Developing a trust evaluation method between co-workers in virtual project team for enabling resource sharing and collaboration

An increasing number of companies, especially those with knowledge-intensive R&D programs, have turned to virtual project teams (VPTs) in recent years to generate the greatest competitive advantage from limited labor and resources. Members of a VPT are not limited to an enterprise and usually have various core capabilities. Successful implementation of a VPT depends on collaboration among team members during a project; such collaboration relies on efficient management of distributed resources, safe and timely resource sharing, and reliable trust evaluation mechanisms that facilitate the greatest degree of information sharing and minimize information transfer delays. This study first identifies VPT characteristics and the particular requirements of effective resource management and sharing. A VPT model is then presented. By applying this model, this study presents a trust evaluation method that assists VPT members in determining whether resource holders have made appropriate decisions to share resources with other VPT members. The proposed evaluation method comprises a trust evaluation between two VPT workers and a reliability evaluation of worker. Each resource can have a threshold that is a benchmark for resource sharing. The trust evaluation method for the proposed VPT model enables secure resource sharing across team and enterprise boundaries, facilitates collaboration, and enhances information transparency among team members.