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Use Technology to Your Advantage
Purpose And
Scope
Technical Purpose
The technical purpose of a technology-based tool is to make
the underlying method more efficient and effective. As an example, e-mail
automates some simple communications by substituting for fax machines. The
underlying method is communications.
A second technical purpose is that the technology be simple to use
around the world. It often does not help if the technology is only available in
one country for an international project. Going into a related subject, the
technology must be supported in the countries in which it is used. As an
example, suppose that you were using a new mobile communications device that
worked in Europe or Japan, but did not function in North America due to
different communications protocols. Figure 6.1 presents a checklist for evaluating new
technologies. A basic question to answer is always:
If you did not use the technology, what would
you do and use?
Addressing this question helps you sort out whether you are
looking at a technology in search of a problem or a technology that has real
use.
Business Purpose
The business purpose is
that the use of the technology product will make the project leaders, managers,
and team members more useful and productive. Hopefully, they will then spend
less time in administrative work and more time doing technical or management
work.
Another business goal is that through the use of a common set
of technologybased tools and methods, you can achieve greater standardization.
This has a benefit similar to that of templates cited earlier. In fact,
templates, issues, and lessons learned cry out for technology-supported tools.
It is difficult to imagine how these could be easily employed in a manual mode.
Political Purpose
One potential political purpose is to show the outside world
that you are on top of the technology. This can be a useful point when you are
competing for a contract. The technology shows to people that you are really
organized. However, if the technology is not well organized, your firm can look
like a fool.
An internal political purpose is to show the employees that
you take the methods seriously enough that you are willing to invest in
technology-based products to support the methods. This can help get people
behind the use of the technology.
End
Products
The
overall end product is to identify and implement a complete and interrelated set
of technologies that will support the project management method and approach you
are following. This says that the whole is greater than the sum of the
individual technologies.
For each technology the end product is a working tool that
supports the established and accepted method and that can be measured in terms
of benefits and use. The technology must be supported and stable; you can’t
afford to invest in something that is too new or that can fail at critical
times.
Approach
Define Your Needs
For Technology
You can first identify your needs in international projects
for technologies. To do this you first make a list of what you do in managing
projects and the work involved. Make this list the first column in a table. The
second column contains entries for what you do now to perform the functions in
the first column. In the third column go the issues and problems with the
current approach. New technologies of potential interest go in the fourth
column. The last, or fifth, column contains statements of how the new technology
resolves the issues and problems of the third column. An example is given in Fig. 6.2. Use this as a starting
point for your own table.
There are several benefits to this table. First, you show managers
that you are organized. Second, the table can help identify areas where you
really do need to investigate new technology. A third benefit is that it helps
you narrow the focus in searching for technology. That is, you can largely
ignore technologies that do not fit in any row of the table.
Where can you find out about new technologies? Check out the
magazines and sources in the References appendix. What are you looking for?
Articles that describe how a firm used the technology in its projects and what
the benefits and lessons learned were. You can also visit vendor Web sites to
see if there are new versions coming out.
Now let’s now consider a range of specific technologies that
are useful in project management. Specific guidelines will be provided for using
the technology effectively.
Guidelines For
Communications And Networking
International project
management is about global communications and networking. You need to be in
touch with people in the various locations in which project work is being
performed. These statements are obvious. Now look behind the lines at the fine
print of requirements. Do you need extremely rapid communications? Sometimes. An
example might be videoconferencing. But you don’t require it all of the time. So
you don’t want to pay for capabilities that you will rarely use. It is better to
rent or use someone else’s facilities.
Does the technology always have to be available? For some things
such as defense or banking operations it does. For standard projects this is not
necessary. Let’s consider an example. One of us managed a project using
programmers in India. The location in India had very poor communications.
