Web Based
Project Management
Web Based
Project Management enables the user to tie together all sorts of
disparate elements. Thanks to the ecommerce revolution, your
business can cooperate with itself outside of the confines of the
office. This freedom presents new opportunities--and new challenges.
By incorporating a Web Based Project Management paradigm into
operations, you really aid your business. The Internet is certainly
not going away any time soon. So this investment in infrastructure
is really a good preparation for the
future.
Implementing
Web Based Project Management tools is not a silver bullet solution
to issues associated with the project management process. In other
words, it does not ensure adequate employee or client input. It does
not automatically resolve issues, such as ownership of resources,
nor will it guarantee management support. In other words, Web Based
Project Management is not a replacement to time-tested and proven
project management techniques. Web-based project management is the
information age equivalent of "management by walking around." In
this case, however, visiting project resources takes place in
cyberspace. The project manager visits the project resources by
"flying around in cyberspace" without ever having to leave his or
her office.
Web Based
Project Management provides the enterprise with an extensive and
integrated set of tools that enable it to attempt much larger
projects involving more locations, people, facilities and equipment.
In addition, implementing a Web Based Project Management system is
not an easy task. It requires a cultural change in the organization
and is associated with many difficulties. This change requires
extensive planning, management backup, availability of resources and
monitoring of performance. In other words, it requires all the
ingredients for completing a project on time, within budget,
according to specifications and meeting customer
expectations.
Web Based
Project Management offers compelling benefits to management. For
example, it facilitates releasing resources and assigning them from
one project to another. In addition, management has more power
because they have access to more information. Furthermore, project
team members can even participate in updating the schedule and
defining details for their own task areas. Because of timely access
to reliable and up-to-date information, the enterprise can
strategically compete more effectively and profitably in the market
place. These benefits fall into four main
categories:
Coordination:
In a Web Based Project Management environment, each project becomes
visible. Thus, every project team must continuously monitor
performance and provide updates. Because of visibility, the project
team takes more care with the quality of reporting. In addition, it
forces schedulers, project managers and senior management to be
aware of the project’s progress.
Communication:
One of the most important challenges to any project is keeping the
team focused on its main objectives. In a Web-based project
management environment, a project that veers off course is
immediately visible to management. They can take quick and effective
action to bring the project back on
track.
A project
manager is a facilitator of information. A Web Based Project
Management environment improves the communication process among team
members and project managers by providing instant access to issues,
problems, assumptions, goals, news, lessons learned, discussion
threads, documents, etc. This will enhance the communication process
and improve the operational performance of an enterprise in
which:
- Project
stakeholders interact, have access to desired information at
appropriate times and maintain a shared vision about their project
while staying focused on individual tasks.
- Team members
can express and measure individual and group progress in meeting
project objectives.
- Newly
recruited team members can get up to speed on the project history
with minimum disruption to other team members.
- Team members
can draw on the experience of similar projects when making
project-related decisions.
Empowerment: A
Web Based Project Management environment exposes team members to
priorities, commitments and dependencies. Consequently, each of the
team members has a better understanding of what is expected and
when, which enables him/her to act with more confidence. As a
result, the team members are now able to understand their roles in
achieving the overall objectives of the
organization.
Competitive
Advantage: Web Based Project Management provides an infrastructure
for enhancing the decision-making process. Management has immediate
access to up-to-date information about project costs, resources and
schedules. Thus, it enhances the quality of time-sensitive
decisions.
In addition, it
improves the coordination process between different project
stakeholders by providing a reliable, integrated and rich
communication environment. For example, collaboration tools enable
management, project managers, team members, customers and clients to
interactively formulate design plans, discuss and implement changes,
and test various aspects of the project as it progresses. Decreasing
the amount of time needed to route information and perform project
tasks is an immediate result of working jointly via collaboration
tools.
Web Based
Project Management is the key to successful project management in
today’s global business environment. It significantly improves the
operational performance of an enterprise by enhancing collaboration
and coordination among project stakeholders.
Nevertheless,
implementing Web Based Project Management tools is not a silver
bullet solution to project management. In other words, the tools
themselves do not ensure adequate employee or client input. They
will not automatically resolve issues such as ownership of
resources, nor will they guarantee management support. The next
article will examine potential problems and outline the ingredients
of developing an effective Web-based project management
strategy.
Implementing a
Web Based Project Management solution is more than software and
hardware. The new system should be structured, integrated and
scalable. Management should develop the adequate strategy capable of
handling the managerial, people and technical issues related to
Web-based project management. It should also monitor and constantly
refine the new process. In next month’s article, the last in the
series, we will be examining the functional requirements of a
Web-based project management site.