Project management collaboration: typical problems

Effective team collaboration is well-known and always on-top problem of most project management teams and companies.

The list of typical project collaboration problem also sounds familiar:

• Problem of a common information space. The information distribution is meant to ensure timely access of the project participants to the information they need, organization of a common information space in which project participants could find all necessary information. For example, a list of project participants and their contacts, project schedule, project tasks and requirements, project documents and files, guidelines, procedures and regulations;

• Problem of informational exchange between participants. Typically, the information exchange takes place via email in the unstructured form or over phone. In this case, it’s not really easy to get log of conversation and information accuracy. It leads to a lack of project control.
• Project meeting problem. Due to the fact that the project participants may be located in different regions, it’s not easy and cheap to organize project meeting.

• Problem of project human resources. Typically, matrix management structure is used while project management, in which resources are, placed in a certain proportion between the execution of major responsibilities and targets execution of the project. Due to the fact that the information exchange of resources utilization between a functional manager and a project manager is difficult – the conflicts can appear. Resolution for such conflicts can take considerable time.
• Project milestones tracking. Using the mail and paper work schedule (or, a local version of the plan developed in MS Project) Project Manager has a lot of difficulties of controlling the tasks executing in the regions. Considerable time is spent for the monitoring and incentives through the calls. Even more time is spent on further mainstreaming of the data in terms of a timetable;

• Problems of changes management, incident and risk management of the project. If you have any extraordinary events or changes in appearance, you should quickly obtain reliable information about the incident, make a decision, to agree with the persons concerned, make necessary adjustments in work plans and project documentation and give appropriate orders to executors. Carrying out such complex work in the old way, without a use of information technologies,  is also rather hard;
• Project reports and statistics. The process of collecting and consolidation of the information by mail or on the phone is extremely laborious, takes considerable time and quality of the obtained information is very low. Even the most sophisticated calendar-network schedules immediately turns into a nice, but a useless image, if the procedure of collecting evidence and updating will not work.

This list can be continued, but we think there is no need. All mentioned problems are the point of project communication management. According to the PMBoK methodology, Communication Management is an area of knowledge that includes the processes required for the timely creation, collection, dissemination, storage, receiving, and ultimately, the use of project’s information. The process of project communication management supposes creation of required relations between people and information that are necessary for successful project management.

PMBoK recommends organize project office and use “virtual project teams”. Virtual Project Teams means teams where project participants do not know each other personally and they can be located in different geographical zones. You might also need project management collaboration software with web-interface, so there all participants can log into single project space.