Internet speeds were pathetic, but the Internet was available. How could the
programmers be managed and the program code and programs reviewed? The solution
was to sometimes use a delivery service for large files. At other times if
someone was going to a city that had rapid Internet speeds, they took files with
them and transmitted them. At other times for limited e-mail and other
documents, the files could be compressed or zipped and then transmitted. The
approach worked fine. This is an example of learning to live with what you have
available. A basic guideline is:
The project cannot afford to invest in new
technology for the project itself in most cases.
Not only is this guideline useful, but you have to consider the
overall cost of the technology. Figure 6.3 gives a list of cost factors to consider.
Note in this table the phrase “supporting technologies.” Most technologies do
not come in alone. They require some technological infrastructure or related
products. Vendors push this since they want to sell you a range of products.
How do you use communications and networks in project management?
Consider creating a table such as that in Fig. 6.4.
Here are some guidelines for communications and networking.
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In countries where there is a modern infrastructure, use
what the people in the location are already working with. It is too difficult to
teach old dogs new tricks.
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In locations where there is a lack of infrastructure and
technology, then each place will have to be considered on a case-by-case basis.
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Instead of investing in more technology, try to think of
ways to work smarter. Plan when to communicate. Develop outlines and forms to
shorten the communications.
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Define how to communicate as an issue at the start of the
international project and have team members explore in their locations the
cheapest and easiest way to communicate with you and each other. In one case,
the simplest and cheapest was to buy someone a coffee at an Internet café.
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Accept the fact that in a wide-ranging international
project, there will have to be more than one standard communications solution.
Guidelines For
Software Tools
Project management
relies on a variety of software tools that run on top of the networks. These
include e-mail, electronic forms, groupware, database management,
videoconferencing, and project management software. Before plunging into each
category for specific guidelines, it is useful to review some basic rules first.
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Your budget in the project for tools or new methods will be
very limited. At the most, you might be able to acquire some hardware and
software licenses. That is about it. Therefore, there is no use in doing a big
survey of technologies available.
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If you are considering software tools for the entire
organization and all of its projects, then you want to develop the portfolio
approach that was discussed at the start of the chapter with Fig. 6.2.
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It will be difficult to get all of the software from one
vendor. While Microsoft can fit the widest range of needs in project management,
there will still likely be other tools that will come from different vendors.
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Consider the life cycle cost of the software tool in terms
of training, upgrades, and support as well as acquisition.
For any software tool that you have or that you select, there will
be a substantial effort needed to have the software tool usefully and
consistently employed. Notice the word consistent. If you deploy any software
tool in a variety of locations, you have to assume that people will tend to use
it in different and inconsistent ways. The only way that you can discourage this
is to provide guidance at the start of the use of the tool so that the people
see consistency in their self-interest. Figure 6.5 describes the actions needed to successfully
implement a software tool. As you can see from the effort behind the items in
the list, you should embark upon a new software tool with trepidation.
You can employ Fig.
6.6 as a table to summarize your use of software tools. You should prepare
this table and review it with all locations and any vendors or consultants that
you are employing. The table is also useful as a handy reference by employees to
show them that there is an organized approach. Having the table can discourage
people from going out on their own to find tools that duplicate the functions
that you already have. The columns are described as follows:
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Area or activity of project management—specific activities
are listed here.
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Method—software tools have to support some method or
approach.
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Guidelines—guidelines should be provided for effective use
of the tool.
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Management expectation—this identifies the objectives of the
tool from a management view; it helps in measuring whether it is effective.
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Expert—this indicates if there is an expert available to
help with the tool and who that person is.
Information Sharing
When you think of information sharing, you might think of
fax machines, telephone, e-mail, and similar tools. The most popular of these is
obviously e-mail next to the telephone. It is amazing that people are taught how
to use an e-mail system, but are not provided with any guidelines on effective
use. Instead, they are taught a hundred specific actions in using the software.
This is the difference between training in the software tool and training in the
method of how best to use it.
Here are some specific guidelines for using e-mail in
international projects:
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Avoid using e-mail for any sensitive topics.
