With the globalization of organizations and subsequently projects, managing virtual teams is a reality. There are several benefits to virtual teams including access to the best resources in the organization, regardless of where they are. Virtual teams can bring significant advantages in productivity, but when distance and cultural differences are introduced to the team dynamic, the potential for a disastrous project increases.

Challenges of Virtual Teams

Virtual teams experience several hardships that develop from being at different locations. The four major challenges in developing high-performing virtual teams are:

• Creating a team atmosphere that is tangible. The lack of a single office can lead to feelings of loneliness in the project effort. Also, due to other demands, team members may become disengaged from the project. Members constantly need to be reminded that they are part of a team and are accountable to the project.
• Developing trust. Managers and team members find it hard to trust someone whom they have never met or have met just a few times. With minimal previous interaction, it is hard to understand other team members’ work ethic, personality, and support requirements.
• Developing effective patterns of communication. Even with advances in virtual meetings, communication frequency is low and the risk of miscommunication is high. Communication is the key to project success. Being uninformed on project progress, the whereabouts of team members, and current issues that arise can lead to project failure.
• Sharing relevant information & resources. Each person will generate documents (e.g. project plans, requirements documents, meeting minutes, notes, contact lists) that are relevant to the project. Sharing this information via e-mail can lead to confusion, versioning issues, and exclusion of members who are not explicitly listed in the recipient list.

How SharePoint Can Help

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) offers several collaboration features that can help project managers ease the team-building burden. SharePoint’s tag line, “Connecting people, process, and information,” gives a clear indication of its intent. Follow these recommendations to get the most support for virtual teams from SharePoint.

1. Create a team atmosphere with SharePoint team site. SharePoint team sites are Web sites that are created from a provided template. A site specific to the project can be created within an existing SharePoint context or as a standalone site. A team site aids virtual managers in creating a team atmosphere by:

• Allowing the team to do something non-project related together early on. Team members can collaborate on the look of their site, the tools that they would like available for collaboration, and to develop consensus on how the site will be used.
• Creating a central location where team members can gather and focus on the project. The team’s mission and name can be prominently displayed on the main view to serve as a reminder of the members’ shared goal. The team site creates something tangible to which the team members can become attached.

2. Develop trust with SharePoint My Sites. The SharePoint My Site feature is a personal Web site for an individual that is linked to the team site. It allows each member of the team to add personal information, pictures, links, contacts, and blog content. This information can then be shared with other team members.

Virtual team mangers can encourage team members to post information about themselves to give others a sense of who they are. Having this information available facilitates learning about each other’s families, similarities and differences, and cultural norms, creating informal interaction that is hard to obtain in geographically dispersed teams.

3. Develop effective patterns of communication with:

• SharePoint synchronized calendar. Virtual managers can include a calendar on the team site that can store important dates relevant to the project. This calendar can be synchronized with each team member’s personal Outlook 2007 application. SharePoint’s two-way synchronization allows members to share their personal calendar items with the team, while having access to relevant project dates offline.
• SharePoint discussion boards. Policies around the effective use of the discussion board can greatly increase communication. Virtual managers can require that all issues or questions be posted to the discussion board to allow for maximum input. This creates a forum for open and archived discussion. Team members can set up e-mail alerts or RSS feeds to stay updated on discussions without having to constantly check the SharePoint site.
• SharePoint synchronized task list. An important aspect of team communication is being aware of what team members are currently working on. Virtual managers can create a task list for the project in SharePoint, assign tasks to team members, and track progress in SharePoint or offline. Team members can then import SharePoint tasks to their personal Outlook 2007 clients. As tasks are updated by individuals, other team members can see the owner and the progress. Another feature of SharePoint is that, as tasks are reassigned, comments are tracked in the task body creating a record of decision making.

4. Share relevant information and resources with:

• SharePoint document libraries . Virtual managers can add document libraries to the team site to support team member needs to store, update, and share files in a centralized location. SharePoint document libraries include revision tracking and permit discussions on each version of a document. Managers can enforce a policy requiring the upload of all relevant project information, including: project documents, forms, presentations, and notes.
• SharePoint contact lists. Team members may need to share contacts that are relevant to the project. Ideally this information should be stored with all the other project information. Managers can create a contact list that will enable users to share contact information by importing Outlook 2007 contacts into the SharePoint site. Team members can also synchronize their contact list with SharePoint to have access to the information offline.

How Much SharePoint Costs

Although MOSS can provide significant benefits, it comes with a price tag. SharePoint is not an out-of-the-box solution; it is a variety of components that must be installed and configured. Some costs that should be factored into MOSS initializations include:

• MOSS purchase price. Information on how to purchase SharePoint (and its related products) can be found in the Microsoft article, “How to buy Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.”
• Project management. SharePoint implementation is a project and must be treated as such. Requirements need to be discussed and agreed upon, tasks and resources need to be managed, and time must be dedicated. SharePoint installations should not be completed in an ad-hoc manner as these can quickly become overwhelming and time consuming.
• Installation and configuration. MOSS requires a dedicated server on which to run, knowledgeable people to integrate it with the existing infrastructure, and time to install the components and configure them as required.
• Administration. Once a SharePoint site is set up, it still requires a dedicated administrator who will be available to address issues, make minor modifications to views and components, and/or train others.

Recommendations

1. Ensure SharePoint meets your needs. SharePoint may not be advantageous to all virtual teams. If a team already performs optimally with the current processes that are in place, adding technology to the mix may actually hinder their performance.
2. Plan the implementation. The execution goal may be to get SharePoint ready for use as fast as possible, or to just use it for one team. In any case, some thought has to be given to how SharePoint will be used by virtual managers. MOSS has several features, not all of which need to be implemented to prove useful. Dedicate some time to determine the requirements in an effort to limit the scope of implementation.
3. Don’t rely on SharePoint to fix team issues. MOSS is not a panacea for making all virtual teams work well. Virtual team management best practices must be employed and team issues addressed outside the context of SharePoint. For more information on how to overcome the distance hurdle, follow the guidelines of the Info-Tech Advisor research note, “Managing Virtual Teams.”

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