Virtual Team Configurations that Promote Better Product Quality

Abstract

Managers need to decide on how they will configure their virtual teams each time a new project starts. So questions such as 'Which countries should be involved in the project?' and 'How large should the team size be?' need to be answered before hand. Project configurations are known to affect communication, coordination and collaboration aspects of a project, and as a consequence, its performance. Therefore, a challenge managers face is knowing which configurations promote better project outcomes when working with virtual software teams. This article reveals a set of configurations that have promoted the quality of software products developed by virtual teams to support the business of a Fortune 500 large IT multinational company. These configurations can be used as a guideline by managers to set up their own virtual teams. Recommendations on how to set up virtual teams based on the study are then suggested.