Techniques and Technologies of Today's Global Leaders, and How They can be Implemented In Your Organization

In today's budget-conscious business arena, downsizing and outsourcing are the new facts of life. A company's employees must be able to work together as if they shared an office-even when they are in different facilities, cities, or even continents.

Managing Virtual Projects shows project managers how to overcome geographic distances, cultural diversity, and time zone disparities to make the new global workplace a competitive advantage instead of an obstacle. Sidestepping theory and guesswork to provide a practical, hands-on portrait of virtual project management (ePM) in action, this timely book provides project managers with the knowledge and tools they need to:

•  Structure ePM teams and adapt PERT, CPM, and other conventional techniques for ePM success

•  Implement proven ePM tools and procedures to control project and collaboration quality

•  Leverage environment, expertise, and technology to develop an ePM focused office

Unlike the old days, it's no longer the big companies that eat the small; it's the fast that eat the slow. And the fast are on a 24-hour workday. Managing Virtual Projects reveals everything the new breed of project manager must know to help their organizations become leaders in this new multinational and multicultural, yet one-world, environment.

The time-honored "managing by walking around" system may have worked fine in the past, when every project team member was in the same building or just around the corner. But it has severe limitations in today's high-pressure, globally diffused work environment, where coworkers may not work the same shift or even speak the same language.

Managing Virtual Projects gives project managers in this dramatic new environment the knowledge and tools they need to assess, control, and complete mission-critical projects from a distance. Written by Marcus Goncalves, a pioneer and innovator in the design and implementation of virtual project management ( ePM ) systems, this timely guidebook explores the cultural, political, and operational challenges of ePM. At the same time, it provides project managers and members with a step-by-step primer for maximizing the advantages of ePM, while minimizing or even eliminating the disadvantages.

In a world in which core cross-cultural management competencies can often spell the difference between the success of a vital project and its inevitable collapse, Managing Virtual Projects features:

•  A proven methodology for developing ePM one step at a time

•  Time-saving details on technologies that support ePM - Microsoft's EPM, Primavera, and others

•  A hands-on, results-oriented examination of available ePM tools and systems

•  Strategies for using ePM to uncover and leverage expertise in previously untapped geographic areas.

•  Case studies, along with "lessons learned," of ePM solving vital logistical concerns across a wide range of environments

Studies indicate that over 70 percent of projects end up beyond deadline , over budget, or both. Increased globalization will do nothing but worsen these already daunting numbers. Managing Virtual Projects shows project leaders as well as company decision-makers how to reverse this costly trend. It demonstrates virtual project management best practices already being used around the globe, outlines an innovative and cost-effective ePM approach, and details the communications and collaboration technologies available today to support that approach - to help the vision of the 24-hour-a-day workplace become a reality.

Marcus Goncalves is president of Marcus Goncalves Consulting Group (MGCG),an international consulting practice with more than a dozen years of experience in North and Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. A globally acclaimed expert in the understanding and application of knowledge and change management issues , Goncalves also lectures at Boston University and is the former CEO of iCloud, Inc. He is the author of The Knowledge Tornado: , Firewalls: A Complete Guide , and over two dozen other titles, and is both a certified project management professional (PMP) and member of the Project Management Institute .