12. Distributed Project Management

This chapter is dedicated to companies engaged in collaborative software projects with staff distributed across several locations. The chapter is organized around ten problem areas. Each problem area starts with a common misconception, followed by a discussion of complexities associated with distributed development as opposed to co-located development, practices known for addressing these complexities, and a short list of implications for practice. The aim is to illuminate the key complexities of managing distributed development projects. While project managers in co-located projects are equipped with tools, practices, and methods, these are often of little help when dealing with the challenges of distributed environment. Hence, inexperienced managers often fail to foresee and proactively address the common problems. The readers will learn to distinguish different types of distributed projects (including onshoring, offshoring, outsourcing, and insourcing, to name a few) and challenges, both context dependent and common for distributed projects.