Team communication and online collaboration toolsets
In the virtual world of today, business project managers, team members and even family reunion planners often use online collaboration toolsets and web sites to manage tasks, schedules, budgets and related team communication. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of this new virtual project world is the very real need to integrate team communication so that nothing is lost in the virtual translation.
Web sites like WebEx and the new Microsoft Groove product are designed to help people collaborate on all kinds of projects. A brief review of these product features illustrates the potential of this online collaboration. If you have ever tried to manage a project online, you no doubt discovered that old habits die hard. In order to achieve your goals and ensure effective team communication, you must first consider the usual methods of human communication and find ways to encourage your team members to embrace online collaboration.
Whenever possible, you should discourage offline communication that will scatter the nuggets of project information. The traditional project management methods include face-to-face, telephone and email interaction and often leave projects teams with a disorganized set of tools. Some documents reside on one person's computer while some are filed on a public network. Changes are suggested and agreed to via telephone or email. In other words, the traditional method of project management provides no one location or method to manage a project. In spite of the best efforts of the team, most project files and artifacts are incomplete and thus, ineffective are incomplete and thus, ineffective.
Consider the following project and how it is effectively managed using online collaboration tools:
This Software Development Project team includes a project manager, business analyst, several developers, clients and stakeholders, and company managers. Project documentation includes but is not limited to project schedules with milestones and action items, budgets, and collaborative documents for review and approval by some or all parties involved in the project plan.
The project manager establishes an online project site and files all project documents and artifacts. Some documents are filed in restricted folders and accessed only by the company team members working on the project. These documents include schedules, resource allocations, discussions and troubleshooting documents.
Other documents, like the original contract, change orders for the project, and documented requirements for the functionality of the software, are accessible to both clients and company team members. The challenge faced by this project manager is one that many project managers face, namely that people are used to communicating by phone, email, meetings, IM and text messages. In order to capture and gather all pertinent information, the project manager must establish online communication goals. If, for example, a developer discusses a possible solution to a problem with another team member, he/she must document this discussion by filing a copy of this information in the project folder.
The project manager will encourage the team to make contact online, using the collaborative site and the chat/IM tools, collaborative online review of documents and online approval. Meeting minutes are filed in the collaborative site to capture face-to-face exchanges, and meetings are held in teleconferences with all members participating in review of documents and issues within the context of the collaborative software. These web tools eliminate the problems faced by project teams using a more traditional paper, email, telephone and face-to-face project management methods.
To suggest that these new behaviors will happen overnight is naïve but the persistent project manager can accomplish these goals by obtaining support and approval for these new collaborative processes from senior managers.
The team process and online project management procedures should be documented so that every project is established in a uniform manner. Additionally, your company should develop explanatory documents for their clients to explain how the team will interact with client personnel. Clients receive secured access to appropriate project folders and team members are assigned to monitor and respond to communication received through the collaborative web folders and portals.
Many companies have found that online collaborative projects are completed more quickly and cost-effectively and project managers can at last take control of their projects. It is a fact that online collaboration sites increase the efficiency and effectiveness of project-based work and group dynamics. If you have yet to try an online project collaboration site, we encourage you to plan your pilot project today!
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