Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers

Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com Knowledge and Collaboration Knowledge The sharing of human experience expressed in a medium of communication and organized in a way to share the value of that experience with others. Collaboration The capability of a group of people to contribute dynamically and interactively on a professional or creative endeavor. Why Focus on Knowledge Collaboration? Who can assign a value to knowledge that is sitting static in a repository? However, the minute a worker is seeking knowledge, as soon as two workers are sharing knowledge, whenever several workers are debating and presenting; knowledge quickly attains value. Therefore, we see that the crucial element to defining value in knowledge is when it is in action, used by people. We see the value magnified when it can be utilized by a group in dynamic ways. This is what we would call collaboration. Why Focus on the Project Group? The most important work takes place at the level of the project group. By a project group, we mean an interactive group from 3 to 6 at the small end to 20 to 30 at the high end. Notice we are not using the term “team”. This is because “team” normally implies a role, responsibility and placement in a larger organizational structure. The project groups we are talking about may be defined within a department, division, and corporation or may span multiple corporations. 1 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com The Landscape of Knowledge and Collaboration There are actually numerous landscapes within which knowledge and collaboration appears. We can talk about them in several ways, starting with historical “problems” and their “solutions”: Problems: ♦ Too much information. ♦ People can’t get the information they need. ♦ People can’t find an “expert” ♦ Explosion of new media. Tools for creating, organizing and publishing content most constantly adapt to these new media types. Solutions: Numerous solutions have appeared for the knowledge “problems” workers have encountered. Please realize that neither the “problems” nor the solutions always fall into precise categories. These categories have emerged out of dialog between vendors, customers and industry analysts. They are useful for discussing similarities and differences among these various solutions and for determining the suitability of a product in a specific setting. We’re focusing more on “knowledge collaboration”, which we’ll define for the purposes of this paper. 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2006 Document management Project management and life-cycle tools Collaboration tools Workflow management Content management Portals Knowledge Mgmt 2 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com Solutions – Examined more Closely: Document Management Large organizations needed to keep track of large numbers of documents. Document management should not be confused with creating a shared drive to hold documents. The revisions and versions of documents have high-stake consequences, organizations needed to be able to distinguish between revisions, and to be able manage updates. Access should be controlled by user permissions, yet be facilitated via directories, keywords, and perhaps summary abstracts. Founding Idea Strengths Weaknesses Founding Idea Strengths Does a very good job within its defined scope (see above). It becomes more of a library or archival function and is thus removed from the key location of knowledge creation and sharing. Project Management and Life-Cycle Tools Large organizations need to keep track of complex interdependencies among a large number of tasks, with staff resources and resulting deadlines. Project management tools could also identify “critical path” tasks and could present charts showing the project plan. These tools also identified deviations from plan. With the advent of powerful desktop systems, these tools became affordable and prevalent. Life-cycle management tools acknowledge the adherence of many organizations to procedures for managing a project through different life-cycle phases. These are methods that derive their value by guiding workers through a highly defined sequence and procedure to produce predictable and reliable results. 3 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com Weaknesses Founding Idea Strengths Weakness Founding Idea These tools offer little support for the flow of knowledge in and around the project. Collaboration Tools Organizations wanted to improve the productivity where multiple contributors are creating, organizing, and publishing content in an individual, or group of documents or other information objects. The toolset may include the capability for online discussion with “threads” or response “trees”. These tools do a great job of managing the contributions of multiple authors, editors, etc. They can support complex collaboration projects and protect against one author “stepping” on the work of another – at a cost. Because the focus is primarily on the documents or objects, there is often a weak organization of the knowledge flow. The more ambitious these tools are, the more challenging they are to learn and manage. Workflow Management In many industries such as insurance and health care administration, work proceeds via a sequence of highly defined steps requiring review and approval from many different “agents”. Thus, productivity is either enhanced or retarded in the timeliness of the pass-off from one worker to another. Work flow systems allow organizations to define the “rules” of the flow of work via the various “steps”. Managers can monitor the flow, identifying bottlenecks, and then resolve them. 4 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com Strengths Weakness Founding Idea Strengths Weakness Invaluable in industries where a large number of small delays or misunderstandings between work stages can produce a serious degradation of customer service. These systems are focused on work progress and organizational productivity, evaluated via established metrics. Hence, they are rather unconcerned with the contents of work products, let alone the quality of knowledge. Content Management The key idea is to separate content from the delivery structure and delivery media. This can support tool functions for a more convenient update by non-expert users, better control of access permissions, and more ambitious scaling of content size. Content management includes numerous subcategories. Some content management is focused exclusively on Web content. Other products are “enterprise” in scope. Some help customers distribute content to a number of multiple subscribers (syndication). Others help customers consolidate content coming from multiple sources (aggregation). Content management systems are crucial for large organizations to keep large Web sites “fresh”, while using staff with only modest technical skills. These systems can scale up to support huge structures, with commensurate costs. They provide great value by managing publishing in large, complex Web sites and other publishing structures. The very strength of making it convenient to manage the publication of “perishable” content is their weakness. These packages are not charged with managing knowledge. 