OVERVIEW

As mentioned in Chapter 2, the primary mission of the project manager of a virtual team, or of a traditional team, is the delivery of the desired product or the facilitation of the required service. To that end, the team's efforts are focused on the activities and measures that would produce the deliverable of the project in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Thus, the team must plan the delivery of the product or service though best practices, policies, and procedures. The team will then implement the plans in a dynamic environment and manage all emerging issues and unusual circumstances that influence the delivery performance (Rad and Levin, 2002). The previous chapter discussed the challenges and importance of things issues in a project. This chapter presents the key considerations of people issues. The goal of the people side of the project manager's duties is to develop processes and procedures for effecting acceptable levels of client satisfaction, vendor satisfaction, and team morale. Although communication is an essential portion of these activities, attention to people's feelings, priorities, and perceptions is also important in the process of conveying information maybe even more important. People issues are often considered to be more challenging because they encompass the intricacies of how team members relate to one another. These issues affect cohesiveness and commitment of the team members, which in turn affect, in very subtle and indirect but significant ways, the overall performance of the project team in delivering the project results.

The proper discharge...