Archive for May, 2011

10 Ways to Use Social Media to Improve Project Management – Part 1

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Don’t know your yams from your tweets? Clueless about Ning and Ping? Fear not, for we aim to demystify social media and social enterprise so you can find tools that suit projects and pockets.

  1. Avoid project disconnect. Got a question? Want to engage stakeholders? Need to raise an issue? Enter micro-blogging and the world of quick-fire messaging!
    • Twitter’s GroupTweet allows public or private team communication via direct messages that are turned into tweets. Hashtags let project members tell each other about current hot topics through standard or their own # symbols; e.g. #risk or even #help!  Check out PRINCE2Blog on Twitter to see how it works! (If you’re all twittered out you could try brightkite and plurk).
    • Yammer’s a straightforward application for enterprises where you need a company email and where you yam rather than tweet. It offers features such as private messaging, group messaging, communities and a knowledge base.
    • Socialcast unites information from applications, systems, and people across your firm whilst integrating with Microsoft Outlook. A great team-building feature is Town Hall which brings bosses and employees together in virtual meetings. Time to bond!
  2. Blog to rally and reflect. If you’re a PM, you know what a Swiss Army knife feels like! So why not cut your load by blogging? A blog is a type of web site that’s a great way to inspire your team, discuss ideas, share documentation, reflect on lessons learnt and heaps more. Of all the many platforms around like Moveable Type and Expression Engine, here’s a handful.
    • Top of the list comes WordPress. It’s a piece of cake to use, it’s flexible, it’s got thousands of plugins and themes and to top it off has outstanding community support.
    • If you’re not crazy about tech, try Blogger. Owned by Google, it’s simple to set up and use and offers mobile blogging and money-making opportunities with AdSense.
    • Naturally, a commercial platform like TypePad can do it all for you. It’s got widgets, professional designs, publishing options, professional support and detailed analytics.
    • SquareSpace’s paid platform is also big on design, analytics and social integration. It offers iPhone or iPad apps to check your site and manage posts plus you can import your blog from WordPress, Blogger, MovableType or TypePad.
    • Tumblr is a kind of blogging and micro-blogging hybrid. Simple to use, it’s feature-heavy, with mobile options, analytics, access to third party apps, themes and so forth.
  3. Network, network, network! It’s who you know as much as what you know today. Social networking sites deliver visibility, credibility and transparency. They fall into roughly three sometimes interchangeable groups: public, professional community and social enterprise that usually link with other social media.
    • Leader of the business pack is LinkedIn. It’s a super source of project management knowledge, contacts and resources and a good way of recruiting people: profiles are very revealing about character and capability! Have you linked in to us at ILX?
    • Facebook can be a fun private or public way to engage with stakeholders, build your brand and manage projects. With the Toodooz application, for instance, you can prioritize tasks, collaborate, share files and discuss issues. Come chat to us on Facebook!
    • Use Socialtext for business to send messages to individuals and groups, to collaborate on wikis, spread sheets and blogs, to publish and publicise progress and keep promotion prospects buzzing by marketing your skills to the company on your profile page.
    • On Tibbr you can shadow subjects, applications as well as people in the organisation. Say you’re interested in Project X; instead of finding and following people on that team, you follow the “subject”. Result, you only get the team’s messages on Project X and not irrelevant messages on what they had for breakfast or what the dog did!
    • If you’re after a comprehensive PRINCE2 networking experience then you couldn’t do better than to try our very own PRINCE2 Forum where you can ask questions about exams, about practice and almost anything PRINCE2.
    • Don’t forget Gantthead. This is the online community for IT project managers and provides news, advice, consulting resources and expertise.
    • If you want to go international then International Community for Project Managers has resources, news and opportunities for peer-to-peer contact.
    • Association for Project Management’s Community aims to create a space for professionals to network, share common interests and develop good practice.
    • For targeted networking a must-see is the Office of Government Commerce’s Best Practice User Group for its P3RM methods. Members share knowledge and exchange ideas about PRINCE2, MSP and more to improve their use and understanding of the methodologies.
    • No list of networking sites would be complete without a word about virtual worlds and work spaces like Second Life and Teleplace where people can inhabit a virtual world and interact in real-time.  Companies and project management professionals are waking up to the financial, communication, logistical and other benefits that virtual worlds offer for communicating and collaborating on a global scale. It’s a whole new world!
  4. Capture and create with Wikis galore. Say your team’s producing documentation. How do people get at it on Sundays? Where’s the latest version? Where are the notes? As with Wikipedia, on wikis you collaborate, search and store living documents. Since they’re not exactly ideal for stuff like scheduling or issue tracking, tie them to applications that do those jobs. Wikis galore to choose from at WikiMatrix and Wikipedia so just two listed here.
    • PBwiki is hosted, easy to use and aims to help with start-up, collaboration, co-ordinating project works with things like milestones and notifications, and more in the same vein.
    • Wikispaces offers amongst other things, a dedicated wiki environment, unlimited wikis, unlimited storage, security and hosting.
  5. Open an office in the clouds. You’re in Paris but the files are on the desktop in New York? What do you do? Next time, go to the cloud. Online files don’t sit on a desktop but on a suite in the clouds giving you access from any computer, any time and any place.
    • Take Google Apps, you can sync it with your Word, Excel and PowerPoint files by using Cloud Connect and take advantage of its easy integration with project management tools such as TeamBox and Smartsheet.
    • Or maybe Zoho’s more your cup of tea with its seemingly ever-lasting pot of built-in applications such as chat, docs, discussions, mail, meeting, wiki, invoice, recruit, reports, support, calendar, planner and of course project.
    • ThinkFree has plenty to offer too and if you like the familiar, then this could be ideal as it looks very like Microsoft Office. There’s ThinkFree Write, ThinkFree Calc, ThinkFree Show and also applications for your mobile phone.
    • Of course we can’t forget Microsoft Office Web Apps which transports your Office documents skywards. It’s simply done: you create your document in Office and then switch from working on it on your PC or in the browser.

