Project Management

Project Management 2.0

by
New technologies, concepts, and Web 2.0 tools are popping up everywhere. How can you use them to help your project team collaborate, communicate - or just give your project an extra boost? [Contact Dave]

About this Blog

RSS

Recent Posts

Are You Prepping For The PMP 24/7?

Are You Just Too Darn Busy?

Eliciting Requirements... Creatively!

What To Expect When Your Stakeholders Are Expecting

8 More Templates to Save You Time

Categories

Advice, Certification, Collaboration Tools, Decision Making, Estimating, Interviews, Learning, Management Approaches, New Templates, Personal Productivity, PM Software, PPM Software, Presentation Tools, Reporting Tools, Requirements Management, Research, Risk Management, Scheduling Software, Security, shameless self promotion, Techie Tools, Time Killers, Time Tracking Software, Training, Virtual Team Tools, Web-based Tools, workshops

Date

Quick PM Learning Via Cell Phone

linkedin twitter facebook Request to reuse this  
Situation: No bandwidth for brown bags. Need a simple way to sharpen the saw.

Podcasts are all about time shifting.  They are typically bite-size snippets of learning or entertainment that you can listen to whenever you like.  They are nice because you can listen while you work on your PC, which works really well if you can multitask on that level.  iPODs and other MP3 players give podcasts portability, but not everyone carrys an iPOD wherever they go.

We ALL carry our cell phones everywhere and now there are new services that let you dial a number and listen to podcasts over the phone you have now, with no additional software, and at no charge.

Let's say you want to listen to podcasts put out by our friends at the PMI IS SIG, perhaps the one on Mastering IT Requirements.  Just take 2 minutes to sign up on Fonpods and add the podcast you want to your subscriptions.  Then dial up one of their access numbers               (712)432-3030        or               (712)432-3031        and drink in the knowledge.  If you need to take a break from all of that learning, I'd recommend the Onion Radio News feed.

A similar service is Podlinez, where the process is a little different.  Instead of a single access number and episode codes, you have a different phone number for each podcast.  One advantage of Podlinez is that you can easily add podcasts that do not exist in their catalogue - provided there is an RSS feed available.

The interfaces for each of these sites suffer from the same strip mall approach that most podcast portals currently follow.  They just add a feature that is not commonly available from podcast providers themselves.  Hopefully one day every podcast provider will offer this functionality directly and streamline the process, but for now these sites make it more convenient to tune in.  Just what you needed - one more reason to spend time on the cell!

Note: The Web 2.0 guys would refer to this as software above the level of a single device.
Posted on: November 12, 2006 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Project Basecamp

linkedin twitter facebook Request to reuse this  
Situation: Need to know - What's the hottest open-source PM software out there?


Project Basecamp is probably the most talked about online PM software out there today.  Don't look for it to do anything complicated out of the box, but for simple projects it's certainly worth a look.  The creator's whole philosophy around project management is KISS-based.  The idea is to promote simple, effective two way communication.

It essentially gives you:
- to do lists
- a place to share files
- a way to track time
- a way to track major deliverables and who is responsible for them

It's project management for the masses.  Project Basecamp is the free open source version of this product.  If you want something that is still inexpensive, but better supported, 37 signals is the for-profit version.

For more on the history of this product, check out this interview with the founders.
Posted on: November 11, 2006 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What is Web 2.0?

linkedin twitter facebook Request to reuse this  

Not all new technologies are "Web 2.0", but Web 2.0 is all about new collaborating online.  Collaboration is obviously central to successful project management.   Get your team working together more effectively and your project will run more efficiently.  

The best definition of Web 2.0 is O'Reilly's article "What is Web 2.0?"  He talks about harnessing collective intelligence, the wisdom of crowds, lightweight programming  models, and software above the level of the single device.

From a project perspective:
- collective intelligence can help solve problems quickly
- the wisdom of crowds can lead to better decision-making
- lightweight programming models mean that users can help prototype or even help build applications
- software above the level of a single device may mean there are better ways of communicating and accessing project data.

None of these are silver bullets, but the goal of this blog is to expose the potential of these new approaches and technologies and let you decide for yourself.

O'Reilly also talks about the core competencies of Web 2.0 companies:

- Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability 
- Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them 
- Trusting users as co-developers 
- Harnessing collective intelligence 
- Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service 
- Software above the level of a single device 
- Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models 

These competencies have implications for internal IT organizations as well as business as a whole.  Some of them examined in an EarlyStage VC article, The Coming Wave of Enterprise 2.0.

Posted on: November 11, 2006 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
ADVERTISEMENTS

While hunting in Africa, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How an elephant got into my pajamas I'll never know.

- Groucho Marx

ADVERTISEMENT

Sponsors