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The constant acceleration in the rate of technological innovation, and the ever growing emphasis on the importance of information for competition has seen organisations around the world strive for the technologies that give them global customer reach. One of the most pervasive technological innovations developed is the internet, and its unique quality of being able to draw people from across the world together in one virtual space has given birth to the concept of virtual teams. Organisations have seized the advantages of such virtual teams to give them the cost and time reductions they need to stay competitive in the global marketplace. In the software industry, where product and service development is always a race against time, forward thinking software companies in the developed world have taken full advantage of the cost and time saving benefits that virtual teams have to offer. In addition, the rate of expansion of technology and software to support such teams is also growing exponentially, offering increasingly faster ways of virtual working. Despite the immense advantages offered by such teams, South African software development companies do not seem to engage in distributed work to any great degree. The importance of this research rests on the belief that South African software development companies will be unable to avoid engaging in distributed software development if they are to achieve and maintain competitiveness in the global marketplace. This research focuses on a sub-section of the software development process with a specific reference to South African software development. The requirements elicitation phase of software development is one of the initial stages of any software project. It is here that developers work with the users in order to identify requirements for the system to be built. It is acknowledged that other phases of distributed development also bring to bear their own problems, however, in the interests of scoping this research, only the requirements elicitation process is focused on. The research shows that most techniques of requirements elicitation can be adapted for use within the virtual environment, although each technique has its share of advantages and disadvantages. In addition, virtual team members experience problems during their general, day-to-day interactions, many of these arising from the dependence on technology for communication and task performance. The research identifies the problems in both categories, and develops a holistic model of virtual requirements elicitation to prevent or solve the problems experienced by virtual teams engaged in distributed requirements elicitation. The model is made up of three key frameworks, each of which prescribes actions to be taken to ensure the success of the virtual team within the requirements elicitation process. The model is verified through the testing of its critical success factors. Certain aspects of the model were adapted based on the findings of the study, but it was confirmed that the rationale behind the model is sound, indicating that it has the potential to solve the problems of virtual RE when implemented.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Virtual team research is very relevant today as organisations have become more distributed and the use of so-called distributed teams has become more common. These virtual teams allow organisations to combine expertise from almost anywhere through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) across space and time to complete interdependent organisational tasks. To date research efforts have yielded insights into many factors that affect virtual teamwork, but the research has become somewhat fragmented. By means of a case study approach, this research paper aims to provide virtual team leaders with a more holistic understanding of the factors that influence virtual team performance. The researcher interviewed five virtual team leaders who have many years of working experience with virtual teams. All the participants work in the ICT industry sector and make extensive use of distributed teams to perform day-to-day tasks, provide business services and to implement large scale projects. The research assignment was constructed by completing a detailed literature review in order to develop a broad framework to evaluate five broad virtual team perspectives that influence virtual team performance. The five perspectives included organisation design, leadership, human resources, ICT technology and process considerations. The following findings were identified for each of these perspectives. Organisational design perspective: The importance of a clearly defined organisation structure helps to create a better understanding of responsibility and ownership. It was also identified that an additional layer of management within the virtual team structure reduces some of the complexities of virtual team management and simplifies the communication structure. The study also provides further insight into the type of person, and the experience and skills of people suitable to work in the virtual team environment. Leadership perspective: The importance of management controls was identified, like process orientation, practical awareness and management awareness in terms of cultural and importantly emotional awareness. Practical considerations for the performance management and rewards systems include the need for a broader team focus rather than rewarding individualist behaviour and performance. Human resources perspective (people): The clear goals and objectives of the organisation or project create the necessary focus, direction and understanding that guide the individual virtual team members and allow them to self-regulate. This is further supported by the a shared understanding of functional and role requirements that promote ownership and accountability which are considered to be the basis for a successful empowering approach and which allow individual team members to make decisions within the boundaries of their functions. Subsequently, the effect of social and interpersonal factors was identified as having a significant impact on virtual team performance and success. The use of various activities to build relations and to create an informal connectedness improves communication and promotes team commitment, cohesion, knowledge and information sharing. Technology perspective: The use of technologies that share the relevant context and supporting information reduces ambiguity and provides a mechanism to share information. All participants make use of collaborative technologies to facilitate the day-to-day team interaction, with a preference for technologies that promote easy participation and sharing of information in real-time (synchronously). Interestingly, none of the respondents provide ICT tool training to improve the effective use of these communication technologies and they expect their virtual team members to be able to use all the relevant technologies as a basic skill. Process perspective: The reliance on clear and agreed processes is important in virtual teamwork and requires upfront alignment. The study identified that a shared understanding by all team members of the underlying delivery process, including all in-and-output controls is a critical success factor for virtual teamwork and, because of the fragmented nature of the delivery process, there is a greater reliance on the efficient facilitation and coordination of specialised work. It also further supports the additional layer of management, in which a team leader and project manager facilitate and coordinate the facilitation of work that relies on a well-developed communication structure.

