Page 324 - Global Project Management Handbook

SUCCESS FACTORS IN VIRTUAL GLOBAL SOFTWARE PROJECTS 16-11

may have a limited impact. For example, in Fig. 16.3, one of the strategic success factors
is process. In deploying this success factor, a team will develop a clear project and prod-
uct management process, including project phases, deliverables, and milestones. If this is
not done, project tools will be used randomly instead of being used to support specific
deliverables in the process. With no clear deliverables and no clear use of the tools, the
basic purpose of the tools is missed. Therefore, for higher success of VGS projects, ideal-
ly you should treat success factors as a system and build that system. Together, the fac-
tors offer solutions to challenges that VGS project face (shown in Table 16.1) and sup-
port the accomplishment of project goals.
The system of success factors in general works at three levels. The first level includes
a portfolio of all VGS projects, meaning that all VGS projects need one system of success
factors. The second level includes strategic success factors. To provide the flexibility nec-
essary to account for project specifics (size, market and technological novelty, and pace,
for example), the factors may need to be customized. Each strategic success factor is at
the highest level of VGS project makeup and contains multiple components or smaller
success factors that we call tactical success factors (the lowest level). For a strategic fac-
tor to be deployed successfully, all its tactical factors have to work. Next, we will
describe the strategic factors. Tactical factors are the focus of the next section.
There are eight strategic success factors—strategic alignment, project strategy, project
culture, project people, project organization, project process, project tools, and project
metrics—that, when deployed (level 2 in Fig. 16.3), may have a significant impact on
project success. The strategic-alignment factor is how companies use VGS projects as
vehicles to accomplish their business strategies. For this reason, the first condition for a
successful VGS project is that senior management clearly defines the company’s business
strategy. No matter what the competitive attributes (more on this later under tactical success
factors) that the business strategy is based on, a transparent strategic-alignment process,
formal or informal, must be established.
The alignment process’ job is to enable the business strategy to be communicated clearly
to project managers and teams and to help VGS projects (through project planning) to be
fully aligned with the chosen business strategy. Once the VGS project is in implementation,
the strategic-alignment process should be able to maintain the alignment until project
completion.
Once this process is in place and functioning, it will help to define and drive the
makeup of the success factor we call project strategy. First, on the basis of the business

strategy direction, project strategy characterizes the project-delivery approach. We find
that the project-delivery model termed rapid-release cycle is crucial to success. This
model favors frequent, smaller projects, each one implementing a small number of fea-
tures. With such project anatomy in mind, project strategy helps to set corresponding
project objectives and success measures. Also, harmoniously with the objectives and
measures, project strategy defines clear software requirements (product definition) and
project scope definition. Finally, project strategy spells out the strategic focus, a set of
rules telling VGS project teams how to make decisions to accomplish the desired project
objectives and hit the success measures. A properly defined project strategy helps to
shape the next three strategic success factors—project culture, project people, and
organization—which are next described in turn.
By deploying the project strategy success factor, senior management makes a statement:
Develop project culture that will support our business strategy. For thist, performance-
oriented values that are designed to direct project people first must be articulated clearly.
In a way, this is a blueprint for developing the project management actions and behaviors
to be uniformly practiced in the project. In plain terms, project culture is like the air we
breathe: The cleaner the air, the healthier we are, and the more performance oriented the
culture is, the more successful VGS projects are.