Changes in industry and communication have made outsourcing and decentralization in large companies an attractive alternative in a deregulated market economy. Consequently, companies have to deal with distributed projects whereby project personnel can be spread over a number of countries. Coordination of project participants and information handling both become important elements in such arrangements. Lack of face to face meetings, language barriers and different time zones are some of the challenges in distributed projects. Effective communication together with electronic communication and collaboration technology can be a success factor for mastering distributed projects. This book highlights challenges, advantages and risks of distributed projects by analyzing a survey that was done in a large Software-Company. The author Thomas Gollubits shows the advantages of using effective tool-support by undertaking a case study introducing a Web based Enterprise Project Management Tool. This book addresses all managers and project leaders who are confronted with the challenges of mastering distributed projects.
