Major Virtual Project Risk Factors

Research on the major risk factors for traditional projects is abundant; however, despite research citing increased communication and trust issues in virtual environments, research on the major risks for projects conducted in virtual environments is scarce. This paper addresses that void by reporting on a research study of virtual project risk that culminated in a survey of 107 virtual project management practitioners from throughout the United States. Prior literature, in-person interviews, and a focus group were used to develop a comprehensive list of fifty-five potential risk factors. Survey participants were asked to rate each of these potential risks, by considering the degree of impact it had on the successful completion of a recent virtual project in which they participated. Similar to past surveys focused on traditional software development projects, the goal of this research was to identify a set of major virtual project risks, those risks most likely to have the greatest impact on the successful completion of a virtual software development project. The study identified a set of three major risks that can be considered critical for virtual projects: 1) lack of or inadequate communication, 2) project critical to the organization and 3) integration of project components is complex. Surprisingly, these risks are different from those previously identified in the literature as top risks for traditional projects. One risk identified here did not even appear in prior studies of traditional project risk. The other two appeared but were never noted as among the most critical risks. Included in this paper is a detailed discussion of each of the three major risk factors, as well as potential areas for future research into virtual project risk. The results of this study will benefit project management practitioners in managing risk in a virtual project environment.