virtual teams. From the experiments and the case study, it was observed that such a tool improved users' understanding of each other's ideas when working in a virtual setting, improved the perceived equality of teammate contribution, and decreased the level of frustration experienced when working remotely.

Trust in Virtual Multicultural Teams

2008 ◽  
pp. 1292-1308
Author(s):  
Iris C. Fischlmayr ◽  
Werner Auer-Rizzi
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Multicultural Teams ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
Illustrative Case Study

This chapter analyses the phenomenon of trust with regard to its significance for virtual teams. Guided by the existing literature on trust, this chapter presents different kinds of trust and the development of trust over time. The challenges inherent to virtual multicultural teams, thus to working teams, which are geographically dispersed and communicate with the help of electronic media, raise the questions of their consequences on trust. As virtual teams are mostly used in companies operating in different countries all over the world, the different cultural backgrounds of the team members are taken into account as well. To give an example for the relevance of this issue in practice, an illustrative case study on experiences international business students have made during virtual team projects is presented.

IT Project Managers' Perceptions and Use of Virtual Team Technologies

2011 ◽  
pp. 25-43
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Beise ◽  
Fred Niederman ◽  
Herb Mattord
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Team Members ◽  
It Project ◽  
Information And Communication

This chapter presents the results of a case study pertaining to the use of information and communication media to support a range of project management tasks. A variety of electronic communication tools have evolved to support collaborative work and virtual teams. Few of these tools have focused specifically on the needs of project managers. In an effort to learn how practicing IT project managers employ these tools, data were collected at a North American Fortune 500 industrial company via interviews with IT project managers regarding their use and perceptions of electronic media within the context of their work on project teams. In this study, “virtual” describes the extent to which communication is electronic rather than the extent to which team members are geographically separated. Although the number of respondents was limited, the richness of the data collected leads to the conclusion that successful project managers and teams become skilled at adapting a variety of existing communication technologies to match the project task or process, the receiver, their own role as sender, and the content of the message. Groupware designers and developers need to better understand project management methods and best practices in order to provide better tools for practitioners, particularly as organizations expand globally and increasingly outsource various functions of their IT development and operations.

Workflow Complexities of Fit Criteria on Strategy Applications and Structure Adaptations

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (02) ◽  
pp. 1550017
Author(s):  
Noriss Kweku Hammah ◽  
Rahinah Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Strong Support ◽  
Knowledge Flow ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Virtual Design ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
Planning Department ◽  
Virtual Design Team ◽  
The Impact

In studying the correlation between structure–strategy and workflow process, empirical research has shown that knowledge flow has an influence on professional team workflow performance. Using multiple sources of case study evidence, we propose a contingent model of a criteria fit in which the effect of structure on strategies is efficiency of Knowledge Applicability (KA) and effectiveness of Knowledge Adaptability (KA). A case study analysis of building permit approval processing by the Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD) and the various planning agencies in Ghana finds strong support for the model explaining that structure is the measurement attribute determining the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge flow. A framework of four types of KA is outlined. These show that the viability of organisations is contingent on adaptations of efficient structure and applications of effective strategies. With an emphasis on two organisational environmental variables (uncertainty and equivocality) and structural configuration, we demonstrated the impact of formalisation and centralisation on knowledge flow and workflow process using Virtual Design Team Computational Organisational Theory (VDTCOT).

Process-Aware Information Systems for Virtual Teamwork

2005 ◽  
pp. 2314-2320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schahram Dustdar
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Collaborative Systems ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Work Activities ◽  
Virtual Teamwork ◽  
The Right

The question of the “right” organizational form and the appropriate information systems support remains of paramount importance and still constitutes a challenge for virtually all organizations, regardless of industrial background. Organizations distribute their required work activities among groups of people (teams), with teams constituting the main building block for implementing the work (tasks). In most cases, team members are organized as “virtual (project) teams.” These teams are under heavy pressure to reduce time to market of their products and services and lower their coordination costs. Some characteristics of distributed virtual teams are that team (member) configurations change quite frequently and that team members report to different managers, maybe even in different organizations. From an information systems’ point of view, distributed virtual teams often are self-configuring networks of mobile and “fixed” people, devices, as well as applications. A newly emerging requirement is to facilitate not just mobility of content (i.e., to support a multitude of devices and connectivity modes) to team members, but also to provide contextual information on work activities to all distributed virtual team members (Dustdar, 2002a, 2002b, 2002c). By context, we mean traceable and continuous views of associations (relationships) between artifacts (e.g., documents, database records), resources (e.g., people, roles, skills), and business processes. Context is composed of information on the “who, when, how, and why.” The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows: The next section provides an overview of related work on classification systems of collaborative systems and provides an overview on evaluation aspects of current collaborative systems for virtual teamwork. Section 3 discusses some issues and problems related to the integration of artifacts, resources, and processes. Section 4 presents one proposed solution. Finally, Section 5 discusses some future trends and concludes the chapter.

Requirements Engineering During Virtual Software Development

2002 ◽  
pp. 89-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Hanisch
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Requirements Engineering ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Team Members ◽  
System Project ◽  
Virtual Setting ◽  
Different Cultures

There has been growing interest in virtual teams, and more specifically in virtual software development. Requirements engineering, which is seen as a crucial phase in software development provides another dimension when software development occurs in a virtual setting. While formal software development methods are the obvious first choice for project managers to ensure a virtual information system project team remains on track, the social aspects of requirements engineering cannot be ignored. These social aspects are especially important across different cultures, and have been shown to affect the success of an information system. This chapter proposes a framework indicating that project managers need to encourage a balance between formal methods and social aspects in requirements engineering to suit the virtual team members.

