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Asynchronous Communication for Project Management
10/18/06 | by Joseph A. di Paolantonio ![[mail]](img/envelope.gif)
| Categories: Living the Life, Computers and Internet, Business
| Categories: Living the Life, Computers and Internet, Business At tonight's PMI meeting, the main presentation involved customizing and deploying project management methodologies within an organization. One of Leon Herszon's key points for the Model of the Unified Project Management Methodology was that a modern PM methodology needed to be web-enabled. Discussing this point with the speaker made it clear that this was a read-only web portal/intranet and that the benefits of the read-write web such as blogs, wikis and forums, or of Web2.0 technologies weren't recognized.
A post-meeting discussion with a PM who was having problems with communication among distributed workgroups and stakeholders through muliple time zones was very interesting in light of the previous observation. Some points from that discussion:
- synchronous communication, whether voice [teleconference], video or text either inconvenienced or left out one group or another
- attempts at asynchronous voice/video communication using recordings of teleconferences didn't work well, and even where the capability was given to record feedback, the results were inconsistent and could led to further isolation of some groups
- recordings of teleconferences are difficult to track, the thread of the conversation is easily lost, and current search tools aren't effective
- in our experience asynchronous text communications such as building support through blogs, developing documentation through wikis, and providing support and conversations through forums overcame all of the above difficulties
- collaboration and online PM tools such as ServiceCycle and dotProject enhanced access and communication for all users
- building information communities [as discussed with Rick Mortensen, CEO of MARVELit in an upcoming Mer^ienda podcast] using portlets and dashboards might streamline communication and effectiveness among distributed workgroups even more
- MMORPGs can replace interpersonal team building boon dogles to make everyone feel included, so what if you're a high elf instead of a Malibu racer - maybe Second Life could help even more
- Open Source Solutions, such as those linked herein and others can allow an organization to quickly and cost effectively prototype business processes and supporting tools, i.e. methodologies, to solve remote, asynchronous communication challenges
As I've been up since 5 this morning, so if the above isn't that coherent, well... We can discuss it later. 
And for anything not linked, like phpBB, there's always Google.
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2 comments
Comment from: PM Hut [Visitor] · http://www.pmhut.com
Reading this article which is now almost 2 years old, I can see the dramatic improvement in online Collaboration tools for Project Management. This article though mistakenly predicts that blogs will be a form of communication for Projects, which is not the case. What's happening right now is that these online Collaboration tools (most of them are paid) are becoming a standard way of communication. In my opinion, the wiki never really made it as a communication tool.
08/08/08 @ 13:50
I see that PM Hut is a collection of project managers. Perhaps whoever wrote the previous comment would care to identify themselves?
At any rate, I disagree quite strongly that blogs aren't used in project management, and that wikis have never made it as a form of communication. Actually, we, and others that we know, and most definitely our customers, use blogs and wikis quite successfully in project management. Even in cases where the customer uses Microsoft Sharepoint & Project Server, Daptiv (eProject), eRoom, Projity PoD or similar product or service, blogs and wikis serve viatal fucntions in project communication.
Blogs have proven most useful in gathering requirements, and discussing specifications, testing and project issues.
Wikis have proven most useful in collaborative creation of project documentation, and keeping such deliverables as "living documents" throughout the project life. This documentation typically includes strategy documents, project plans (not GANTT charts or WBS but actual plans), functional specifications, system specifications, design specifications, module specifications, test plans, test procedures, test results, validation & verification matrices, and lessons learned.
We have also found that mindmaps have proven to be very useful as well. These are often used to capture planning sessions and stand-up meetings, and then added to a project wiki. We haven't had an opportunity to explore web-based collaborative mindmapping tools as yet. There are several open source offerings as well as Mindjet Connect.
We have been surprised to find that instant messaging and virtual whiteboards haven't found much of a place in our communication toolkit. Instant messaging seems to be used mostly for personal communications, while virtual whiteboards just haven't matured to the point of being truly useful yet.
We have found blogs and wikis to be enthusiastically adopted both where the entire team is local and for distributed teams. We've used them for communications in projects that we're managed using iterative waterfall techniques, as well as various Agile software development methods.
We hope that the members of PMHut will try to incorporate blogs and wikis in their projects, and see for themselves the value these technologies can bring to project communication.
At any rate, I disagree quite strongly that blogs aren't used in project management, and that wikis have never made it as a form of communication. Actually, we, and others that we know, and most definitely our customers, use blogs and wikis quite successfully in project management. Even in cases where the customer uses Microsoft Sharepoint & Project Server, Daptiv (eProject), eRoom, Projity PoD or similar product or service, blogs and wikis serve viatal fucntions in project communication.
Blogs have proven most useful in gathering requirements, and discussing specifications, testing and project issues.
Wikis have proven most useful in collaborative creation of project documentation, and keeping such deliverables as "living documents" throughout the project life. This documentation typically includes strategy documents, project plans (not GANTT charts or WBS but actual plans), functional specifications, system specifications, design specifications, module specifications, test plans, test procedures, test results, validation & verification matrices, and lessons learned.
We have also found that mindmaps have proven to be very useful as well. These are often used to capture planning sessions and stand-up meetings, and then added to a project wiki. We haven't had an opportunity to explore web-based collaborative mindmapping tools as yet. There are several open source offerings as well as Mindjet Connect.
We have been surprised to find that instant messaging and virtual whiteboards haven't found much of a place in our communication toolkit. Instant messaging seems to be used mostly for personal communications, while virtual whiteboards just haven't matured to the point of being truly useful yet.
We have found blogs and wikis to be enthusiastically adopted both where the entire team is local and for distributed teams. We've used them for communications in projects that we're managed using iterative waterfall techniques, as well as various Agile software development methods.
We hope that the members of PMHut will try to incorporate blogs and wikis in their projects, and see for themselves the value these technologies can bring to project communication.
08/12/08 @ 13:45
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