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The Project Management (PM) paradigm is rapidly shifting due to business globalization and information technology (IT) advances that support distributed and virtual project teams. Traditional PM focuses on a single project at a single location [16] and is more concerned with project inputs and outputs than with project process [51]. Management in the past implied projects were conducted with a top down view [13]. The PM paradigm has begun to change due to the increasing number of distributed projects involving project collaborators from different locations, organizations, and cultures [27]. Current and future PM will be more concerned with tracking project work processes and efficient and effective sharing of information and knowledge, among project contributors. High-levels of collaboration will become essential for distributed project success. Task interdependence and member distribution across time, space, and technology will make high degrees of collaboration necessary to accomplish project work. Adequate and timely sharing of information, and knowledge in all directions, proactive change management, and process monitoring are some of the important factors required for successful project collaboration [36]. In this article, we review problems associated with traditional PM scenarios, explain how collaborative PM can provide solutions, present a comparison of current commercial collaborative PM tools, and propose a collaborative PM architecture to address the challenges facing distributed projects teams.

Innovation plays a central role in economic development, at regional and national level. In the competitive environment companies are obliged to produce more rapidly, more effectively and more efficiently in new product development which is a result of research and development (R&D) activities. It is necessary for them to put together different capabilities and services with the goal, through cooperation between suppliers and customers, service providers and scientific institutions to achieve innovations of high quality. Depending on the type of industry, the type of business, the type of innovation and the strategic objectives that have been set, firms will regularly have to modify the way in which their R&D and innovation is organized. Nowadays shift from serial to simultaneous and parallel working in innovation has become more commonplace. Literatures have shown that collaboration is as a meta-capability for innovation. By a comprehensive reviewing of literature this article after define a virtual teams and its characteristics, addressing virtual environments innovation and the relationship to R&D activities. Finally conclude that innovation cannot be successful unless the knowledge and information in the R&D project are effectively captured, shared and internalized by the R&D project’s virtual team members.

In the domain of project management, types of knowledge can be characterized as “knowledge in projects”, “knowledge about projects”, and “knowledge from projects”. The use of information technology in the realm of knowledge management has been approached from two main angles: codification and personalization. In the following paper, we look at the implications that each technological approach has on the aggregation, transfer, and sensemaking of knowledge in distributed environments. Drawing on the strengths and limitations of each technique, we propose a hybrid model. Research questions pertaining to the management of knowledge systems are presented. 1.

Supporting the opportunistic learning that often occurs in organizations requires other approaches than traditional document centric knowledge management techniques and intelligent learning environments. Such opportunistic learning takes place in situations where (1) the learner is engaged in tasks/activities where there are no known solutions a priori, (2) where it is not easy to evaluate learning outcomes and (3) where the learning environment is dynamic: new information, processes, people are continuously evolving. This paper discusses this type of learning and describes how technologies for electronic documents could be used to augment an existing corporate memory framework that captures lessons learnt (L2Corp [Alem 98]) with a project memory and a tool for finding people. We argue that an intelligent organisational learning system needs to capture and represent the lessons learnt, needs to capture in a project memory the documents created and the electronic discussions between people, and should provide a means for finding experts within the organization. 1.

Geographically distributed, inter-organisational product development projects are becoming increasingly common. However, companies face challenges in managing this kind of complicated projects. Most of the challenges are related to communication. This study focused on communication needs, problems and practices in distributed interorganisational product development projects. The main objective was to identify and describe successful communication practices. In addition, the study aimed to increase the understanding of the communication needs behind the practices, as well as to identify communication problems and unsuccessful practices. From the methodological point of view, studying daily communication in distributed projects is challenging. In this study we experimented with the usage of social process simulation as a tool to study communication. Methodologically, the research was a qualitative multiple-case study consisting of 12 case projects. The cases were grouped into two separate studies according to the industry. Study 1

Innovation plays a central role in economic development, at regional and national level. In the competitive environment companies are obliged to produce more rapidly, more effectively and more efficiently in new product development which is a result of research and development (R&D) activities. It is necessary for them to put together different capabilities and services with the goal, through cooperation between suppliers and customers, service providers and scientific institutions to achieve innovations of high quality. Depending on the type of industry, the type of business, the type of innovation and the strategic objectives that have been set, firms will regularly have to modify the way in which their R&D and innovation is organized. Nowadays shift from serial to simultaneous and parallel working in innovation has become more commonplace. Literature's have shown that collaboration is as a meta-capability for innovation. By a comprehensive reviewing of literature this article after define a virtual teams and its characteristics, addressing virtual environments innovation and the relationship to R&D activities. Finally conclude that innovation cannot be successful unless the knowledge and information in the R&D project are effectively captured, shared and internalized by the R&D project’s virtual team members.