overseeing virtual team

I've worked on such teams many times.

To my mind, its useful to bring the group together during the planning phase of a project. At project initiation, its good to get to know people who you haven't worked with before. There is also a different dynamic when people are in the same room - sometimes its hard to be "group creative" when working across a phone line.

I acknowledge it isn't always practical - but we've had meetings where all the North Americans got together at one site and the Europeans were in another, and we videoconferenced.

When the project is in the design, build, test and implement phases, I see less need to get together. It should be about status updates etc., which can be handled through a combination of phone, email, voice conferences etc.

The only time in that phase that I would travel is when there was a problem to be solved. When you need to spend a day with an individual, or when you have to talk individually to a number of people at a distant location it makes sense to travel.

James

Hi,

If your team members are requesting it - then their requests themselves will be the justification. Of course they'll need to spell out what they want from you while you're there...

...and you'll need to take that back to management. If their requests are reasonable for you to *need* to be onsite, and your management says no, then the best thing you can do is to point out the risks to the project if you dont go.

Formally document this.

I'd hate to see you made a scapegoat at the end of the project if it didn't work out.

Cheers,
Tim.