5 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com Portals The founding theory has been that workers will respond well to and become more productive with a single point of entry into an organization’s business functions. Prior to the ubiquitous presence of the Web, this idea was expressed as the menu trees within huge ERP systems, using client-server technology. With the Web, however, the idea is to present a Web page and its many “children” as an entry into all or most business functions of the organization. Founding Idea Strengths Weakness Founding Idea It’s all there, accessible via a single starting point. Users should be able to navigate their way to important resources and functional pathways. The industry reports that organizations are discovering that most workers do not need to be presented with the entire breadth of the organization as an access point to their day-to-day work. In fact, this monolithic presentation becomes intimidating and counter-productive. Knowledge Management The availability of inexpensive desktop tools opened up the way for ordinary workers to create and publish vast amounts of information. As consumers of information, we were already aware of “information overload”. Management appropriately found cause for alarm that corporate information assets were no longer under clear-cut central control. The emergence of the Internet as a forum for inexpensive and blindingly fast information exchange has tended to “democratize” the publishing of information. With so much information available, it is not always clear how authoritative or legitimate the information is. Due to the availability of inexpensive and powerful tools, information and knowledge have expanded in quantity, and also in diversity and specialization. In response to these challenges, industry leaders reasoned that a productive solution would be to “manage” the great amount of knowledge created within the boundaries of their organization, or to be able to access knowledge in affiliated domains, such as in the Internet. Because this initiative has been broad and, perhaps, poorly defined, the “solution” offerings are diverse and attack problems that are sometimes divergent and sometimes highly related. 6 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com It is impossible to characterize strengths within the entire spectrum of products because they cover so much breadth. Some vendors are advancing research and development into discovering the meaning within existing loosely structured data sources. Others are attempting to locate “knowledge” or expertise by linking humans via profiles. Strengths Weakness Surprisingly, some respected analysts and commentators have concluded that “knowledge management” is a failed concept. While they do not dismiss the accomplishments of vendors in some specific feature areas, they suggest that “knowledge sharing” is a better way of thinking about the problem and hence will better influence resulting solutions. Further, there is emerging opinion that the key location for knowledge creation and sharing is in the small group. 7 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com How the Landscape of Knowledge Collaboration May Change What will certainly change? We can be sure that the landscape of knowledge collaboration will change. We can predict that workers will want to be able to work with new and exciting media for the expression of knowledge. Large vendors will compete and will attempt to influence corporations in directions supporting their commercial interests. We should expect that information will be generated in an exponentially accelerated pace. But, does this foster the creation of knowledge or present forces of confusion and dissolution? Trends suggest that both effects will be in play. How will your organization be able to take advantage of the emerging knowledge creation, yet be shielded from the onslaught of information? What will probably not change? ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Knowledge derives its value when it is shared. Hence, workers need convenient tools for creating and sharing knowledge. The “sweet spot” of knowledge will be found in a harmony of content and context. The most productive engine of knowledge is the small group, regardless of its organizational purity or affiliation. There is no one-size-fits-all principle for structuring knowledge data. Groups have differing leadership styles and needs and these can change over the life of the endeavor. Productive groups need a balance between “tight” controls as found in highefficiency, native storage schemes and open or “loose” arrangements where external documents and objects can be linked to the project. There is no single answer for rules regarding knowledge ownership and accessibility. Let the group decide. Knowledge endeavors are living things. breathe and grow. Give them the proper environment to ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 8 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com A Practical Knowledge System (iS*Project) Knowledge and collaboration exists in a vast sea of human concerns, served by a very large universe of products and services, in turn organized into a seemingly confusing set of product categories. iS*Project is a practical knowledge system that helps project managers to build a knowledge system without imposing extra effort from the project team. The base knowledge structure is adopted from existing Microsoft Project Plans or start anew with a hierarchical structure. The Project Team uses existing interface tools such as MS Outlook, MS Project and MS Excel to access the knowledgebase build with iS*Project. This approach drastically reduces the training requirement to use the system. From a high level perspective, iS*Project is designed to provide the following: A framework for knowledge creation We realize that the small group is the engine of knowledge creation. iS*Project provides the framework for the small group to: • Create knowledge. • Capture it and organize it in simple, intuitive ways. • Make use of tools that are available and used today. A convenient tool for knowledge collaboration Update stored knowledge. Participate in discussion threads, using them in creative and flexible ways. Organize information intuitively, for others to access conveniently. No rigid data structures, the organization flows from the group. Monitor and manage phased activities Assign objects to project phases. Generate delivery reports for other team members, management and marketing. Quickly adjust phasing contents with no “dropped balls”. A toolkit for knowledge publishing Project knowledge is conveniently available. Assemble project knowledge “chunks” into publishable documents. A repository for knowledge archive and retrieval Research the earliest discussions on an important topic Trace knowledge evolution in time via discussions and documents Build and use Subject Matter Guides iS*Project repositories, views, discussion groups, and templates are pre-configured for a specific Subject Matter domain – such as ISO compliance or software development. Integrate documents and procedures for key process in iS*Project. Improve compliance with team process using built-in forms and tool settings. Empower the wisdom and effectiveness in the group iS*Project operates well under any group leadership model. Permissions and data access are all determined by the group. 