Project work, group work, and teamwork are recognised as being central to the field of Information Systems practice. Academic institutions, in response, recognise the importance of ensuring students are exposed to this environment during their studies. Guided practice and exposure to teamwork has mainstream acceptance, as is evidenced by its inclusion withinIS97 (used extensively in local curriculum design).

The particular impact of the dimensions of personality and cultural background on team effectiveness has been identified within industry and tertiary educational institutions. Unfortunately, in contrast to industry, where teams normally contain a diversity of skills, academic study teams tend towards homogeneous skillbases due to the nature of university degree programmes. As a result, students do not receive the exposure necessary to prepare them for the work place. The exception is where the diversity of skills of CS and IS students are being thrown together in IT degrees.