Project Management Collaboration Software

Project management collaboration: typical problems

Effective team collaboration is well-known and always on-top problem of most project management teams and companies.

The list of typical project collaboration problem also sounds familiar:

• Problem of a common information space. The information distribution is meant to ensure timely access of the project participants to the information they need, organization of a common information space in which project participants could find all necessary information. For example, a list of project participants and their contacts, project schedule, project tasks and requirements, project documents and files, guidelines, procedures and regulations;

• Problem of informational exchange between participants. Typically, the information exchange takes place via email in the unstructured form or over phone. In this case, it’s not really easy to get log of conversation and information accuracy. It leads to a lack of project control.
• Project meeting problem. Due to the fact that the project participants may be located in different regions, it’s not easy and cheap to organize project meeting.

• Problem of project human resources. Typically, matrix management structure is used while project management, in which resources are, placed in a certain proportion between the execution of major responsibilities and targets execution of the project. Due to the fact that the information exchange of resources utilization between a functional manager and a project manager is difficult – the conflicts can appear. Resolution for such conflicts can take considerable time.
• Project milestones tracking. Using the mail and paper work schedule (or, a local version of the plan developed in MS Project) Project Manager has a lot of difficulties of controlling the tasks executing in the regions. Considerable time is spent for the monitoring and incentives through the calls. Even more time is spent on further mainstreaming of the data in terms of a timetable;

• Problems of changes management, incident and risk management of the project. If you have any extraordinary events or changes in appearance, you should quickly obtain reliable information about the incident, make a decision, to agree with the persons concerned, make necessary adjustments in work plans and project documentation and give appropriate orders to executors. Carrying out such complex work in the old way, without a use of information technologies,  is also rather hard;
• Project reports and statistics. The process of collecting and consolidation of the information by mail or on the phone is extremely laborious, takes considerable time and quality of the obtained information is very low. Even the most sophisticated calendar-network schedules immediately turns into a nice, but a useless image, if the procedure of collecting evidence and updating will not work.

This list can be continued, but we think there is no need. All mentioned problems are the point of project communication management. According to the PMBoK methodology, Communication Management is an area of knowledge that includes the processes required for the timely creation, collection, dissemination, storage, receiving, and ultimately, the use of project’s information. The process of project communication management supposes creation of required relations between people and information that are necessary for successful project management.

PMBoK recommends organize project office and use “virtual project teams”. Virtual Project Teams means teams where project participants do not know each other personally and they can be located in different geographical zones. You might also need project management collaboration software with web-interface, so there all participants can log into single project space.

About the Author

Mediachase is IT-company which is focused on business applications and
web-based solutions for project management.

How to Do Everything Microsoft SharePoint 2010 $13.16 Master Microsoft SharePoint 2010 In How to Do Everything: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Stephen Cawood–a former member of the SharePoint development team–explains how to get the most out of this powerful business collaboration platform. Learn how to use document management functions, wikis, taxonomy, blogs, My Sites, web parts, and more. Take full advantage of the content management, enterprise sea…

Essential SharePoint 2010: Overview, Governance, and Planning (Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series) $24.55 “This book will become a mainstay in your SharePoint library. You will find yourself reaching for it whenever you run into a difficult situation or need extra guidance on how to use the new SharePoint product set.” – From the Foreword by Thomas Rizzo, Senior Director, SharePoint Product Management, Microsoft The Only Book That’s Completely Focused on Maximizing the Busi…

Software Requirements 2 $14.87 “Requirements” are essential for creating successful software because they let users and developers agree on what features will be delivered in new systems. Karl Wiegers’s Software Requirements shows you how to define and get more out of software requirements with dozens of “best practices” and tips that make this book a valuable resource for both software project managers and developers. The book…

Corel PDF Fusion $69.99 Drag-and-drop PDF assembly plus simple viewing editing and PDF creation.PDF Fusion is an all-in-one PDF toolkit that allows you to view files plus assemble edit and create PDFs. With support for over 100 file formats including PDFs graphics and Microsoft Office files PDF Fusion is the ultimate file viewer. Drag and drop files from multiple sources to easily assemble them into one PDF document to s…

Microsoft Visio Professional 2007 [OLD VERSION] $342.99 Microsoft Visio Professional 2007 Win 32 DVD…

Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN Renewal $1,349.00 Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN Subscription provides an integrated environment that simplifies application development with advanced tools ready to tackle the most difficult problems. Whether writing code, building databases, testing or debugging, you can increase individual and team productivity using powerful tools that work the way you work. Unleash your creativity with innovati…