9 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com iS*Project aims to stay grounded, highly practical, and close to the needs of ordinary workers of all kinds. 10 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com iS*Project – A Tool for Project Managers The iS*Project approach treats a task as a manageable unit where it has its own life cycle. Tasks specified in an MPP file are entered into the system automatically and maintain bi-directional updates. The structure of the tasks is maintained in the same fashion as an MPP project tree. One natural and easy method of building this knowledge base is to select a platform which supports and integrates with existing software. Not only do you receive the benefit of not having to reenter the data, you also inherit the task management structure you have been using for years. iS*Project is designed around the Microsoft Office Suite. Users who are accustomed to Microsoft user interface paradigm already know how to operate iS*Project. The following summarizes the functional categories representing the essential elements supported by iS*Project to build a central project and task management knowledgebase. iS*Project maintains a database to keep the tasks and the project plans. Project managers and team members share information in two ways: check out the project plan from the database, or updates individual tasks. With secure access and version control, the project plans can be shared, secured and yet available for whoever is authorized. Task details include detail descriptions of the task, attachments, discussions, content linking (to other tasks or documents) and logs of progress reports. Multiple versions save task changes as historical data. With a shareable project plans and the tasks detail, plus the inherit properties of task collaboration attributes such as attachments, discussion, and status reporting, iS*Project is the ultimate project knowledge base for the team. Collecting work progress reports from the team is a mundane and time consuming task. Organizing the reports received is an even more time consuming endeavor. A more convenient way will be assigning the tasks to the team members via their own MS Outlook Task Folders, they fill out the progress of each task and the system organizes the status reports automatically. If there should be a question about the progress of a task, or if you wish to see all reports filed by a team member, simply obtain a report from iS*Project. No more collecting reports, sifting through massive number of Project Plans Control Task Details Collaborations Task Progress Reports 11 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com emails to trace the progress of a task. Document Library iS*Project document library can be separated into three main categories: company-wide, project dependent and task related. Documents such as human resources handbook, vacation schedules, and employee phone book are considered as company-wide documents. Separating project dependent documents from the task related documents enables easy retrieval of pertinent documents during discussions and review of a task. With Executive Dashboard function, we can see the overall progress of the active projects at-a-glance. Critical status such as tasks overdue or over budgeted tasks can be identified. Furthermore, once identified, iS*Project has the capability to allow you to drill down into the maximum detail of the task work progress. Information is presented from one spectrum of detail to another, all from an interface you already familiar with: MS Excel. You may setup views such as Critical Tasks View, View by Resources, View by Tasks over 3 weeks long and whatever criteria you wish to encode. Views are kept and recalled from a list easily. The extracted data can be viewed within iS*Project interface panels, or exported to MS Excel. For the project team to accept and use a new system, one must consider their learning curve. Workers already are over-loaded. They just don’t have time to learn yet another system unless the system is extremely easy to learn and the benefit is significant. To ensure ease of use iS*Project ensures all screen interface, button locations and menu arrangements work similar to Microsoft Office. Furthermore, iS*Project makes extensive use of the Microsoft integration platform. Tasks are assigned via MS Outlook, dashboard views are presented in Excel and the tasks plans are integrated with MS Project. Security cannot be overlooked. iS*Project supports role based security control, task level encryption (you can encrypt the task details by a password you assigned), control access to the views and read/write/read-write options. Executive Dashboard Views Integration with MS Office Secure Access from the LAN as well as the Internet 12 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com To further identify mishaps, iS*Project maintains an extensive modifications and read audit log. This auditlog records the Use IDs, the date and time of the activity, the activity itself. Backup/Restore operations are built into iS*Project. This backup is more than a database backup, it is a backup of the entire iS*Project environment. Documents, Tasks, Attachments, Discussions, and Project Plans are combined and backed up to a device you choose. This ensures the integrity of the data. One touch backup/restore 13 Knowledge and Collaboration for Project Managers www.kmsciences.com Who We Are KM Sciences is a group of seasoned information technology veterans who have proven themselves in a variety of industry settings – from hardware design manufacture and OEM sales, to large-scale operating system / peripheral integration. We have worked for very large customers and very small. We look at the knowledge management problem with the eyes of experience, but with a fresh approach… We have implemented a project delivery tool that is multi-dimensional, yet highly practical for the small-tomedium team. It demonstrates immediate benefit – allowing project leads to “jump-start” their ideas into the early phases of a project. Yet it also has the potential to become more valuable as the project progresses. 14