Nowadays, teams are becoming more and more heterogeneous in terms of their members' age, functions and nationalities and increasingly also in virtual terms. There is growing pressure to produce quick results with increasingly scarce resources. Time constraints, divergent goals and frequent change are making it increasingly difficult for teams to find and realise a common definition of collaboration and hence to be able to use teamwork synergies.

In addition to day-to-day operations, project work is becoming more and more important in companies and often takes place under considerable pressure parallel to the day-to-day operations – with different hierarchical structures or inadequately defined or unclear responsibilities. The fact that team members are generally involved in several projects at once, the available time is limited and commitment varies from one project to the next is a major burden on project teams.