Virtual teams: addressing geographical, temporal and socio-cultural distance with flexibility and agile methodologies

Agile methodologies claim, by definition, for face-to-face communication and team co-location. Nevertheless, virtual agile teams are increasingly widespread. Furthermore, the spread of Coronavirus 19 has amplified this tendency. Nowadays, a huge number of companies leverage on agile teams that are distributed all over the world and face geographical, temporal and sociocultural distance. Therefore, project manager must understand the particular dynamics that undergo this type of agile teams. This research thesis has the objective to detect the peculiarities of virtual agile teams as well as to identify the best strategies to address the time, zone and cultural distance. This research analyzes the existing literature about that phenomenon in order to build a case study necessary to examine how virtual teams actually work and what are the best strategies to improve their performances. The case study involved 123 participants and provides useful information and data for project managers. Indeed, our case study seeks to inform team leaders about the best strategies for supporting and managing distributed teams working with the Agile methodologies.