There’s a sea change going on – a quiet revolution in the way we work as teams. Successful virtual teams, without question, have been on the forefront of this change. But co-located teams are also beginning to reap the benefits of a new way of working.

When Meetings Ruled the Day

To decode the secret, let’s start by examining a simple concept that traditionally has been critical to teams:  meetings.

Back in the 90’s, most work, status, decisions, and deals happened in meetings.  Meetings were the way things got done. In the days or hours leading up to the meeting, we would prepare bits and pieces of collateral to present or reference in the meeting. We compiled agendas, collected status updates, drafted documents, and printed out static plans. Project managers used their powers to exert control over the process in an effort to move the ball forward.

Then at the appointed time, everyone would gather, spend a couple hours talking about what was prepared, and try to make some decisions. More often, they would end up making provisional decisions, after which they’d disband before coming back together a few weeks later with revised information and the same constituents in the room again. Picture the people as the sun - the collateral orbited around them and their gatherings.  

Virtual Team, Virtual Office

Today that scenario, for many teams, is turned on its head.  Instead of the project collateral orbiting around the people, people orbit around project collateral that is centralized in an online workspace. This configuration supports our modern workspace, which is – for a vast number of teams – virtual. People are distributed across the globe, are in different time zones, and come and go as projects are executed.

"Information technology should enable government to better serve the American people. But despite spending more than $600 billion on information technology over the past decade, the Federal Government has achieved little of the productivity improvements that private industry has realized from IT. Too often, Federal IT projects run over budget, behind schedule, or fail to deliver promised functionality. Many projects use “grand design” approaches that aim to deliver functionality every few years, rather than breaking projects into more manageable chunks and demanding new functionality every few quarters. In addition, the Federal Government too often relies on large, custom, proprietary systems when “light technologies” or shared services exist.

Government officials have been trying to adopt best practices for years – from the Raines Rules of the 1990s through the Clinger Cohen Act and the acquisition regulations that followed. But obstacles have always gotten in the way. This plan attempts to clear these obstacles, allowing agencies to leverage information technology to create a more efficient and effective government."

-Vivek Kundra, U.S. Chief Information Officer, 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management, December 9, 2010

"There is no best content management system. But there is probably a good CMS for what you’re trying to do. You need to do your homework and find the right fit. It's not something you put on a wishlist for Santa to take care of."

- Irina Guseva, 10 Common CMS Implementation Mistakes, CMSWire.com, December 16, 2010

While researching ECM, you’ve probably read some discouraging statistics about IT project failures, ranging anywhere from 30% to 50%. Gartner analyst Mark Gilbert recently noted that over 30% of ECM projects do not realize full success, according to discussions held with clients during 2008.¹ Building the right team, identifying and articulating project goals, and making appropriate software choices are critical, but they don’t guarantee success. Although there are numerous reasons for project failure, I’m going to jump on the bandwagon of change management as one of the root causes, and ride it through the final article of this series.

Project management and change management are integral to project success, but it’s important to differentiate them:

• Project management consists of planning, organizing, and managing resources to enable successful completion of a specific project.
• Change management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals, managers, teams, and organizations from their current situation to a desired future state.

Change management planning revolves around a specific, well-defined, measurable, realistic, and achievable project. Managing change starts at the beginning – during the planning stage – and runs through a project’s conclusion, addressing the gradual transition and ongoing support of employees charged with implementation. Those who recognize its importance typically do it well, but too many others make major investments in IT without planning for change. Technology cannot be effective unless people know how to use it effectively and embrace it.

Change Management: Six Steps to Success

1. Assess change readiness

If you want everyone rowing the same boat, the issues have to be on the table. Every concern – no matter how small it seems – should be considered from the employee perspective. What are resistance points? Are your employees:

• Unclear why changes are needed? Unsure changes will help the company fulfill its mission or achieve its goals?
• Clear about the purpose, but unsupportive? If so, why? Are they:
  • Anxious about transitioning away from familiar manual processes?
  • Afraid some of their documents will be lost permanently?
  • Reluctant to expose existing procedural weaknesses?
  • Fearful they won’t receive needed training and might fail?
  • Worried automation will destroy their creativity and autonomy?

A team approach to discussing and resolving these issues is paramount to success.

It’s ShowTime again, the project manager looks grim, the programmer struts in “I’m gonna break ya” … the designer stares him down, the bell rings… smackdown, and its only morning tea break!

If your design studio resembles a scene from wrestlemania, take heart, you’re not alone!  There is mortal combat out there between two creative forces butting heads over the creation of an online masterpiece. The Project manager aka “the Ref” is breaking into a sweat over burgeoning budgets, wasted time and a design project that looks light-years from delivery.

The two parties that pay for the showdown, the client and the design studio owner, are stuck in the audience looking on wringing hands, the anxiety levels are rising. The problem is that once the cycle gets going it’s hard to stop, the lateness of delivery looks bad to the client, upcoming projects get pushed back to a later starting date. Clients complain and do your business untold damage as your reputation wavers.  Stress levels peak at all levels of your business, even the work experience kid is having a crap time, productivity and staff moral are non-existent, and the boss is sweaty palmed and manic. Profits dry up, no movie night this month for the staff, hey that’s cool, they hate each other anyway.

So why the opposition?

Packt is pleased to announce PHP Team Development, a new book that helps PHP developers work effectively as a team by breaking up complex PHP projects into manageable sub-parts. Written by Samisa Abeysinghe, this book is a precise guide with examples to illustrate practical benefits and to effectively use PHP frameworks to achieve project success.

PHP is a widely used, general-purpose scripting language that was originally designed for web development, to produce dynamic web pages. This free software can be embedded into HTML and generally runs on a web server, which needs to be configured to process PHP code and create web page content from it. PHP has evolved to include a command line interface capability and can also be used in standalone graphical applications.

The PHP Team Development book reduces development time by using MVC to break down complexity in PHP projects and helps catch and eliminate bugs early using source control and bug tracking tools, thereby reducing the development time. This book helps apply techniques related to process models, collaboration among team members, and continuous long-term improvement.