Managing Work Within a Virtual Manufacturing Enterprise- Revising Project Planning Practice

This paper presents the findings of an empirical study into the management of projects within a virtual environment. In a virtual project, co-workers can be both geographically and temporally dispersed. The control and co-ordination of the work output of the virtual project team is a key process for business success. Traditional project management techniques have been found wanting when applied to virtual projects. New techniques need to be developed. This paper identifies key factors in the control and co-ordination of virtual projects and proposes a project management process for virtual projects.