THE VIRTUAL TEAM CHALLENGE: IS IT TIME FOR TRAINING?

There has been considerable growth in the use of Virtual Teams in the past decade, and further growth is broadly assumed. Researchers investigating Virtual Teams describe problems these teams encounter, assert that training for virtual team assignments is necessary, and offer suggestions on the issues that such training should address. Further evidence of the training need is that a fortune 100 company employed the primary author to develop the initial version of a virtual team training simulation for their internal use. The 'Virtual Team Challenge' is being used in the Rose-Hulman Project Management course. Participants manage a simulated project for three hours. To successfully complete the project within schedule, they must avoid or resolve problems typically encountered by virtual teams. Participants receive advice and are guided to adopt best practices as defined by our literature review and those offered by the client.