Int. J. Networking and Virtual Organisations, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2010 99 Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. The management of virtual collaborative design Hafida Bouarfa* Data Processing Department University of Blida-Algeria 50 Avenue Ali Khodja El Biar Alger, Algeria E-mail: hafidabouarfa@hotmail.com *Corresponding author Mohamed Abed Civil Engineering Department University of Blida-Algeria Cité des Rosiers Bt F No. 1 Blida, Algeria E-mail: abedmed@yahoo.fr Abstract: Design is a complex process in which information on and knowledge of diverse sources are processed simultaneously by a team of designers. The advent of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has upset this conventional design process; the project team has been dispersed all over the world. The old theories of management have been blown apart, the old practices, job definitions with the old sense, have been reoriented. Instead, technology is being woven into design projects’ structures to fill the gaps. Each member of the project team contributes primarily what it regards as its core competencies. A new form of organisation and new project management styles are coming to life. The purpose of this paper is to examine these issues. It proposes a process that enables the establishment and management of virtual teams in design projects. Keywords: virtual teams; collaborative design; virtual organisations. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Bouarfa, H. and Abed, M. (2010) ‘The management of virtual collaborative design’, Int. J. Networking and Virtual Organisations, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp.99–107. Biographical notes: Dr. Hafida Bouarfa is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at the University of Blida, Algeria, since 1992. She holds a Data Processing Engineering diploma from the Data Processing Institute of Algeria, a Masteral degree in Information Systems from the High School of Management (HEC) of Montreal, Canada and a PhD in Data Processing from the Data Processing Institute of Algeria. She has been a Senior Researcher at the Construction Technical Checking Center since 2002. Her areas of research include virtual reality, virtual organisations, intelligent information systems and collaborative design. Dr. Mohamed Abed is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Blida, Algeria, since 1990. He obtained an Engineering diploma in 1984 from the Algerian Polytechnic Institute. Her PhD diploma was obtained in 1989 from the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) of Lyon, France. He is a