Elsje Scott

Enhancing Team Performance Through Tool Use: How Critical Technology-Related Issues Influence the Performance of Virtual Project Teams

Research problem: The project management of virtual teams differs from that of traditional ones. Traditional project risks, such as complexity, the uncertainty of factors influencing the project, and the high interdependency of project tasks must be managed alongside changed temporal, geographic, and cultural dimensions. Only a few studies have investigated the effect of critical technological issues, such as wrong tool selection or limited internet access on performance as well as team and team member satisfaction in virtual work settings. Research questions: How do critical technology-related issues concerning the selection and use of web-based tools influence the performance and satisfaction of virtual project teams? Literature review: Instead of categorizing virtual teams as a type of team that contrasts with traditional or face-to-face teams, the focus has shifted to virtualness as a characteristic present in all teams. Project teamwork is often integrated in university degree programs in order to prepare students appropriately for real-life projects. While these student teams are often not geographically spread across countries, they have a high degree of virtualness because of their diverse team composition, the necessity for working at different places, and the limited face-to-face meeting opportunities. Performance, effectiveness, and satisfaction are central issues in the evaluation and measurement of project teams: Team performance is often evaluated on the basis of acceptance of a specified output by a customer. Through specific mediating processes, team performance can alternatively be assessed by inquiring the teams perception on their performance. Effectiveness can be defined as the achievement of clear goals and objectives and it is often related to the teams performance. Finally, satisfaction can be defined as having three dimensions-satisfaction with the team, the satisfaction of meeting customer needs, and general satisfaction with extrinsic rewards and work. Technology use is substantial for distributed teamwork and can be assessed by the extent to which it supports communication, collaboration, and project-management tasks. Methodology: Fifteen teams were observed and interviewed over a two-year period. The resulting data were analyzed using a Grounded Theory approach, which revealed how the selection and use of tools for communication, collaboration, and project management in the different project activities influenced the teams performance. Results and conclusions: Our results contribute to practice by providing a number of guidelines for the management of virtual teams as well as knowledge required by companies wishing to launch projects with virtual teams. Differing performances of teams can, in many cases, be attributed to such conditions as: internet availability and bandwidth; lack of training for certain tools; the selection and appropriate use of tools; integrated tool support for task management; as well as the promotion of transparency about progress made. It was found that restrictions in internet access of even a single member within a team limited the teams technological choices, which affected the teams performance.

Information technology team projects in higher education: an international viewpoint

It is common to find final or near final year undergraduate Information Technology students undertaking a substantial development project; a project where the students have the opportunity to be fully involved in the analysis, design, and development of an information technology service or product. This involvement has been catalyzed and prepared for during their previous studies where the students have been told and shown how to develop similar systems. It is the belief that only through this ‘real’ project do they get the chance to experience something similar to what is expected of them when they embark on their chosen profession; that is, as an information technology professional. The high value of ‘near real life’ educational experience is recognized by many universities across the globe. The aim of this paper is to present examples from three countries - Australia, United Kingdom and South Africa, of the delivery of these team, capstone or industrial experience projects; their curricula and management processes. Academics from institutions in each of the countries share experiences, challenges and pitfalls encountered during the delivery of these information technology projects within their institutions. An overview of each institution’s strategies is provided and highlights specific issues such as the selection of projects, allocation of teams to projects, legal requirements, assessment methods, challenges and benefits. The pedagogies presented here are not exhaustive; however, the three institutions do have in common the implementation of a combination of constructivism with a community of practice approach in delivering the project unit. The three universities recognize the need for industrial experience and learning of applied skills, and therefore make these projects a compulsory part of the curriculum. The projects tend to be real life business problems which are solved over a period of two semesters, and in the case of Cape Town it could be two consecutive years of two semesters each. These projects tend to involve practical development (for example databases and web sites). The process of project-to-team allocation is generally similar in all cases. Despite their differences, team work related problems are quite similar in all three cases presented, and seem to appear as a result of team work complexity, and the number of stakeholders involved. The intention of this paper is not to propose solutions to these problems (as these would be context dependent), but to draw the attention to the main problem categories for similar schemes, these are; • project selection, • management of students, • management of academic staff, • student team motivation, • equality and diversity, • passengers, and • assessment. Furthermore, it is not the intention of the authors to portray one approach as better than another, however, the approaches are representative of how team projects are being delivered across the globe, and in particular, in the contributing institutions. It is hoped that the assimilation and dissemination of information regarding the various approaches presented will nurture further discussion, and open communication across the globe with the view to enhancing the teaching and learning experience of such projects.

