The best of project collaboration

The Best of Project Collaboration
A selection of professional insights from the Blog archive

ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved 1

Since 2008 our project management professionals have been sharing knowledge,
experience and learning with online readers via the Project Manager Blog.

Their collective wisdom provides a wealth of how to, top tips and best practice advice,
for project managers, teams and businesses.

To make their writings more accessible we’ve created a series of “Best of” project
management topics available free to download and share.

Here is a collection of excerpts and insights from blog posts that discuss project
collaboration in today’s mobile, wireless and global world.

From best practices to online software and tools we offer our best advice to help you
manage remote and dispersed teams, advice we apply to our own teams around the
globe.

Enjoy!

Jason Westland CEO

ProjectManager.com

Using Software for Team Collaboration ...................................................................................................... 3

6 Ways to use your Collaboration Software................................................................................................ 6

Project Leadership Goes Way Beyond Project Collaboration ..................................................................... 8

7 Tips for Team Collaboration on Conference Calls .................................................................................. 11

When Good Project Collaboration Meetings Go Bad ............................................................................... 14

How to Make Collaboration Work ............................................................................................................ 15

30 Day Free Software Trial ........................................................................................................................ 18


Using Software for Team Collaboration
Projects aren’t a solitary activity and project managers can’t get everything done
themselves. That’s why you have a project team. While project teams can help you with
the work, working with other people isn’t always easy. This can be especially true if you
don’t all work in the same office. Managing the communication and collaboration
between team members when they are spread all over the country (and even all over
the world) can be difficult, and fostering that collaborative spirit can almost be a full
time job for a project manager!

Fortunately, there are loads of tools available these days to help you work more
effectively with your colleagues. From social media to bespoke online project
management software, the amount of ways to keep in touch with each other is
astounding. So there really should be no excuse for not making the most of
collaboration software to make your life a little bit easier! Here are three ways that you
can use software to bring your team together on your project.

Assignments
Project management software often includes the feature to assign tasks to other people
(or to yourself). This is a great way to ensure that everyone knows what the priority
tasks are and what work they have coming up. You can log in to the software every day
and check the tasks that have been assigned to you. Don’t assume that because you are
the project manager, you will be the one assigning tasks to others – you will find that
team members assign tasks to you as
well, especially when they reach points
where they need approval or help
resolving an issue.

You can use project collaboration
software to create To Do lists as well.
Create a view that shows you all the upcoming tasks that have been assigned to you and
their due dates. That gives you the opportunity to prioritize your work and ensure that
you spend time working on the tasks that are most important first. Most software is
very flexible and you can also see what other members of the team are working on.

As the project manager, this is a really useful feature because it means you can allocate
work more effectively. You don’t want to give a critical task to someone who has ten

other critical tasks, all of which are due tomorrow. Seeing what your team is working on
in real time gives you the option to move tasks between your colleagues and reassign
work as required if you notice that someone is overloaded.

Add photos to the profiles of your team members so that you can easily see who you
are assigning work to. This is a nice touch if you are not all situated in the same location,
as it means you can put a face to a name and the team in Tokyo feel a little bit closer.
You can also get each team member to update their profile with some personal
information about themselves such as a few facts about their family or hobbies.
Anything that shows what the team has in common has to be good for fostering
collaboration.

Discussions

Discussions are a great way to collaborate
online. You can either host a discussion in
real time using a chat feature, or on an
asynchronous basis, where team members
contribute when they can. This can be useful
for teams spread across different time
zones.

Once you have started a discussion, other team members can add comments to the
topic and also attach relevant files of their own to the thread. This makes it easy to see
the evolution of the conversation, as you can see everyone’s comments and postings.
Collaboration software holds the complete history, so you can go back and see how
decisions were made. This is also useful for archiving purposes, as otherwise a lot of this
discussion would get lost in email in boxes or would not be recorded properly in
meeting minutes.

Discussions also allow you to share project status with the team and other stakeholders.
You can send messages to colleagues, either on an individual basis or as a group, about
project status. Discussions can also encourage a person to ask for help – because typing
a few sentences to the group is easy, people are more inclined to do this than call
around trying to find someone who knows the answer.


