Page 336 - Global Project Management Handbook

SUCCESS FACTORS IN VIRTUAL GLOBAL SOFTWARE PROJECTS 16-23

Project Mgr: Name Product marketing: Name
Project description

Project financials 3 yr Net sales Total NRE NPV IRR PI GM%
Targets @ xx: $ xxK $xxK $xxK xx% x.x xx.x%
Project status summary

Schedule (aproved target dates): Project cost per day: $xxK
I
A B C D E F G H J
D/M/Y D/M/Y D/M/Y D/M/Y D/M/Y D/M/Y D/M/Y D/M/Y D/M/Y D/M/Y D/M/Y
NRE: Non recurring engineering NPV: Net present value IRR: Internal rate of return
PI: Profitability index GM: Gross margin D/M/Y: Date/Month/Year
Note: Milestones are marked as A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J because of the company confidential
information
FIGURE 16.5 Dashboard.

involved in a VGS between Oregon and Iowa, “It is easier to allocate tasks to resources
once you know the people and their skill sets.” One way for the executives and project
managers to expedite the process of leveraging the strengths of the offsite team is to
establish history with the same team. In successful VGS projects, generally more iterative
life-cycle models (such as the spiral model) provide better results owing to the abundance
of synchronization points (milestones). The exception to this is when tasks assigned to
different sites are highly independent.

Project Tools
Three interdependent tactical factors (see Fig. 16.3) support the strategic success fac-
tor of project tools: product management tools, project management tools, and collab-
orative technology tools. The first success factor—product management tools—is the
underlying factor in that its purpose is to support the foundation stone of the software
development: the technical process of the development. The nature of the technical
process influences the choice and makeup of the second success factor—project man-
agement tools. When there is a clear selection of the product and project management
tools, the challenge is to enable the VGS project team members to share them. This is
where the third success factor—collaborative technology tools—comes in, providing
the sharing capability.

CSF20
CSF19
CSF21