This seems odd. Isn’t technology good? Some is and some is not. The problem is that every time you introduce some new technology into a project, you increase the risks. Let’s take an example. A company that had a number of international projects gave each project leader a palmtop organizer that could set up and link to calendars of managers in the network. The goal was to increase productivity. Well, it was a failure that impacted the productivity of the managers in a negative way along with their projects. Managers were attempting to synchronize meetings with higher-level managers. However, very few of these managers put their schedules on the network. Other managers did not use a computer at all; they relied on their assistants and secretaries to print out e-mails and other items. Many project leaders started to use the devices for games and entertainment—an expensive “GameBoy.” What was the solution? Confiscate all of the devices and ban them until the rules had been worked out.

Behind this simple example, there are a number of fundamental lessons learned:

Only proven useful technologies will be considered here. However, use the above list as a checklist to evaluate potential technologies.