Software project management in virtual teams

In this paper we discuss what are the problems facing by the virtual teams and how project tools and techniques help to solve management problems in virtual teams. The rise of the Internet and development of collaborative software enabled globalized organizations to have teams that are geographically distributed. So, there lies diversity of skills, knowledge and culture. This leads to new challenges for project management related to effective coordination, visibility, communication and cooperation. So, this needs to be managed differently from usual single place projects. In this paper we will focus on different methods and tools of project management that can facilitate to deal with challenges faced by project managers in managing virtual teams. We suggest some guidelines to furnish such challenges. Six specific project management areas would be taken under consideration to enable successful virtual team procedure. The areas are Organizational Virtual Team Strategy, Virtual Team Risk Management, Virtual Team Infrastructure, Implementation of a Virtual Team Process, Team Structure and Organization and Conflict Management.