Software Development and Project Management 2.0

Project Management is the discipline of planning, organising and managing ressources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. A project team works together to achieve one collective goal. Activities have to be coordinated and the classical way of coordination is hierarchy. A project leader is responsible for the project result, quality and time management. Teamleads and team members are executing assigned tasks.
Software development projects are usually very complex. This complexity requires that specialists work collaboratively together with two main consequences for the conventional project management and hierachical structures:

1. The project leader may not be able to assess project tasks as this would require more special expertise.
2. The project leader may not be able to assign tasks as he may only know WHAT has to be done but may not know HOW a task has to be done. The project team, consisting of specialists, should divide and assign tasks as they are better aware of the strengths of each team member.

Furthermore is hierarchy in software development to some extend outmoded, inflexible and static. Unmotivated employees and frustration impede creativity and flexibility.

What is project management 2.0 and what are the benefits?

Similar to the principles of Enterprise 2.0, new agile software development methods require a rethinking of classical structures and is defined by the following elements:

1. Self organisation of project teams
2. Team work and collaboration
3. Transparency of intermediate results
4. Decentralisation of coordination

A good and emerging example of (social) agile software development is SCRUM. SCRUM is an agile software development framework and has emerged as the most successful agile development process for organizations, developers and executives alike and is used by more than 500 companies worldwide. Work is structured in cycles of work called sprints, iterations of work that are typically two to four weeks in duration.

Scrum process

During each sprint, teams pull from a prioritized list of customer requirements, called user stories, so that the features that are developed first are of the highest value to the customer. At the end of each sprint, a potentially shippable product is delivered.

SCRUM has three roles, the SCRUM Master, the product owner and the team. The team organises itself. No project manager is needed anymore, as the team is responsible to achieve project goals collaboratively. Thus, tasks have to be assigned and finished by the responsible team member. This requires appropriate collaboration tools to support the team to be up to date, to collaborate and to share knowledge.

The SRUM for you blog has a list of SCRUM tools available, updated regularly.

Scrumy is web based and provides the basis version for free. The tool is very easy to use, contains a backlog and user stories can be moved from one sprint to the next. Scrumy posts program updates regularly on Twitter and has a company blog.

SpiraPlan is a complete Agile Project Management System in one package, that manages project’s requirements, releases, iterations, tasks and bugs/issues. In addition, SpiraPlan provides reporting dashboards of key project progress and risk indicators – task progress, effort slippage, project velocity, task burndown/burnup, top risk and issues – in one consolidated view. Since it is web based, teams can collaborate in real time had have up to the minute visibility of the project status. The web application provides the complete picture of a project accessible for all stakeholders and has an integrated documentation management. Tasks can be allocated and estimated and the dashboard contains all key information.

Screen SpiraPlan

There are much more interesting SCRUM tools and SCRUM for you has evaluated many of them. The descriptions available can provide good support for finding the right software for SCRUM projects.

Corporate benefits of Enterprise 2.0

Enterprise 2.0 is the term used to describe how a Web 2.0 approach can be used to work more collaboratively together in business. Harvard professor Andrew McAfee coined the phrase Enterprise 2.0, defining it:

“The use of emergent social software platforms within companies or between companies and their partner or customers.”

Enterprise 2.0 gives people the capability to create, modify and mange information with ease. Using simple web-based tools, relevant and up-to-date the knowledge within the organisation can be found and shared efficiently. It increases innovation, team productivity and agility.

Enterprise 2.0 is not just about technology, however there are many technologies that are enablers for the Enterprise 2.0 approach. Below are descriptions of the most popular, and how they can be used within businesses.

2.0 Platforms

* Blog
A personal or corporate website in the form of an online journal. Blogs are used to distribute frequently changing information or ideas and opinions, often incorporating links to other articles. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs, forming a place for people to discuss ideas and share opinions.

Examples of Blogs used in business:
- Project updates / Product updates
- Corporate communications
- Idea generation/discussion/Innovation

* Wiki
A collaborative website that can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. Collaborative authoring and information sharing can provide affordable and effective Knowledge Management platforms. Wikipedia is probably the best known example of an Internet-based Wiki.

