Number of distant locations -The project team can be in a single room (project war room), in different rooms and in multiple locations. When all stakeholders are in geographical locations near at hand, face-to-face meetings can be easily organised and the positive influence of body language and social interaction on the efficiency is clear. In • G l o b a l P r o j e c t M a n a g e m e n t global projects, the team members are located at least in two different countries. When the distance among the team members is such that travel is required for physical contact, the use of phone and video conferencing becomes essential, requiring the application of communication strategies to ensure a high level of effectiveness. Number of different organisations -project team members can work for a single department in one company, for multiple departments or even for multiple companies. Project managers must adapt their people and leadership skills to the multiple policies, procedures and organisational cultures. The complexity of commercial and contractual processes is also increased, although outside the scope of discussions in this book. Country cultures -beyond organisational culture, the customs and traditions of different nations and regions can bring more diversity to the work environment, reducing the group thinking and improving the collective creativity. Motivation is often increased as many people prefer to work in cross-cultural environments because of the rich information exchange. Nevertheless, this diversity can sometimes be the source of conflicts and misunderstandings, and project managers must apply some basic rules and practices to take advantage of the cross-cultural communication, and to avoid its pitfalls. Different languages -international companies usually establish a common language for the exchange of information, although the way people communicate is highly dependent on their own native language. For example, if the common language is English, the effectiveness of communication by most non-English speakers will be limited by their knowledge of English expressions, vocabulary and often by their ability to make analogies and tell stories or understand jokes. On the other hand, native English speakers would need to limit their vocabulary to clear sentences and essential words, and carefully confirm the understanding of their ideas by foreign colleagues. The use of online meetings and visual communication are examples of practices discussed in this book that can be adopted by project managers to avoid misunderstandings and obtain a high commitment level from all stakeholders, independently of their native language. time zones -the whole project team can be based in the same location or in different locations in the same time zone. On the other extreme, there are project teams with members in completely different time zones, ,making it difficult (or impossible) to organise meetings in common office hours. The effect is twofold. Program and project managers can use the different working times to their advantage, by creating a 'follow-thesun' implementation, reducing the duration of sequential tasks by a half or a third of the time. The procedures and communication rules must be precisely defined among people in 'complementary' time zones (when there is low overlapping of working hours). On the other hand, important delays can happen, when the exchange of simple information takes a week to be completed, instead of a single day. Global organisations can implement standard communication rules and templates across locations to reduce the possibility of these problems occuring. The above dimensions can be represented by a radial chart where the centre represents the lower complexity levels: single department, location/time zone, language and cultures (Figure I.1.). The combination of medium and high marks shows the higher complexity of projects across borders, with team members from different cultures, languages, and organisations working in different nations around the globe: the global projects. Organisations can use the scale above to establish comparisons among different projects, to decide when to apply the good practices and for risk management. More information on this is given throughout the book. An alternative approach is to complete the scale with one colour to determine the level of complexity of the communication between the project manager and the project team members (where most or all recommendations in this book apply), and use a different colour to categorise the communication with other stakeholders (which requires trust building, conflict resolution and global communication). This can help the project managers to identify which sets of good practices are more important in each project. Some real-life examples can illustrate the usage of this approach. A software development project ( Figure I .2) -the project team members are working in four companies in different locations (the software company in London, England; one development team in Curitiba, Brazil; two development teams in Bangalore and Mumbai, India) with team members speaking four different native languages (English, Brazilian Portuguese, Kannada and Tamil), all with different levels of fluency in English. There are three different country cultures, and the total difference in time zones is 8h30 in summer (GMT-3 for Brazil and GMT+5:30 for India). In addition to the team members, there are stakeholders from another three locations (three pilot customers in the USA, South Africa and Australia), elevating the number of country differences to six, and the time zone difference to 17 hours (GMT-8 for San Francisco, USA to GMT+10 for Sydney, Australia). A pharmaceutical project ( Figure I. 3) -the project team members come from a partnership of eight organisations, and are working in six locations (two quality assurance teams in England, the headquarters in France, two laboratories in Germany and one development team in South Africa) composed of people speaking three different native languages (English, French and German). There are four different country cultures, and the total difference in time zones is 1 hour in summer (GMT+1 for England and GMT+2 for the G l o b a l P r o j e c t M a n a g e m e n t other countries). In addition to the team members, there are stakeholders from another two organisations in different locations (The European Commission in Belgium and one environmental agency in Switzerland), elevating the number of country differences to six, without changes in the number of time zones or languages. An organisational change project ( Figure I .4) -the project team members from two organisations (the main corporation and one consulting company) work in 14 company offices in ten countries, speaking eight different native languages. The total difference in time zones is 14 hours in summer (from New York ,USA, to Melbourne, Australia). In this case, all the stakeholders are in the same locations as the project team members.  •I n t r o d u c t i o n PMI (2006a) defines a program as 'a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually'. The program manager works closely with the program board, which is composed of senior stakeholders who provide guidance and make decisions affecting the program outcomes, and with other parties that have an interest in or are affected by the program. The program manager must also communicate with the Program Management Office (PMO), which oversees the management of programs. The program manager is responsible for providing direction and guidance to the project managers, and may receive assistance from a Program Support Office. Figure I .5 provides an overview of the relationship between the program manager and the program stakeholders. The four main categories of programs take into consideration two dimensions: the location of the program stakeholders and the location of the different project teams (summarised by Figure I .6). One of these categories (traditional programs) includes programs where all stakeholders and project teams are located in the same country, which is not the focus of this book. The other three categories (global programs) will now be evaluated in detail. The first category (local program of global projects) is a group of related global projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually, where the program manager is located in the same country as all the project managers and members of the program board. While all the practices in this book are relevant to the project managers, the program manager may only require them to communicate with key stakeholders located around the globe. One example is a program to develop and implement a new software tool in five countries ( Figure I .7), with a program manager located in the UK (represented by the 'PgM' circle), in the same location as all the project managers (represented by the 'PM' circles). The program is composed of a global project for the software development (project manager in the UK and the project team in the UK, Singapore and Mexico), the pilot implementation project in the UK (the whole project team located together with the project G l o b a l P r o j e c t M a n a g e m e n t manager) and the local implementation projects in the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Mexico and Canada (all coordinated by project managers primarily based in the UK). The second category (global program of local projects) is a group of traditional projects deployed in various countries and managed in a coordinated way, to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually and in the same country. This is the opposite of the first category, as the program managers will make use of most practices in this book when managing the project managers and communicating with the program board and other key stakeholders. Figure I .8 illustrates one global program that will implement standardised desktop computers in four countries, with the program manager in Brazil and project managers coordinating 'traditional' teams (all team members in the same location) in Australia, India, South Africa and Australia. The third category (global program of global projects) is a group of global projects, with project managers located in different countries to the program manager and the program board. This category represents the true challenge of global programs, requiring excellent G l o b a l P r o j e c t M a n a g e m e n t interpersonal skills and open-minded behaviour from all stakeholders. The global program manager and all global project managers can apply the recommendations in this book to improve understanding and reduce conflicts. This is also true when a mix of the three categories appears (for example, traditional and global projects will be part of the same program, or only some of the project managers are in the same location as the program manager). International companies often conduct global programs to implement Enterprise Management suites, with global projects for the different solutions. In the example illustrated in Figure I .9, the global program manager is located in France and the project managers and project teams are distributed in different countries. As discussed before, the processes, tools and methods assembled in the existing project management bodies of knowledge are applicable to most types of projects, whether they are traditional, virtual or global. However, what are the specific needs of global program and project managers that lead to the need for specific techniques and methods? A study on the  How can my organisation adapt its structure and culture to thrive as a global company? What is the best way to structure the project team? What types of professionals work well over a distance, and how to select them? 10 G l o b a l P r o j e c t M a n a g e m e n t If you are currently managing or are involved in a global project or program, it is likely that you have some of these questions in mind. The framework explained in this book aims to address all the above requirements, complementing the existing project management bodies of knowledge. The answers to these questions are not universal as they depend on factors like the country and organisational cultures involved in the project, the number of locations, the different languages, the team size and the project duration, size and complexity. Therefore, the approach of the framework presented in this book is not to provide a 'one-size-fits-all' strategy, 'the right answers' or the 'best practices' in global project management. The framework contains guidelines and models that will help you to understand the cultural differences and sources of misunderstanding. You should determine the best alternatives for your own situation, based on the real-life examples and practices taken from other international companies. You will then be able to define an implementation model that suits the requirements of your global projects, adapted to the specific needs of your organisation. In some situations, the location of the project team members from the main customers, suppliers and partners will define that a project must be global. One example is the development of a new product by a partnership of three companies, each with a specialised laboratory in a different country. In other cases, the location of the main project deliverables may determine the need for a global project team. This can be illustrated by the deployment of a new warehouse management system that requires the transformation of buildings located around the globe. Global projects can also allow companies to unite highly specialised team members in the same project without relocating them to other countries, or to delocalise certain project work packages or tasks in order to reduce the project costs. However, there is also a cost for companies to overcome the 'large distances between team members, lengthy travel times to meetings and the inconvenience of working across time zones ' (Wild et al, 