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!
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