Document Sharing

Finally, document sharing is another great
way to encourage the team to collaborate.
Most online project management and
collaboration tools have the functionality to
share documents. This is much better than
storing a copy of a document either in your
inbox or on your laptop – both places
where no one else can get to them.

Document sharing means that everyone can easily access the latest copy of the
document. It gives you confidence when you know that the whole team is working from
the most up to date information.

This can save a whole lot of time and frustration, as no one likes doing work on
something only to find out that they didn’t have the latest version and that their time
and effort has been wasted as something has changed that they weren’t aware of.

Most online tools will also have the feature to show the latest version but store
historical versions. If you ever need to go back to a previous version of a document and
see what has changed, you can do that with a couple of clicks. This saves a lot of time
archiving and with version control, so if your software has this feature, learn how to use
it!

Document sharing doesn’t have to be limited to what we traditionally know as
‘documents’. You can also share spreadsheets, images and videos. All of these
contribute to better project communication and a culture of sharing and openness in
the team.

Team collaboration is something that is easy to talk about but difficult to do. It’s really
all about creating an environment where people feel happy and comfortable about
working together and sharing information. Using project management and collaboration
software is one way to make it a little bit easier. You can track the status of work, hold
conversations with your colleagues and share key documents so that everyone has the
same view of project progress.


6 Ways to use your Collaboration Software
Here are 6 ways that you can use collaboration software with your project team.

1. Send Messages to Your Colleagues
Ever wanted to talk privately to someone during a meeting? Or have something to add
to the discussion, but you are in front of clients and can’t talk openly? Instant messaging
is a great way to send short messages to your colleagues in private. The message
appears instantly on their screen and the software allows them to respond to you via
their computer. No need to talk – no need for anyone to know that you have even
exchanged information, which is great if you are in a meeting with clients.

Instant messaging can also work across time zones and countries. Your collaboration
software will show you who is online at any given time and if the person you want to
speak to is available, you can message them. This can be better than picking up the
phone, especially if the person you are talking to does not have English as their first
language. Sometimes reading a message and composing a reply in your own time is
easier than trying to hold a conversation over the phone where you have less time to
think.

2. Start Discussions
Your collaboration software will give you the
opportunity to start discussions. These work
in a similar way to messages but they are
available for a group to see. They are not real
time either, so you can get input from people
over the course of several days, meaning
everyone can contribute even if they aren’t
working the same hours as you.

A discussion could be about any part of your project. The software will save the
discussion so that you can refer back to it in the future. This can be handy for audits, or
simply just to remind yourself what the group talked about and what the final decision
was.


3. Share Documents
Sharing documents through your collaboration tool can be a great advantage if you are
working with third parties who do not have access to your company’s network. Instead,
grant them access to your collaboration software and they will be able to see the latest
copy of any document that you are sharing. This cuts down on the amount of email
traffic and the number of documents stored (or lost) in boxes. Get your project team
into the habit of uploading their documents to the collaboration tools so that you can all
see the latest version at any time.

4. Share Your Calendar
Want to know where your project team is? Set up a shared calendar. You can use it to
keep track of who is on holiday when, team meetings and major project milestones. You
could also use it for other housekeeping tasks like making a note of when your team
room is booked out for meetings or who is using the projector that day. You can share
global or resource level calendars and color code key dates. In fact, your calendar can
become an extension of your project schedule and a really useful resource for the whole
team. Sharing your calendar also prompts people to be transparent about where they
are and what they are doing – it can dramatically help to improve trust and openness on
the project.

5. Add Notes and Comments
Collaboration software allows you to add notes and
comments to pretty much any of your project’s activities.
You can comment on a task, attach a useful document to a
risk, or add a note to reflect the latest status of an activity.
Think of it as a bit like blogging, or like using a tool like
Twitter.

A quick note added to an item on the project schedule can
let you, as the project manager; know exactly what is
happening or where you need to intervene. It can save you
a lot of time ringing round all your project team members to
get status updates – although you have to encourage your
team to make use of this collaboration feature for it to be


effective! The software will save all these updates so that you can see the complete
chain of discussion relating to that part of the project at any time.

