A recommended practices system for a global virtual engineering team

The use of a global virtual engineering team (GVET) for the execution of engineering projects has been increasingly applied in the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) industry, but identifying the best methods for organizing and managing these geographically dispersed teams is a significant challenge. These teams, organized through communication and information technologies, need to overcome space, time, functional, organizational, national and cultural barriers for the completion of an engineering task. This study identifies and categorizes recommended practices for GVET design and implementation by an extensive study and survey from both owner and EPC contractor perspectives. An outcome of the study is a framework for execution plan generation to establish overseas (support) offices and execute geographically distributed engineering projects. A computer application is also developed to facilitate the use of the framework and accumulate lessons learned during the use of the tool. The practices collected provide a wide range of references for owner organizations and EPC contractors to establish and manage GVET according to specific capital project scenarios.