Examples of Wikis used in business:
- Corporate intranet
- Documentation repository
- Knowledge sharing
- Team authoring

* Social (or Shared) Bookmarking
Social bookmarking systems are used to organize, and manage web-browser bookmarks. Bookmarks can be organised with informal tags. The combination of sharing and tags enables people with similar interests to uncover websites that they may have otherwise missed. This enables a far greater number of bookmarks to be effectively managed than the traditional browser-based folders approach.

Examples of Social Bookmarking used in business:
- Tracking and sharing for research groups
- Marketing analysis including SEO/SEM research
- Individual bookmark management

* Social Networking
Social Networking is the building of online communities (or networks) of people who share similar interests and activities. These services provide a collection ways for people to connect and interact, such as chat, messaging, file/photo sharing, or discussion groups.

Examples of Social Networking used in business:
- Find experts via profiles and searching
- Form teams with the right skill sets

* Mashups
Mashups are methods of combining multiple data-sources to deliver rich web-based content. Content used in mashups is often sourced from a third party via a public interface, RSS feed or API. The use of Google-Maps is probably the best known example of an Internet-based mashup, where websites display an embedded map on the same web-page as their location/address details.

Examples of Social Networking used in business:
- Combine data from new and legacy systems
- Enable end-user to combine information for analysis

Benefits for organisations to use corporate web 2.0 technologies are not easily quantifiable. Below some benefits are listed from a qualitative point of view, together with three case studies of successful Enterprise 2.0 companies.

* Openness encourages participation
The Enterprise 2.0 approach promotes open communications that encourage respect and participation, even across geographic and cultural boundaries. Access to knowledge empowers and motivates people to strive towards common goals together.

* Greater knowledge capture and sharing
Unlike information locked-up in email and discrete documents, centrally captured knowledge is easier to find and use when people actually need it. It is more likely to be up to date, and it can be fully searched by all who have access.

* Transparency
Data redundancies can be avoided as the data are centralised and accessible for all relevant stakeholders. This approach avoides that employee create their own, local data that may be obsolete in the meantime.

* Recruit and keep talented employees
High calibre people are attracted to companies using cutting edge technology. This is especially true for ‘Generation Y’ (today’s 18–25 year olds) who already use these technologies in their everyday lives and expect to be able to use them in the workplace too.

* Greater efficiency and less duplication
Diverse, distributed workforce is able to work together efficiently on projects. Information is more accessible, and subject-matter-experts can be found quickly. This avoids duplicated effort and saves time, leading to greater efficiency and improved productivity.

* Information sharing for corporate knowledge management
Information are web-based and accessible from all over the world. Employees on business trips can use them as well as field staff with home office.

The following three case studies demonstrate examples of organisations which have adopted Enterprise 2.0 principles and technologies successfully:

Intrawest case study
In April 2006, Intrawest Placemaking undertook a bold technical initiative focused on empowering individual employees. Using OpenRoad Communication’s ThoughtFarmer social software, they built a democratic, collaborative communication platform that could capture the company’s intellectual capital and strengthen the workplace community. The result was a read/ write, employee-maintained internal web site that has permanently changed the way the company interacts.
OpenRoad’s primary goal with ThoughtFarmer is simple: turn all users into authors. All employees at Placemaking can add, edit and annotate content on the ThoughtFarmer-powered intranet. With the exception of a few policy documents, Placemaking’s intranet is a completely open, malleable, living collection of current thoughts, processes and key learnings.

By turning every user into a contributor, OpenRoad envisioned several benefits for Intrawest Placemaking:

Fewer barriers to knowledge sharing. By letting users publish their own content with only a few clicks, they would be less likely to hoard knowledge and more likely to share it.

No distortion in knowledge transfer. Ideas would be exchanged person-to-person, in one step, eliminating distortion and filtering.

An increase in employee engagement. Users that could add and edit content would feel a sense of ownership over their intranet. Because the leadership of Placemaking would be putting considerable trust in employees, employees would, in turn, be more likely to trust the company and its leaders.

Self-healing content. If a user saw an error, he or she would be able to fix it immediately, reducing inaccuracies.

No excessive burden on a couple of administrators. The users would be the editors. Content maintenance would no longer require a dedicated team.

