A project team is working across different time zones and all team members are unable to attend the daily coordination meetings at the same time. The tasks are split across teams working independently in different regions; however, there are task dependencies between the two teams. What should the team lead do?

In distributed projects with significant time zone differences where synchronous daily meetings are impossible, the team lead should facilitate robust asynchronous communication. By ensuring teams create, update, and access shared project artifacts (such as Kanban boards, dependency logs, or shared digital workspaces), team members can track progress and manage cross-regional dependencies effectively. This approach leverages "information radiators" to provide continuous transparency and alignment without requiring simultaneous meeting attendance. It ensures that critical dependency information is always available, thereby supporting a sustainable work pace and adhering to PMI’s best practices for managing virtual and distributed teams.

A. Forcing attendance regardless of time zones leads to team burnout, violates the agile principle of maintaining a sustainable pace, and reduces overall morale.
C. Scheduling additional meetings adds administrative overhead and does not resolve the fundamental logistical issue of incompatible time zones for daily, routine coordination.
D. Reassigning tasks based solely on time zones ignores individual resource skill sets, limits cross-functional team collaboration, and fails to address the root communication challenge.

1. Project Management Institute (PMI). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Seventh Edition. (2021). Section 2.2 (Team Performance Domain - High-Performing Project Teams) and Section 2.7 (Measurement Performance Domain - Information Radiators).

2. Project Management Institute (PMI). Agile Practice Guide. (2017). Section 4.3.2 (Distributed Teams). This section explicitly discusses the necessity of using shared workspaces, information radiators, and asynchronous communication tools when managing teams across disparate time zones.

3. Project Management Institute (PMI). PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition. (2017). Section 9.4 (Develop Team - Virtual Teams), detailing the importance of shared communication technology and artifacts to bridge geographical and temporal gaps.