5. Allocate Tasks to Each Other
All projects are made up of tasks, and it can be difficult to keep track of who is doing
what. You can allocate tasks to each other (or to yourself if you are maintaining your
own personal to do list). Each time you open up the collaboration software, you will be
able to see the tasks in your own queue. If the permissions allow, you’ll also be able to
see the tasks in other people’s queues, which can be really helpful if you are trying to
keep an eye on what is going on elsewhere on the project.

The software will show you which tasks are due to complete in the next few days and
anything that is overdue. This is a much better system than everyone trying to work out
their own priorities and getting potentially distracted away from the important tasks.
Every time you need to know the relevant milestones for one of your tasks, they will be
right there in front of you so that you can prioritize effectively.

Collaboration software can make a huge difference to how you manage a project and
how effective you are at working with other people on your project team. Why not look
into the features that your software has and start putting them to work for you?

Project Leadership Goes Way Beyond Project Collaboration

What makes for a good leader? While we all have our definition of what makes us want
to follow someone, at a minimum they must know what they are talking about, make us
feel secure in what they are saying, and then follow through on their commitments.

Now, there have been endless debates and countless forum discussions about whether
a project manager is indeed a project leader that fits the above description. The
conversation goes on ad nauseam that project managers do more than just “manage” a
project to completion, but rather “lead” the project to completion.

Let’s put this argument to rest today. In today’s business environment, in today’s
economy, and in today’s competitive marketplace there are no longer project managers
but ONLY project leaders. There are no longer cut and dry, formulaic, off-the shelf
project plans that a project manager can copy and paste into a new project plan and

share with others using collaboration software. They can no longer update a couple of
tasks, resources and dates and then sit back and fire off one email missive after another
demanding status updates and informing people they are behind.

The world doesn’t work that way anymore. Project Managers (aka Project Leaders) must
get their hands dirty, become extremely familiar with collaboration, blaze through
uncharted territory for their team members to follow and carve a new way for other
teams and projects to follow behind.

So, if you are an effective project manager then you are truly leading the project and
team members from beginning to end. The following are three traits that you MUST
have as a project manager if you want to quality for this elite new position of being a
project leader.

Competence

It goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway….you need
to know what you are talking about. People are not going
to follow anyone that they feel is clueless. This is the
person that always has to check with someone else, has
not come up with an original thought for a long period of
time, or continues to make the same mistakes over and
over again. NOTE: New mistakes are OK to make, but make sure you keep these to a
minimum and learn from them immediately. How do you gain competence? The
following are a number of ways that you can gain competence as a project manager:

 Experience - It’s no surprise that experience is the best teacher. If you do
something long enough, you can’t help but get better at it. If you've been in the
same field for a number of years, or worked with the same people, or used the
same technology, then this will always result in increased competence.
 Education – Whether you went to a university, college, technical school or any
other form of education, as a matter of course this will bring with it some form of
competence and know-how. Make the most of your education and connect it
immediately to competence by applying it in your job. Adults who have gone back
to school after they've been in the workplace really know how quickly education


can catapult their career forward. They are able to apply what they learn in the
context of the business world immediately.
 Pain and mistakes – A toddler will not touch the hot stove again
after they've touched it the first time and been burned. A project manager will
not [insert your mistake here] again after they've done it the first time and have
been burned. There’s much to be said about learning from your mistakes that
directly feeds into competence.
 Learn from others – Become competent by learning from others. You don’t have
to reinvent the wheel. There doesn't need to be pride of ownership where your
brilliance, knowledge, and insight thought of everything. Use collaboration
software to share ideas and transfer knowledge. There’s just not enough time in
the day. Ask people who are more experienced than you, in different industries,
or have made mistakes so you don’t have to. Read LOTS of books about LOTS of
things. Learning from others is one of the best, fastest, and least painful ways to
shortcut the path toward competence.

