Virtual project management

Project Management is a complex and challenging task that strives for solutions and deliverables within time and budget. Virtual Project Management is an even more daunting task. PM is the discipline of planning, organizing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.

 VPM is attempting the same, except all project team members are not physically in a single location, possibly spanning different states and/or countries. VPM is the art of bringing together many diverse people to work towards a common shared goal and come together as knowledge workers. 

One can look at VPM as a new dimension of project management, in that it is a new way to manage projects that was influenced by the rise of the internet collaborative software tools that are used to facilitate projects. Project members can now be organizationally disbursed across the globe to complete the tasks.

VPM has unique challenges. Since team members are often scattered in different locations around the world, they have different schedules, cultures and expectations. Managing a virtual team makes it difficult to micro manage which is a traditional concept in project management.