ABSTRACT
This chapter defines the main characteristics of global projects and focuses on the advantages of international teams, addressing their challenges and presenting solutions for global collaboration. International projects require specific strategies to manage global stakeholders, by understanding the differences in culture, language and time zones, and identifying how to transform these differences from challenges into opportunities. When all stakeholders are in geographical locations near at hand, face-to-face meetings can be easily organised and the positive influence of body language and social interaction on the efficiency is clear. In traditional projects, a large majority of the team members are working for the same organisation and in a single location. Project managers must adapt their management and leadership skills to the multiple policies, procedures and organisational cultures. International companies usually establish a common language for the exchange of information, although the way people communicate is highly dependent on their own native languages.