Confidence

Once you have established that you know what you are
talking about…then start acting like you know what you
are talking point. There is nothing sadder than a project
manager (leader) that is suffering from a lack of
confidence. There is a quiver in their voice, a bit of
mumbling, and a hesitancy to speak up. Nobody wants to
follow somebody else that is unsure of where they are
going themselves.

How can you gain confidence? The first thing to do is to gain competence (see above).
Just by the fact that you “know your stuff” you will begin to exhibit a certain level of
confidence. Then, after a project is successful (or 2, or 3, or 100 projects are successful)
then you will begin to ooze with confidence. People will look forward to your
collaboration sessions. If you always check your facts twice and corroborate with two or
three different sources you will be able to speak from a position of authority and
confidence rather than a position of weakness and uncertainty.


Credibility

You've reached nirvana once you’ve made it this far as a project
manager. Credibility is the quality of being believable or worthy
of trust. This is when you’ve made it to the point of “I know you
may not understand that this is the best way of doing things, but
just trust me…” and they do. They put full faith and confidence in
your word because they know you know what you are talking
about, have been successful to this point, and have their best
interest at heart.

Maintain and guard your credibility with a vengeance. It takes a long time to achieve
credibility and only a couple of mistakes, miscommunication, or even a professional rival
attacking you to lose this priceless achievement in the blink of an eye.

Are you a project leader? If you’ve been a project manager for any length of time then
by default you are a project leader. There is no room for project managers that just
‘manage’. Those days are gone and lackluster project managers have been released
from their companies long ago by downsizing, layoffs and reductions in force. Maintain
your edge by bringing competence, confidence, and credibility with you wherever you
go and you’ll continue to find that you can bring value to any organization.

7 Tips for Team Collaboration on Conference Calls
The globalization of the economy has project teams that are dispersed throughout the
world effectively completing projects through collaboration online. And, more people
have realized they can be just as productive (if not more so) if they telecommute from
their home office and use online collaboration software rather than battle traffic and
delays going into the office.

Most of these changes are positive. However, these changes have also created
challenges for many Project Managers. How can you manage project teams and clients
you can’t see and keep tabs on what everyone is working on?

One method is the quintessential conference call. But, even having a conference call
that keeps everyone engaged can be elusive. The following are 7 suggestions you can


use to help your project team make the most of these calls and ensure the highest
degree of collaboration in the workplace:

1. Demand Everyone Show Up on Time
Yes, DEMAND that everyone that is on your team show up on time. Make a BIG DEAL
out of this requirement to your team. Encourage them to be there a couple minutes
early. Don’t train them that it’s OK to come late because you’ll just recap the last 20
minutes of the call they missed and waste everyone else’s time. The purpose of these
meetings is for group collaboration, and they are part of the group! No excuses. If they
know they are going to be late, a quick email, text, phone call, instant message or any
other form of communication is all it takes for them to let you know.

2. Have Team Members Run Part of the Meeting
Looking to keep everyone engaged? Assign team members to run part of the meeting.
This could range anywhere from having them provide a web conference update to
moderating part of the team collaboration discussion. This will not only keep them
engaged, but allow them to know how important it is for them to be tuned into the call
when other people are talking.

3. Say Their Name Before you Ask Them a Question
We all know that no matter how hard we try, it’s irresistible to not catch up on our
email, book a flight, or plan out the next week while we are on a call. Then we hear a
deafening moment of silence followed by “Jim, hey Jim…You there? Can you answer
that question please?” To which Jim replies, “I’m sorry, could you repeat the question?”
leaving out the part about “I didn’t hear it because I wasn’t really paying attention”.

As professionals we shouldn’t allow that to happen to us. But, what you can do as a
Project Manager that is running the call is simply state someone’s name before the
question is asked, or send them a quick instant message through collaboration software
that the conversation is heading their way. This alerts them to tune in, pay rapt
attention and provide an insightful response.

4. Learn How to Use the Mute Button
This is a pet peeve of mine and a variation of #3 above. A question is asked of Jim, and
this time he has the mute button on. Jim is talking away but nobody can hear him. This

elicits “Jim, hey Jim…You there…?” which is followed by “Sorry, I was on mute…” and a
coy giggle. Really? It’s not funny and the fact that this is the 12th time Jim has done this
really kind of makes him look silly.

