Governance structure, mechanisms and methods for managing collaborative eBusiness projects

Abstract

Increasingly ebusiness projects are undertaken by collaborations. Many collaborative ebusiness projects fail to achieve their stated objectives due partly to inadequate project management. Additional management functions result from the lack of central authority and the characteristics of the three levels involved in these projects: the participating organizations that voluntarily collaborate (a form of virtual organization) to achieve agreed ebusiness objectives; the project teams (normally operating as "virtual" teams); and representatives from participating organizations. Because management functions change during the three stages of the "Collaborative Project Management Lifecycle, it is proposed that the governance structure, mechanisms and methods adopted also need to change to effectively coordinate participating organizations and manage project activities. This proposal is evaluated using case studies of five Australian ebusiness collaborative projects. The paper contributes to practice by comparing various governance structures, mechanisms and methods and discussing the implications from a management perspective. The results are used to suggest governance structures, mechanisms and methods appropriate to key attributes of collaborative ebusiness projects. The paper synthesizes and builds on existing research related to collaborations, project management, virtual organizations and virtual teams, and then applies these findings to a real world environment.