Though this management structure is common in multiinstitutional projects it often fails to keep projects on task and on schedule. On e reason is that committees rule through negotiation. These committees also often micromanage. People still have the opportunity to show their creativity, but when you are doing distributed software development, you need some central authority to direct the whole thing. It will work at some level without it, and we had many accomplishments.
Teamwork requires team meetings.
Under Cornwell's management, the group began holding weekly group conference calls and submitting progress reports. Each subgroup was also required to hold weekly or biweekly conference calls. These new reporting requirements, though initially unwelcome, proved critical in keeping people on target. Usually p eople are unaware of them because the controls are informal. But this transparent social pressure breaks down when teams are distributed, he says, necessitating more formal measures.