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Assume that everyone in the company will read your e-mails.
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Think about what medium to use for communications before you
resort to e-mail.
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Compose an e-mail and then save it in a temporary folder.
Review it after a few hours to check the tone and determine if it is complete.
Then you can send it.
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Make sure that the title of the e-mail is either very
specific or very general. Experience has shown that titles in between result in
e-mails being discarded.
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When you open an e-mail in most e-mail systems, you only can
read the first 6–8 lines of the e-mail. Many people, especially busy people,
read this amount and decide whether to trash the message or read it. Make sure
that you get your point across.
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Avoid using e-mail for people in the same room or floor of a
building. It is ridiculous to not just walk over to them and socialize rather
than resorting to e-mail.
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Be sensitive to the fact that people get many e-mail
messages. In one seminar we gave in the first two hours, the average attendee
had received 50 (yes, fifty) e-mails. Talk about information overload!
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Maintain a copy of any important e-mail so that you can
remember what you said.
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Avoid using e-mail to discuss an issue in any depth. E-mail
was never intended to be used as groupware.
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Organize your e-mail into folders that are appropriate for
use in project management. You might create a folder for each major subproject,
for personnel matters, for budget matters, for project status, etc.
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Have each team member establish an e-mail account outside of
the company. Why do this? Because you may find that you cannot access your
e-mail in the company from a remote location. You also may find that firewalls
inhibit remote access. Make sure that the team members are told that this e-mail
account is to be used for the project only. If they want to use e-mail for
personal use, they can set another free e-mail account. Pay for additional
storage of messages. Encourage team members to periodically go in and clean up
the e-mail account so that it is efficiently and effectively used.
Now let’s prioritize communications and information sharing for
international projects.
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In person. The best communication is still face-to-face. You
see the person’s body language and get their tone and nuances. Very important
and it often tells you more about what is going on in the project.
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Telephone. You can still get tone of voice here. Note that
you should always smile into the telephone. It gives people a feeling that you
are more confident and upbeat about the project.
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Videoconferencing is very useful in communications in a
project to save travel costs. Organize the videoconference ahead of time. Try to
rent a facility that has a white board and other aids.
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Voice mail. Yes, voice mail is better than e-mail since you
can give your tone of voice. Always rehearse or write down what you are going to
say first. Otherwise, most people tend to leave long and rambling messages.
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E-mail. Here it is at number 5 for the reasons given above.
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Fax. This is probably the worse of the lot. Who knows if the
fax is received? Who will read the fax? In one international project, a manager
sent a fax regarding a sensitive personnel matter. It ended up being posted on a
bulletin board.
Avoid leaving messages with an intermediary since the message can
be garbled or not delivered. This is especially valid when you call overseas.
Another guideline is to use telephone cards for international
projects. This is one of our favorite methods of saving money in a project. At
the project kickoff we distribute telephone cards to everyone on the team. The
telephone cards should be rechargeable using a credit card so that people don’t
have to keep running around for new cards. You will have to consider getting
different cards for each country since the normal card allows you to call out
from one country and back into that country. The telephone card approach also
allows them to use the card to make personal calls back home—very important for
morale!
Project Management
Software
The most popular
PC-based project management software is Microsoft Project. However, the
guidelines that will be provided here apply to similar software from other
vendors. Some specific guidelines are given in Fig. 6.7. You can find more detailed guidelines in the
book, Breakthrough Technology Project Management, second
ed., by the same authors.
There are some basic problems with most of the existing project
management software packages. First, they were initially designed for use by
single users. Hooks have been provided for collaboration, but at the heart they
are still single-user-oriented systems. Project management in modern
international projects is a collaborative widespread activity. Thus, the most
suitable project management tools would be based on the Internet and would
employ a Web browser.