The opposite of this is true as well. Make sure your mute button is on when it needs to
be. Nobody wants to hear conversations with family members, kids screaming, or
whatever other activity is going on at that time that should not be introduced to the
workplace.

5. Don’t Type and Talk
Nothing says “I’m not listening to you” more than hearing the clickety-clack of keys
typing away in the background with some perfunctory “uh-huhs”, “oh right”, and
“really?” thrown in along the way. It’s just rude, disrupts the rest of the call and does
nothing to help with collaboration in teamwork.

6. Instant Message Behind the Scenes
Instant messaging (IM) is a great tool, especially if there is a conference call with a client
where a sensitive matter is being discussed. Keep an IM thread going on in the
background with your team for quick clarification of facts as well as potential
commitments to deadlines or deliverables. This real time communication tool is great
for presenting and providing a united front as well as instant collaboration.

7. Get Yourself a Decent Headset
If you are on a lot of conference calls, invest in a decent headset that you can plug into
computer or phone. Not only do they sound crystal clear, but they will also save you the
discomfort and strain of having your neck bent all day long.

The ability to manage teams virtually is no longer just a “nice to have” skill for a project
manager. More and more, people are coming together while working at remote
locations for brief periods of time to accomplish an objective and then disband again.
The ability to effectively manage a conference call is critical for the success of such
group collaboration and something that every Project Manager will need to master.


When Good Project Collaboration Meetings Go Bad
Project collaboration meetings are a key ingredient to the success of any project. This is
the opportunity you have to get everyone together that has a say on the project. It
could be in the early planning stages of a project, or resolving an issue that has
presented itself, to closing a project out. Regardless of the time period, project
collaboration meetings are just good form when it comes to successfully managing a
project.

But what do you do when good project collaboration meetings go bad? We’ll discuss
some of the circumstances that could arise in these meetings and what you can do as a
project manager to get everyone back to collaborating.

The Demographics of a Project Collaboration Meeting
Let’s talk about what a project collaboration meeting looks like first. Typically, you will
be running this meeting as the project manager. That means that you need to have
done your homework up-front and assembled the necessary collateral to have a
productive meeting. You need to have a clear understanding of the topic that is being
discussed as well as the goal of the meeting in mind. This is important, otherwise, you
may find yourself at the end of the meeting not even touching upon the very purpose
that the meeting was put together.

An agenda is a must, especially if there are a
number of people involved in the meeting. This
should list the topic being covered, who will be
presenting it and how long they will have to
present their information. It is good to
schedule some extra time into the meeting to
compensate for someone who may be a bit
long-winded or a particularly thorny issue is raised.

It is still your job as a project manager to keep everyone on track and ask the long-
winded presenters to use a little less wind, but many times conversation will come up
that is relevant and important and needs to be covered at that time. The point is, don’t
jam 2-hours of material into 2-hours of time. Rather, put 1 hour and 45 minutes into 2
hours of time. The worst thing that can happen is you end the project collaboration


meeting 15 minutes early. Nobody has ever complained about getting 15 minutes of
their life back!

Additionally, prepping everybody prior to the meeting helps ensure that everyone
knows what the meeting is about, the desired outcome, and what their part is in making
the meeting a success.

How to Make Collaboration Work
The novelty of remote workers has worn off. It’s time to get down to business…virtually.
This recent switch and viewpoint toward the workforce has caused some concern for
Project Managers who now wonder what project collaboration looks like with teams
that are dispersed in multiple locations and time zones.

What is collaboration in the first place? Collaboration is the ability for people to work
together towards a common purpose to achieve business benefit. Sounds very noble
and inspirational, doesn’t it? It’s great to be connected to a group of people that are
working together toward a common purpose.

Everyone pulls in the same direction, has each other’s back, and has a mutual feeling of
pride and accomplishment once the task at hand is complete. These are your peers who
you have been through the good and bad times, stayed late at night together, traveled
together and put forth that extra effort necessary to get the job done.

