By Rainer Volz
A Personal Viewpoint
Someone approached me recently, asking whether web-based tools would be still appropriate nowadays. The context of the question was more general communication and collaboration technology, but it made me think also about this special market sector, team communication and project management. The term "web-based" here means accessing resources in the Internet or an intranet using web browsers - mostly visual, sometimes including audio and video.
Such web-based PM tools are around since the late 1990s. The first big commercial PM application of this kind was WebProject. WebProject was acquired in 2000 by Novient (now Solution 6), but looking at the development of the market sector as a whole since then Marc O'Brien - once WebProject's CEO - finds: "In the three years there really has been little tangible advancement"
And he seems to be right there. If you look at the features provided by most PM applications there wasn't so much progress since then: document management, discussion forum, contacts, calendar, gantt charts, MS Project interface, customisable document and HTML templates - these are the core features offered by many tools on the market. The development has been evolutionary, in sync with developments in the underlying technology, the web browsers and servers. The usability and accessibility of the PM solutions increased with the slowly increasing functionality and standardisation of web browsers. Technologically restricted by the main access channel, the web browser, vendors concentrated more on customising the solutions for different industries and levels (single project,multi-project, portfolio management).
So there are now a number of relatively mature web-based products that -although technically restricted - even enable us to manage geographically dispersed projects, what should make them seem inadequate? The question at the beginning of this article was provoked by looking at new technologies like IM (instant messaging) and P2P (peer-to-peer). Could it be that products based on these technologies provide more, better functionality for team communication and will replace the now traditional browser-based tools?
Well, it depends. The browser-based tools are best in situations where centralised data storage and asynchronous communication are required. Their relatively low hardware/software requirements - just the browser - make them attractive for cost-sensitive managers. Drawbacks could be the need to be constantly online and the lack of support for synchronous communication. I wrote "could be" because the importance of these factors depends on the project's situation. Intranet users won't have the connectivity problem, while their external partners or mobile colleagues might have them, feeling disconnected. The same with synchronous/asynchronous communication: if you are managing a high-intensity development project you will look for every possibility to communicate with your team in a direct way, someone managing outsourcing contracts might be content to receive status reports and answers to questions via web and will solve problems during the occasional visit or phone conversation.
Products based on IM or P2P technologies address the problem areas of web-based tools. IM products offer synchronous communication and presence. The presence functionality shows who is available for communication - creates some group feeling - and the synchronous communication allows you to solve problems in direct conversation. P2P technologies provide decentralised data storage and can be useful in two ways in a project context: Users with connectivity problems can use them to work offline, synchronising their work later with the central server. In other cases a centralised document storage is not even desired, because of the administrative effort to set it up, security considerations when working across organisational boundaries, or simply because of a lack of trust between equal partners (early negotiation phase, mergers ...). There a shared, but decentralised project room, giving everybody the same access to the data might be a better alternative.
So, from my point of view, currently IM and P2P products complement the existing web-based infrastructure, they don't replace it. Traditional web-based tools are adequate for the majority of projects and provide the backbone functionality to work with documents and to communicate, but IM and P2P add functionality that is more and more required, and for some projects a decentralised P2P solution might be much better. Vendors are recognising the developments and offer some of the functionality mentioned already in their enterprise-level management software, while this is rare for ASP offerings.
The Select Committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom has published a first report "Improving the Delivery of Government IT Projects ".The Introduction and Recommendations are included here in full with a link to the report
"Introduction And Conclusions And Recommendations
| 1. Citizens have many relationships with the Government, for example, as taxpayers, benefit recipients, patients in hospital, travellers in or out of the country, or contributors to the state pension scheme. Successfully implemented, information technology (IT) enables Government to respond to the needs and expectations of citizens in these areas, and allows citizens to fulfil their obligations to the state quickly and effectively. For this to happen, however, Government departments must have the IT systems in place and working. However, for more than two decades, implementing IT systems successfully has proved difficult for a number of them." |
"3. Our key conclusions and recommendations are that:
Decisions about IT are crucial to the development and success of the business of public bodies, and cannot be treated in isolation from other aspects of their work. Failure to deliver an IT system can have a profound effect on an organisation's ability to provide services to its customers. Key decisions on IT systems are, therefore, business decisions, not technical ones, and should involve senior management. And the commitment of senior management can be a critical factor in securing a successful outcome. |
Projects are conceived and grow from identified business needs. However, what seems a clear objective at the beginning can easily become blurred and confused as events progress. The end users must be identified before the project commences so that their needs are taken into account fully during design and development. |
The scale and complexity of projects is a major influence on whether they succeed or fail. Departments should consider carefully whether projects are too ambitious to undertake in one go. This consideration is particularly important if a project connects with the business operations of other parties, or depends on the development of IT undertaken by other parties. |
The management and oversight of IT projects by skilled project managers is essential for ensuring that projects are delivered to time and budget. But the successful implementation of IT systems calls for imagination and well-conceived risk management, as well as sound project management methodologies. |
The increasing use of complex external contracts for the delivery of major public sector IT projects and the supply of strategic IT services has highlighted the need for a high degree of professionalism in the definition, negotiation and management of IT contracts. It is essential that public sector bodies get the right contracts in place. With large sums of public money at stake, any lack of clarity, or debatable interpretation in a contract can lead to expensive misunderstandings that might have to be resolved in the courts. |
The implementation of an IT system is not an end in itself. It is important that sufficient attention is paid to ensuring that staff know how to make full and proper use of it. Without this it is unlikely that the anticipated business benefits will be realised. Training of staff can take up considerable resources, often a significant proportion of the overall cost of the project. Training must address the needs of users, and of those operating and maintaining the system. |
As well as wasting enormous sums of public money, failures in IT can have disabling impacts on public services and on citizens. These have included the failure to pay social security benefits to vulnerable people and major delays in issuing people their passports. In addition to planning and managing projects positively, Departments should therefore have contingency plans in place to maintain adequate levels of service in the event of project failures. |
It is essential that organisations learn lesson from the projects undertaken. A post-implementation review is designed to establish the extent to which they have secured the business benefits anticipated. The review may encompass whether the project has met its business objectives, user expectations and technical requirements." |