Date of Conferral

2015

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)

School

Information Systems and Technology

Advisor

Denise Land

Abstract

The steady increase in project failure rates is leaving businesses searching for better integration techniques to virtualize their project environments. Through virtualization, organizations may have positive impacts on communities across geographical boundaries and resource constraints. The focus of this phenomenological study was to explore, via the experiences of successful project management practitioners, best practice strategies for integrating virtual project teams through data analysis. The conceptual framework included von Bertalanffy's general systems theory, decomposition model of business process and project management frameworks, and the recomposition approach. Twenty-two senior project managers with more than 5 years of experience managing virtual project environments participated in semistructured telephone interviews. The van Kaam process employing normalization and bracketing approaches in data analysis resulted in the emergence of 10 thematic categories. The 10 themes culminated in the identification of strategies for implementing best practices relevant to the integration of successful virtual project teams. The major themes pertained to 3 broad areas: (a) structure that accommodates skills and technology for virtual team success, (b) governance leading to efficient virtual project team management, and (c) collaboration practices across diverse environments. Findings may help leaders improve project management leadership practices involved in adopting a virtual project management framework for business infrastructure. Suggestions for future research include additional attention to virtualization problems with respect to the transferability of the systems theory models.

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