Building Bridges

Janis is an award-winning journalist and editor who has covered many industries beyond project management, including health care, financial services, higher education and retail sales.

  ProjectsAtWork  

Advanced collaboration software bridges the gap between dispersed project teams, removing barriers to efficiency and communication.

Collaboration means to work together. As a concept, it sounds simple. In reality, bringing people together to accomplish a common goal is a complex, layered and political undertaking. It may be difficult, but that doesn't mean anyone can dodge the effort.

Strong business forces make collaboration increasingly critical in project management. Team members are often scattered across several states or countries. Given the rise of outsourcing, workers are both inside and outside the company. And the demand for faster time to market requires efficient and concurrent work by all involved.

Market experts say collaboration tools often offer two types of team support-asynchronous and synchronous. Asynchronous functions include e-mail, group calendars, document sharing and threaded discussions, while synchronous tools include chat capability, instant messaging, whiteboarding, electronic meetings and the like.

"The goal is to minimize dislocation and maximize proximity between people," says Mark Portu, vice president of collaborative technology, Open Text Corp., Chicago.

The tools can be standalone programs or embedded in enterprise project management systems. And many vendors emphasize particular aspects of collaboration. David Boghossian, …

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