The Virtual Project Manager

Recently I read an article about distributed workforces called "Why distributed workforces will win", in which the CEO of Plex, Inc (which is a service that I personally love) spoke about his own company, and how well virtual employees have worked for them. Here he says:

Like anything in business, managing a completely remote team takes planning and commitment with a healthy dose of trial and error. However, as more companies realize that the pros of a remote workforce dramatically outweigh the cons, for both the company and the employee, it is just a matter of time before technology office spaces and cube farms become the exception rather than the rule.

Image Credit: everything possible/Shutterstock

So I wondered how a project manager position would work in a virtual environment. So I decided to go find an answer. That's when I came across an article about this very question, written a mere 3 days before I began thinking about this. Must have been fate. This article written by Brad Egeland from CIO.com, titled "4 reasons remote project management and virtual teams work" is written by someone who has been doing virtual project management for the past 12 years, and he lists out why he believes virtual project management works. His reasons, without going into too much detail include, "You have access to the best talent in the world," "Your profit margin increases and you can win more projects," "Project managers are freed up for real work when it's needed," and "The overall cost savings and productivity can be high."

One thing I find very interesting, is that most all of these articles I read about this subject all touch on the "high productivity" point. And maybe this point is a topic for another post, but it's interesting that people do seem to be more productive when they work from home/road/Starbucks (wherever "virtually" means for them), than if they were in an office. Brad goes on to say, "remote/virtual teams – from my experience – have been more productive, cost less money due to more efficient meetings, less travel and high use of electronic communication, and the ability to connect with the client whenever necessary by someone key to the team."

So the virtual project manager is something that can be done, and done successfully. And as is the case with most any position, I believe that virtual workforces are something that will continue to gain traction within organizations.