A second problem is that the existing software allows either total
read-only or read–write access at the file level. If you are going to do
collaborative project management, team members have to update their own
individual tasks within the project plan. Therefore, they require write access
to only specific tasks.
A third disadvantage is that many of the software tools have
excessive features. Some of the features that should be discouraged are:
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Spell checking. This is not a good feature since you will
have to employ standard abbreviations for most tasks to keep the length small to
show the GANTT chart.
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PERT chart. Try to avoid PERT or sequential views of the
project. This is especially true in international projects. Why? A PERT chart
can encourage sequential thinking. People will not start a task until the
predecessor is completed.
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Automated resource leveling. This should be done manually
and in a collaborative way.
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Most of the reports that can be generated. The problem here
is that the reports cannot easily be customized.
As a rule of thumb, it is recommended that you will end up using
about 10–15% of the software. But it is a useful percentage. If the percentage
is so low, why use the tool? Politics. There is nothing like a GANTT chart in
which you have highlighted the tasks with issues and risk in a different color.
This will give you support and put pressure on management to resolve issues.
All that aside, a key benefit of project management software
is that you can customize the data elements in the software. After all, behind
the project management software is a database. Another benefit is that you can
customize the views and form as well as database queries or filters for the
project data.
Collaborative Tools
Groupware is an excellent category of software for project
management. Lotus Notes is probably the best known and most widely used software
in this category. Groupware allows you to organize folders in the project.
Groupware also allows you to establish a folder for each specific issue or
lesson learned. This is much easier in managing, dealing with, and tracking
issues than e-mail.
Let’s give two examples of successful use. A firm that is
involved in launching satellites into space had many difficulties in sharing
information between the remote satellite launch site and home offices. Groupware
was implemented. The benefits were immediately felt. Lessons learned and issues
were available on-line at any time. Project plans were immediately available and
could be viewed anywhere in the world. The groupware provided the structure for
useful collaboration. The second example had the same benefits for the
deployment of new banking products in South America.
Use The Internet
And Web
Obviously, most of the
team members are already well versed in using the Web and Internet. How can you
employ this technology for international projects? The first way is for e-mail
and was discussed earlier. Another use of the Web is to explore literature and
magazines for project management lessons learned and issues (see the References
listed in Appendix 3). You can also use the Internet to view the Web sites of
vendors and products that apply to the project. Another application is to check
up on what competitors are doing and what they see as important.
How Technology
Creates Benefits And Problems
Technology can provide many benefits if you believe the
specific vendor claims. Stripping off the claims, let’s get down to reality.
Here are some of the benefits that have been experienced in projects from using
technology and in particular software tools. Note that getting these benefits
assumes that you have followed the actions in Fig. 6.5.
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A technology can enforce company rules and policies by
encouraging a specific way of doing things.
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Use of a technology across an organization can be
self-sustaining, requiring little enforcement for the use of the tool.
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Widespread use of a technology encourages consistency.
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Use of a technology can encourage collaboration and
information sharing that would be otherwise difficult or impossible.
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Use of the technology can reduce the cost and effort of
performing the activity as compared to what it replaced.
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A technology or tool can reduce the time it takes to make
decisions and may support better decisions by providing better quality and more
timely information.
A number of problems have already been identified with tools and
technology. Here let’s examine the following list:
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A software tool is acquired, but not properly supported so
that it languishes and is only used by a few people.
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The software tool is easy to learn at a basic level, but
difficult and complex to master in detail.
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While the tool can be used by one person, it is really not
suitable for use in a collaborative environment.
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The tool was selected too soon. Now there are better tools
available from different vendors. The employees think that they are stuck with a
lemon. Remember what happened with companies who stuck with old word processing
tools for too long?
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The functions of the tool overlap with those of other tools
in use so that redundant effort is needed in data entry and use—reducing the
extent of usage of the tool.
To put it all together,
Fig. 6.8 provides a score card for your use. We suggest that you apply this
to your current software tools.
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