The role of team collaboration in complex product developments

Cross-functional collaboration has become a critical success factor for new product teams to succeed in today´s intensely competitive business environment. It is especially essential for complex and geographically dispersed developments helping to integrate subsystems, creating visibility throughout the project organization, and unifying team members behind the requirements, keeping the project effort focused and synchronized. This paper reports the results of a recent field study examining the conditions promoting collaboration in 23 technology-intensive product developments tracked over their lifecycles. The paper discusses the leadership challenges, managerial actions, organizational conditions and work processes that foster collaboration in a complex and culturally diverse team environment.