International project management can be defined as the management of projects internationally or across borders and cultures, thus the management of international project require a specific set of skills in order to ensure success when managing international projects. The importance of cultural awareness plays in international projects. Global project management emphasizes the need for company leaders to identify the cultural implications of mixing skilled workers from many nations, along with the tactical steps required for teams to collaborate efficiently.
In today’s business world, international project management is becoming increasingly essential as businesses are continuing to expand into new countries and markets, either to increase their market share or to reduce costs by utilising more efficient resources found in other countries. International project management requires unique tools and techniques to give international projects greater chances of success.
The concept of globalization suggests that information, knowledge and opportunity are decentralized and shared. The concept of growth of economic integration with globalization means that more enterprises are taking on international projects. Therefore managing these projects successfully often indicates understanding and working with critical cultural differences. Remote management and managing projects on global scale have been enabled due to economic globalization and availability of technological tools. In which case the companies tend to save money by building global teams, without fully understanding the consequences of shifting work across multiple cultures and countries.
Challenges
In the last 20 years, the world of work has been reduced significantly and it is now very common to be working with overseas partners on projects. It could be as part of an outsourcing arrangement, or through the offshoring model, which is common in organizations that require ‘follow the sun’ financial transaction processing or telephone support. Now for the project managers, this indicates that there are different types of stakeholders involved in projects. A project to deploy new financial software may touch in-house staff in a number of countries plus several third party suppliers who provide niche services. The process of managing international projects can be interesting as well as rewarding, together with some challenge.
Glitches in International Projects
- Language : In case you are working across borders, it is unlikely that your project team will all speak the same language. The problem of a common language is far greater if you are working with colleagues who do not routinely work in your language. Therefore, at the beginning of a project it is worth specifying what will be the main working language of your project. The projects led from an English speaking country does not necessarily have to be in English for everything. The enterprise project management tool may have interfaces in several languages. The team abroad can enter their timesheet data and interact with menus in their own language while keeping the ‘official’ language of project documents as English. It is therefore suggested to minimize jargon, and make your spoken and written language clear.
- Time : Since different cultures have different interpretations of time, like for some, milestones are just a guide, where you may value punctuality, but other team members may not have the same view of when a meeting is supposed to start. So the only way to manage this is to have an open conversations with everyone involved, spelling out what the potential challenges might be and asking for collaborative solutions to dealing with them. It is better to have these discussions at early stages rather than spending a lot of time waiting for the others to turn up.
- Roles and Responsibilities : The role of the project manager might be very well respected in your home country, but your role may not be understood elsewhere. Colleagues in countries where companies have very hierarchical structures may not take direction from you because they may not see your role as very important. Equally, they may not have received much guidance about how their project responsibilities fit with their day job. It is therefore suggested to talk to your own manager, and colleagues who have experience in working with the overseas team. You could also engage the local managers who can help set expectations with their teams about the project, their role and your role in it.
- Tools : It is always suggested to optimize the use of software available to you. Some tools have instant messaging capabilities, this type of technology means that you can be connected to your team members even if you aren’t working in the same room as them. However, they work best when the time difference is not more than a couple of hours. Working with someone who is 10 or 12 hours behind you can be far more of a challenge. Tools like blogs and wikis that enable asynchronous working are valuable in these situations. You can also record presentations or conference calls and make these available later.