2000). Before deciding to conduct global projects, each organisation must weigh up the higher level of innovation and the cost savings offered by having human resources distributed around the globe against the challenges created by the communication across borders, and the cost of implementing processes to ensure the deliverables will be produced as expected. Every situation will bring different results to the above equation and companies can define some principles of operation to guide project managers when developing human resource planning and assembling the project team. One example is the creation of centres of excellence, with a catalogue of the main standard services provided by them, and service level agreements specifying lead times to start activities, expected duration for common activities and the expected levels of quality. The organisation can then declare as mandatory the use of the services from these competency centres instead of developing local skills, recruiting local people or hiring third parties for specific project tasks. When deciding to deploy a global team for important projects, organisations can evaluate the value of the main positive and negative aspects of having a global project, and then perform a cost-benefits analysis. Another alternative is to perform an evaluation of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis). A brainstorming session can identify the main factors applicable to each project, and the lists shown in Figures I.14 and I.15 can serve as a checklist to validate and complement the findings. When organisations decide to start implementing global projects, or when they decide to increase the success rate of global projects, they must adapt their structures and their project management methodology. In order to succeed, this change process must focus on the whole organisation, from different perspectives. Harold Leavitt (1964) suggested that organisations 1 G l o b a l P r o j e c t M a n a g e m e n t consist of four elements -task, structure, technology (tools) and people (actors), which are interdependent and interact with the external environment. A change in one of these variables will almost certainly have an impact on the others. Based on the model from Leavitt, Peter Clark (1972) suggested that, 'approaches to organisational change should take account of the possibilities presented by the four interacting variables to create multiple points of intervention'. Laurie Mullins built on the organisational model from Leavitt to suggest five interrelated sub-systems to be used when analysing work organisations: task, technology (including physical aspects and methods, systems and procedures), structure, people and management. This organisational theory highlights the interrelationships between these variables, noting that, 'there is no one best, universal structure. There are a large number of variables, or situational factors, which influence organisational design and performance. ' (Mullins, 1996). A framework for global programs and projects  The framework suggested in this book is based on the models from organisation theory, providing a flexible set of recommendations that can have a positive influence on the performance of global projects. Companies can select which areas of improvement are required, depending on their specific needs. They can also determine the order and priorities to implement the groups of recommendations, depending on their corporate cultures and the technologies available. Finally, they have the flexibility to select which particular recommendations are applicable to their global projects, considering their main characteristics (different languages, countries, cultures and time zones). The organisational change foundation of the framework allows a holistic approach during the definition of new processes and practices, and the implementation of the recommendations. Global teams require a new set of people skills, interpersonal relationships and leadership styles. Novel communication techniques must allow the management of team members and other stakeholders over distance. Different forms of project structures and organisational standards must be in place to cope with project team members distributed around the globe. The organisational culture will serve as a basis for the selection and implementation of the collaborative tools -hardware, software and communications. New techniques, systems and procedures need to be available to all stakeholders involved in global projects to increase adoption of the new set of tools. Figure I .16 illustrates the resulting framework for global project management, and the five categories of information: global teams, global communication, global organisations, collaborative tools and collaborative techniques. The practices, processes, measures, theories and case studies in the framework are grouped into different knowledge areas that allow a modular implementation. Five chapters exist for each category from the framework (Figure I .17), as follows: Global team management -the chapters in this category represent the main recommendations found in the literature for effective management of global project teams: cross-cultural collaboration, global team leadership, trust building, conflict resolution and coaching over distance. 1 G l o b a l P r o j e c t M a n a g e m e n t communication channels (main activities of the communications requirements analysis), communication rules and templates (input to the communications planning process), global communication strategy (part of the communications management plan), global communication techniques (knowledge gathering, distribution and exchange) and global creativity using online brainstorming techniques. Global organisations -this category contains the knowledge required by global organisations to improve the effectiveness of global projects: global project organisation structures, global human resources selection, global program and project offices, organisational support and global collaborative networks. Collaborative tools -this category provides generic strategies for the implementation of collaborative tools: basic technologies (e-mail and telephones), synchronous audio and video tools (audio and video conferencing), synchronous text and image tools (instant messaging and web conferencing), asynchronous knowledge sharing tools and asynchronous project management information systems. These knowledge areas represent the main solutions currently available to global projects, and can be expanded to include the new developments expected in the near future. Collaborative techniques -the chapters in this category provide techniques that allow the adoption of the collaborative tools by most project stakeholders: use of basic technologies (e-mail and telephones), effective audio and video conferencing, coordination of online meetings, knowledge sharing techniques and project management information systems.
Centralized global project structure adopted from REF .