Twitter Links and Information:

More Blogging Platforms and Online Office Suite Information:

Tracks to Follow to Improve your Skills:

  • For a complete picture of PRINCE2 and what it can do, head to the Office of Government Commerce.
  • The APMG provides a slew of useful information about PRINCE2 accredited training options.
  • TSO publishes a range of material for PRINCE2.
  • The PRINCE2 e-learning experience may be the perfect option for those with an eye for cost-effective, rich and collaborative training that includes a blog, a forum and social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Head over to PRINCE2.com for an overview of everything we offer.

Posted in Business, Leadership and Management, Project Management, Social and Digital Media and Tools, Technology | Comments Off

Do You Speak PRINCE2?

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

It’s nearly summer so this week we’ve decided to compile a short list of PRINCE2 terms and then add our own very simplified explanations or examples or light-hearted comments! For the genuine article head to PRINCE2 Glossary to be found on our Downloads page of free resources. If you fancy a laugh too, there are a couple of links to some fun cartoons. Enjoy!

Business Case

Definition:
The justification for an organisational activity (project) which typically contains costs, benefits, risks and timescales, and against which continuing viability is tested.

For example/To simplify/Don’t forget…
Keeps the focus on the questions you should ask during a project, “Why exactly did we think this was a good idea and why are we carrying on?”

Head to Dilbert if you want a laugh – or cry – about Business Cases!

Communication Management Strategy

Definition:
A description of the means and frequency of communication between the project, the project’s stakeholders.

For example/To simplify/Don’t forget…
This assists engagement with stakeholders through two-way communication. It’ll include things like stakeholder analysis where you would outline the relationship you’ve got with your stakeholders and the one you’d like to have; or is that a matter of wishful thinking for some?!

Great cartoons from Grantland including a neat one on communication in general!

Customer

Definition:
The person or group who commissioned the work and will benefit from the end results.

For example/To simplify/Don’t forget…
Normally used for the commercial customer/supplier relationship. Generally refers to business and user interests but where a product is going to market the customer would simply be the user.