But, what if you never see these people? What is collaboration in the new virtual work
environment that is becoming more common every day? Is it even possible?

Yes. Online collaboration with a virtual environment is possible. It’s just a little different
and requires a bit more effort. The following are some guidelines you can keep in mind
when it comes to project collaboration with a virtual team.

Know Your Team
It takes a self-disciplined, self-motivated, and self-energized person to be able to work
remote. Not everyone is able to handle the responsibility that comes when they are put
in that environment, and many do not enjoy being away from the core team. If you
know the strengths and weaknesses of your team you can choose which team members
will thrive in a remote environment and which ones will sputter and not succeed. If you


don’t start with a strong foundation of those who can be successful working remotely,
then you certainly won’t be able to maximize your collaborative efforts.

Keep in Touch
It’s up to you as a Project Manager to keep in touch with everyone on your team. You
need to take the lead when it comes to collaboration, and what is collaboration without
people knowing what is going on? Disconnects will arise if you only meet with your
remote team members during scheduled virtual meetings. Team members may be
reluctant to bring up topics that need to be addressed in a group setting. Make sure to
set up individual conversations, incorporate these into your Communication Plan and
use collaborative technologies that are available such as webinars and video
conferencing.

Conduct Effective Virtual Meetings
A big part of working successfully and collaboratively with remote workers has to do
with how effectively conference calls and virtual meetings are conducted. People need
to view meetings they attend remotely just as important, if not more so, than the ones
they attend in person. It’s hard to sneak into a face-to-face meeting without everyone
knowing you are late, disrupting the meeting while you are finding a seat, and then
getting caught up with what everyone has already discussed. This frustration is
compounded when you add the element of distance, not being in the same building or
not being able to get in touch with someone who is critical to the call. These are all
collaboration killers.

Reward Collaborative Behavior
If you are fortunate enough to have someone on the team who is used to collaborating
virtually and is very effective at it, make sure you reward and reinforce this behavior.
Maybe they share their screen every chance they get, or send out files ahead of time to
make sure everyone is on the same page, literally. Catch people doing this type of thing
correctly and make a big deal out of it the next time you get together.

Use the Best Collaborative Tools
What is collaboration effectiveness if you can’t see or work on the same documents or
materials together? The trick is finding which tools are the best ones to use. How can
this be done? First, you need to start with your objectives. Do you just need the ability

to set-up conference calls every now and then or do you need full-fledged video
conferencing where the team members can see each other?

Next, you need to determine the size of your typical team and the budget you are able
to spend. The good news is that for smaller teams (5-7 people) there are numerous free
options out there that range from Skype, to Free Conference Call, to AnyMeeting for
web and video conferences.

Finally, understand how these tools work and make the most out of them. Work out the
kinks before a “real” meeting takes place. Set up a meeting for the purpose of
understanding and testing the functionality of whichever platform you have chosen.
There is nothing worse than fumbling through technical glitches for 10 minutes before
everyone can get up and running and move on to the business at hand.

What are “the best” tools to use? There really is no one answer to that question. There
are so many “really good” tools on the market today that it becomes a matter of
understanding your personal preference, budget, and collaboration needs. What’s
important is that they work for you and your team.

Be the Person that Sets the Lead
As the Project Manager you need to make sure that you take every opportunity to work
with and collaborate with others towards a common purpose. This becomes challenging
in a virtual environment, but it is certainly not impossible. Make it a point to show
others how to collaborate, what the benefits of collaboration are, and how some of the
obstacles can be overcome in this new work environment.

Provide for Face-to-Face Meetings
If it's within your authority and budget, there is nothing like getting this online team
together every now and then for face-to-face collaboration sessions. If you have worked
well virtually up to this point, you will see the effectiveness of your team’s collaboration
skyrocket after these face-to-face opportunities. Embrace the new working model as a
Project Manager. People are choosing to work remote for many reasons and you need
to know how to make the most of this arrangement. Mastering this skill set of managing
and collaborating with remote teams is another skill you can add to your resume that
will serve you very well in the future.


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