Learning and making sense of project phenomena in information systems education

One out of three IT/IS projects fail because such projects either miss the targets or fail to deliver the required business functionality [27, 32]. Project management practice for IS and IT and education is aligned to certification programs such as the PMBOK. These programs and practices primarily focus on defined processes, templates and concepts that require an almost instrumental application. Key assumptions made about project phenomena in approaches such as PMBOK are that projects already have an existing structure, and implementation is mostly linear, sequential and more about control through measurement and monitoring. The popularity of agility implies that these assumptions do not necessary hold for IS projects. There is thus a need for alternative educational discourses that promote learning and sense making. In response, this paper presents an approach that emphasizes learning and sense making because the research literature highlights the need for such abilities amongst graduates. The paper further explores assumptions made about cognition and learning in existing IS project management educational practices. These are compared with embodied cognition assumptions because the researchers feel these are more realistic assumptions to have. An overview of a discourse underpinned by embodied cognition is proposed. This paper also reports on a case study description of an implementation cycle of this alternative IS project management approach. The study describes how third year students majoring in Information Systems used selected conceptual readings as theoretical lenses to explain, understand and reason about their individual experiences during a systems development group project thereby learning about project phenomena. The paper concludes by echoing the importance of learning and sense making to understand IS project related phenomena. The contribution this paper makes is that it clarifies assumptions about human nature that ought to underpin IS project management practices.

Motivating an action design research approach to implementing online training in an organisational context

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of action design research (ADR), a combination of action research and design science research, when conducting research where both practical relevance and academic rigor are required. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents ADR in action in order to motivate its use when investigating real-world organisational concerns requiring practical solutions, whilst also fulfilling academic requirements. Findings – When research methodology aligns to research objectives, the resulting synchronicity can elevate the outcome considerably. From this study, which attempts to address concerns of informing practice, as well as advancing theory, ADR appears to be an extremely effective research tool. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to a single organisation and it would not be possible to make statistical generalisations. It is hoped, however, that the findings can be generalised to a theory that can be used in a similar s...

Reflection-in-Action: Using Experience to Reconstruct Meaning in a Learning Environment

Deep learning requires the internalizing of knowing and understanding, which can be accomplished by reflecting on experience. Reflection sharpens the focus, deepens awareness and, when applied through different theoretical lenses, facilitates the reconstruction of meaning. This paper reports on how third year students majoring in information systems, used selected conceptual readings as theoretical lenses to explain, understand and reason about their individual experiences during the first stages of a systems development group project. It outlines the underpinning theories, and gives an account of the main themes and patterns recognized in the process. The paper concludes by echoing the importance of the ldquolived experiencerdquo of projects and provides evidence of the transcendence of students through the initial stages of skills development.

Ensuring Success and Quality through the Use of Standards in Team Projects: Students’ Perceptions

This paper reports on a study analyzing the factors that contribute to the success and quality of software development projects in an educational environment. Software development standards were reviewed to identify key project success factors, as well as measures of success and quality. Interviews with students then investigated the degree to which students implemented software development standards in their projects, and the perceived impact of these standards on project success and quality. Students generally viewed standards as the “proven” ways of doing something, and felt that the use of standards supported project success. The factors that were perceived to contribute most to the success and quality of their team projects were team composition, skills within the development team, and communication within the team.

The Organisational Constraints of Blending E-Learning Tools in Education: Lecturers’ Perceptions

This study investigated and identified the organizational factors that contribute to the poor adoption of technology such as the Sakai Learning Management System in education. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interview questions guided by Giddens’ structuration model. The participant lecturers were from one of the nineteen universities in Zimbabwe, a developing country where a sluggard uptake of Information and Communication Technologies is currently experienced. The situation not only prejudices the students from enjoying the affordances their counterparts in developed nations enjoy. It has also led to the emergence of the second order digital divide, a problem of concern to the researchers, ICT policy makers and the learning institution management, robbed of the anticipated returns on the costly technological investment. The paper contributes to the limited literature relating to the developing country lecturers’ perceptions of e-learning tools in teaching. The findings show that organizational factors play a major role in influencing either the lecturers’ positive or negative perceptions of e-learning system tools in education. In addition to the documented individual and technological factors, policy, budget, training, decision making, implementation and consultation techniques have been found to inhibit the successful integration of e-learning tools in the traditional teaching methods.

The X-Factor of Cultivating Successful Entrepreneurial Technology-Enabled Start-Ups

In the fast changing global economic landscape, the cultivation of sustainable entrepreneurial ventures is seen as a vital mechanism that will enable businesses to introduce new innovative products to the market faster and more effectively than their competitors. This research paper investigated phenomena that may play a significant role when entrepreneurs implement creative ideas resulting in successful technology enabled start-ups within the South African market place. Constant and significant changes in technology provide several challenges for entrepreneurship. Various themes such as innovation, work experience, idea generation, education and partnership formation have been explored to assess their impact on entrepreneurship. Reflection and a design thinking approach underpinned a rigorous analysis process to distill themes from the data gathered through semi structured interviews. From the findings it was evident that the primary success influencers include the formation of partnership, iterative cycles, and certain types of education. The secondary influencers included the origination of an idea, the use of innovation. and organizational culture as well as work experience. This research illustrates how Informing Science as a transdisicpline can provide a philosophical underpinning to communicate and synthesise ideas from constituent disciplines in an attempt to create a more cohesive whole. This diverse environment, comprising people, technology, and business, requires blending different elements from across diverse fields to yield better science. With this backdrop, this preliminary study provides an important foundation for further research in the context of a developing country where entrepreneurial ventures may have a socioeconomical impact. The themes that emerged through this study could provide avenues for further research.