Wiki Project Management

last edited by: Keith Emery on Apr 7, 2017 7:25 PM

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Contents
1 Basic Concept
   1.1 Pros
   1.2 Cons
   1.3 Alternatives

Basic Concept

Wiki Project Management consist of the use of wiki tools to help to manage projects. The whole project team has access to the project's wiki pages and contribute continuously in order to show all relevant information, being able to see what the other members already included.

Pros

Using a Wiki as a central store for project documentation allows everyone on the team to find information in one place. The relative ease of editing a Wiki, as opposed to using MS Project or a full-featured document editor, allows all team members to easily contribute to project documentation.

Wikis are web-based, and usually accessible from mobile devices. Full-featured document editing programs have made great strides toward availability on mobile platforms, but the expanded feature set of these editors often doesn't work well in a mobile environment.

Cons

By default, Wikis are open to everyone for editing. Anyone can add a comment or change a document. Without effective governance and security controls, important project information can be lost through inadvertent or even malicious edits.

Most organizations use proprietary document editors as part of their normal business practices. For organizations heavily invested in using these tools, transitioning to Wiki-based project management could be a difficult shift in organizational culture.

Because Wikis are inherently web-based, using a Wiki requires online connectivity. Some organizations will need procedures for employees to use Wiki resources while offline.

Alternatives

There is a wealth of open-sourced Wiki products available that offer a wide variety of features. MediaWiki is the most well-known Wiki software, used by Wikipedia and familiar to most internet users.

For Microsoft-based organizations, SharePoint has similar features to a Wiki, but supports storage of Microsoft Office documents, and supports interoperability with Microsoft desktop applications.

Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects. Trac uses a minimalistic approach to web-based software project management.