Success Factors for the Management of Global Virtual Teams for Software Development

2012 ◽  
pp. 239-249
Author(s):  
Javier García Guzmán ◽  
Javier Saldaña Ramos ◽  
Antonio Amescua Seco ◽  
Ana Sanz Esteban
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Global Virtual Teams ◽  
Industrial Case Study ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Software Development Project ◽  
Geographical Dispersion

The management of globally distributed software teams is complex because of problems of linguistic differences, geographical dispersion, different time zones, and the cultural diversity of the team members; what is particularly common in software development environments. These problems are amplified when a single software development team is composed of highly skilled individuals working in dispersed geographical locations, and they have to work as a team across distances. This paper describes several of the most important factors that contribute to the correct and effective management of global virtual teams for software development and underlying solutions are addressed to reduce cultural and time barriers. These factors are obtained from an industrial case study, which lasted 36 months, corresponding to a huge software development project that involved several global virtual teams. These success factors consider different perspectives as technology, human factors and process.

Leveraging Diversity in a Virtual Context

2014 ◽  
pp. 307-325
Author(s):  
Robyn A. Berkley ◽  
Roxanne Beard ◽  
David M. Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Cultural Sensitivity ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Team Work ◽  
Global Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Cyber Aggression ◽  
On Line ◽  
Virtual Setting

In this chapter, the authors present a model for understanding the context and determinants of aggression within an on-line environment, known as cyber-aggression. They propose that the heterogeneity of global virtual teams along with other key individual characteristics such as Social Dominance Orientation, Identification Threat, and past experience with aggression/harassment will lead to greater likelihood of cyber-aggression occurring or being perceived by group members. Additionally, the use of lean communication media, as well as the distance between team members and the social and professional isolation that goes along with global virtual team work also contributes to greater likelihood of cyber-aggression occurring. Lastly, without any way to build meaningful trust in a virtual setting and a lack of cross-cultural competence, members of global virtual teams are more likely to engage in behaviors that do not demonstrate cultural sensitivity or cohesion on the team, resulting in poor communication which can lead to more aggressive behaviors. The authors conclude their chapter with recommendations on how to best combat these pitfalls of working in a virtual environment.

Trust in Virtual Multicultural Teams

2011 ◽  
pp. 100-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris C. Fischlmayr
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Multicultural Teams ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
Illustrative Case Study

This chapter analyses the phenomenon of trust with regard to its significance for virtual teams. Guided by the existing literature on trust, this chapter presents different kinds of trust and the development of trust over time. The challenges inherent to virtual multicultural teams, thus to working teams, which are geographically dispersed and communicate with the help of electronic media, raise the questions of their consequences on trust. As virtual teams are mostly used in companies operating in different countries all over the world, the different cultural backgrounds of the team members are taken into account as well. To give an example for the relevance of this issue in practice, an illustrative case study on experiences international business students have made during virtual team projects is presented.

scholarly journals Relationship Building in Virtual Teams: An Academic Case Study

10.28945/3046 ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy Egea
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Team Building ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Team Functioning ◽  
Team Trust

Information Technology (IT) provides the infrastructure for communication and collaboration tools for virtual teams, but Henttonen and Blomqvist (2005) suggest that it is the relational communication and factors of trust, commitment and communication that attention. This case study presents a team building strategy for such interaction. Off-campus students in an undergraduate course apply technological design concepts for social mechanisms in communication and collaboration to virtual teamwork. Students utilise the themes of conversation, awareness and coordination and document their reflection on their use over the team lifecycle. All functioning teams indicated that these social mechanisms helped to build team trust and commitment. Seventy-two percent of students indicated positive team experience, despite constraints of workload, time pressure, technology tools, distance and uncooperative team members. This study argues that use of guided and iterative reflections on social mechanisms support virtual team functioning and strengthen relationships.

Leveraging Diversity in a Virtual Context

2012 ◽  
pp. 504-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn A. Berkley ◽  
Roxanne Beard ◽  
David M. Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Cultural Sensitivity ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Team Work ◽  
Global Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Cyber Aggression ◽  
On Line ◽  
Virtual Setting

In this chapter, the authors present a model for understanding the context and determinants of aggression within an on-line environment, known as cyber-aggression. They propose that the heterogeneity of global virtual teams along with other key individual characteristics such as Social Dominance Orientation, Identification Threat, and past experience with aggression/harassment will lead to greater likelihood of cyber-aggression occurring or being perceived by group members. Additionally, the use of lean communication media, as well as the distance between team members and the social and professional isolation that goes along with global virtual team work also contributes to greater likelihood of cyber-aggression occurring. Lastly, without any way to build meaningful trust in a virtual setting and a lack of cross-cultural competence, members of global virtual teams are more likely to engage in behaviors that do not demonstrate cultural sensitivity or cohesion on the team, resulting in poor communication which can lead to more aggressive behaviors. The authors conclude their chapter with recommendations on how to best combat these pitfalls of working in a virtual environment.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document