Every customer’s nightmare drawn and it seems added to at The Project Cartoon.com! The web site welcomes ideas for new cells to the cartoon.

Daily Log

Definition:
Used to record problems/concerns that can be handled by the Project Manger informally.

For example/To simplify/Don’t forget…
The project manager’s diary. Although not the page-turning kind you see in the tabloids, it can still be pretty revealing. You would use it to log anything from issues, actions, and significant events to conversations, thoughts and observations. It’s worth noting that Team Managers might also need their own separate Daily Log.

Lessons Log

Definition:
An informal repository for lessons that apply to this project or future projects.

For example/To simplify/Don’t forget…
For the good, bad and even ugly lessons that can come from within the project or from other projects. It contains the lesson type, detail, date, and so forth.

Project Initiation Documentation

Definition:
A logical set of documents which brings together the key information needed to start the project on a sound basis and to convey that information to all concerned with the project.

For example/To simplify/Don’t forget…
This living document defines the project and gives its direction and scope. Along with the Stage Plan, it also acts like a contract between the project manager and the Project Board. Both parties can use it to review things like progress.

Project Manager

Definition:
The person given the authority and responsibility to manage the project on a day-to-day basis to deliver the required products within the constraints agreed with the Project Board.

For example/To simplify/Don’t forget…
Or as some might say, seldom the hero if things go right but often the villain if things go wrong! It’s definitely no picnic, for as PM you’d be expected to get the result that achieves the benefits stipulated in the Business Case.

Project Plan

Definition:
A high-level plan showing the major products of the project, when they will be delivered and at what cost. An initial Project Plan is presented as part of the Project Initiation Documentation. This is revised as information on actual progress appears. It is a major control document for the Project Board to measure actual progress against expectations.

For example/To simplify/Don’t forget…
It’s all about how and when you’re going to achieve the goals of the project which are, naturally, aligned to the corporate or programme management plan. The project plan sets out how its time, cost, and other targets will be achieved, by outlining products, activities and resources required for the plan.
Dilbert well and truly hits the funny bone on the project plan!

Risk

Definition:
An uncertain event or set of events that, should it occur, will have an effect on the achievement of objectives. A risk is measured by a combination of the probability of a perceived threat or opportunity occurring, and the magnitude of its impact on objectives.

For example/To simplify/Don’t forget…
Understandably seen by some as, anything-that-can-go-wrong-and-therefore-will-go-wrong, risk can, of course, be positive as well as negative and is a given when change is involved. Its management includes the identification of risks and methods used for this could range from learning lessons and using checklists from similar projects, to group brainstorming, and so on.

Scope

Definition:
The scope of a plan is the sum total of its products and the extent of their requirements. It is described by the product breakdown structure for the plan and associated Product Descriptions.

For example/To simplify/Don’t forget…
Everything you’re supposed to deliver at the end of the project.
Scope Creep. No, not some weirdo, but what happens when the project goes beyond its scope.

Useful Links:

  1. There’s a trio of useful sources for PRINCE2 information. For a complete picture of PRINCE2 and what it can do, head to the Office of Government Commerce. A raft of useful information is also available from the APMG, including details of PRINCE2 accredited training options. Finally, TSO publishes a range of material for PRINCE2.
  2. If you like your learning and learning provider to suit your style and needs rather than the other way around, click on the following and you’ll find choices galore for ILX offers: e-learning, mobile learning, live virtual classroom, blended learning and classroom learning.
  3. The PRINCE2 e-learning experience is the perfect option for those with an eye for cost-effective, rich and collaborative training that includes free downloads, games, a forum, Twitter , Facebook, and a blog. Skip over to PRINCE2.com for an overview of everything we offer.
  4. If you want training with support look no further than ILX for we know a thing or two about it and the importance of matching the right individual to the right role. ILX’s recently launched Connect guides companies through the training process, Support helps individuals to get the most from the courses, and together both make sure you maximise the return on your investment.

Posted in Practical Hints and Tips, PRINCE2, Project Management | Comments Off