The impact of training on virtual team effectiveness was assessed in five areas: communication, planning tasks and setting goals, solving problems and making decisions, resolving conflict, and responding to customer requirements. A 12-page survey was developed exploring all aspects of virtual teams. 180 surveys were distributed, 52 were returned representing 43 companies. Training led to higher effectiveness in planning tasks and setting goals, solving problems and making decisions, and conflict resolution, but not in communication and responding to customer requirements. Training may not solve all the problems that virtual teams will encounter; however, training will make the challenges easier to handle.

Corporations have become increasingly global over the past number of years. The rapid development and usage of communication technology has allowed global corporations to more readily form virtual teams to take advantage of the skills of its global workforce. Having skilled workers on teams helps to make them more productive. Productive teams tend to reach their objectives and ultimately drive the success of corporations. Team learning has long been linked with a team’s ability to reach its objectives. The team leader is seen as a key to enabling learning for the team. This qualitative study of 13 virtual teams sought to find ways that the leaders of these virtual teams cultivated team learning in the IT department of a leading global financial services firm. The study was especially focused on applications development project teams that were geographically and temporally dispersed and had an off-shore component as team members. Using the Dechant, Marsick, and Kasl (1993) model of team learning as a foundation, the researcher conducted critical incident interviews with the leaders of the virtual teams followed by administering the Dechant and Marsick (1993) Team Learning Survey to the team members. The study yielded insights that could be valuable to organizations that employ virtual team leaders as well as human resource development professionals who create training programs to enhance the skills of this group. Among the most prevalent skills identified included group facilitation, meeting management, process documentation, artifact creation, practicing learning agility, and soliciting input. The virtual team leader exhibited learning leadership by building relationships within the team and with other constituents; utilizing appropriate technology to enable learning; and conducting productive reflection sessions with the team to evaluate the team’s actions. Where team leaders needed to improve their efforts was around the monitoring and measuring of their learning efforts in order to gauge their full effectiveness.

In a workplace marked by increasing change and competing commitments, business leaders require an increased understanding of alternative work programs. Utilizing spillover theory, motivator-hygiene theory, and adaptive structuration theory, this single case study was an exploration of the strategies that business leaders use for flexible work schedules and virtual work programs. The population consisted of 3 managerial business executives and 6 employees within a midwestern United States division of a global blood management solutions firm. The data collection process included a series of semistructured interviews, a focus group, and the assessment of company documentation. Methodological triangulation identified 5 emerging themes: program assessment and monitoring, standard set of virtual working hours, remote office setup, increased virtual communication, and promotion of quality of life. The transferability of this single case study remains with the reader and future researchers to determine. Future researchers may discover that the findings contribute to social change by better preparing organizations for success while simultaneously positioning individuals to attain optimum balance across life and work responsibilities.

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Thesis (M.S.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from file title page. Ying Zhu, committee chair; G.Scott Owen, Robert W. Harrison, committee members. Electronic text (87 p. : ill. (some col.)) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Feb. 7, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-87).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Edith Cowan University, 2007. / Submitted to the Faculty of Business and Law. Includes bibliographical references.