Placemaking has six regional offices in Canada, the United States, and Europe in addition to the Corporate Home Office. Most of the over 250 employees at these offices have never met face to face. But ThoughtFarmer has brought these people together and helped them to feel like part of a community, rather than just employees of the same organization.
As employees upload photos, amusing anecdotes, and reveal more of their individuality and personality, the popularity of the intranet continues to build.

General Motors Case study
General Motors FastLane was one of the first blogs personally written by a senior executive. On FastLane, GM’s Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz and others share their thoughts and opinions about the automaker’s product line. Recently, GM has used its blogs to correct biased or inaccurate reporting in the mainstream media. The primary goal of the blog is discussing GM products and a team of 6 people – all with other responsibilities – work on the blog.

But it’s also important to set expectations in corporate blogging. The blog is a product blog, and it had to be clear that the blog was not going to respond to other issues such as policies or customer service issues. Once that was clear, readers understood that GM is keeping on topic, but doesn’t ignore inquiries. If a reader posts an issue for customer service, it is forwarded, but not posted.

Results of creating and maintaining the blog: In line with the overall goal, GM is now more responsive to customers. Instead of acting on hunches, they are more in touch with people. In addition, the company has opened up more internally, and there is more interest in experimenting with new media.

Casio case study
To improve the way Casio Ltd. employees and departments communicated with each other, and to provide a faster way to make content changes, a flexible communications platform was required. After researching various CMS tools, blogs seemed to be the perfect answer. Casio selected Movable Type for its smooth integration into Casio’s existing systems, the freedom it would give employees to communicate with one another, and the ease with which changes could be made to new and existing content.

Since using Movable Type-powered blogs, Casio has enjoyed easier content changes and increased communication. For instance, the person in charge of “company notifications” was able to change settings after only 5 minutes of training. The sales department reduced the time and work needed to update content. And as Watabe Sho from advertising added, “categories and archives are made automatically. People have conversations around our Digital Photo Gallery, increasing both posts and conversation.”
Casio’s managers use the blog to communicate directly to employees in order to lessen the gap between them. Currently, the director of the Operations Department disseminates information via a blog; communication is streamlined, and efficiencies are improved. In addition, Casio’s Hanemura Technology Center in Tokyo uses blogs to promote new and original ideas and very easily post thoughts. This allows previously unpublicized knowledge to be shared, information to circulate, and new ideas to emerge.

Casio states that they could achieve the following goals:
- Faster, more direct communication among departments and employees
- Easier idea exchange and increased idea generation
- More efficient implementation of changes

The three case studies show how companies can profit from using Enterprise 2.0 benefits. It is not necessary at all, to implement all web 2.0 technologies at the same time. Startig with a wiki or a blog allows organisations first experiences and initial learnings. Further social elements can be added later, if appropriate.

Powerless Tweets – Large German companies fail using Twitter

I mentioned in some of my prior posts that web 2.0 tools might be used differently by European companies, compared to the States or Australia. Last week one of the most popular newspapers in Germany, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, published an article about Twitter accounts of the largest DAX indexed organisations, most of them active in the global market. According to this report, more than half of all DAX indexed companies use Twitter for public communications but what they are doing there is far away from their American competitors.

The future will show if the 30 German DAX indexed companies can go uphill

Recently in the Empire State Building, some business people are tweeting that they are up for some ice cream. The local ice cream seller reacts quickly and effectively and fulfils their desire. Many US companies use the potential of Twitter, some of the best and famous examples are Dell, General Motors or Comcast.

Dell has more than 30 accounts, each of it targeted to a project, issue or target group. 1,200,000 followers are based only on one DellOutlet account and additional three million dollars revenue are achieved, according to Dell.

Are German organisations able to leverage Twitter in the same manner? The agency Zucker Kommunikation und Blätterwald determined the Twitter usage of German companies in Summer 2009 and found out that more than half of the 30 DAX indexed companies have an active Twitter account. But most of the Twitter attempts seem to be without any meaningful strategy or concept. These companies average 673 followers, 350 follow ups and 13 tweets per week, a gag compared to the number of customers or employees.

Twitter use of German companies

Best case organisations are Lufthansa and Daimler. After a bumpy start while Lufthansa used Twitter for online advertisements, they tweet useful information in the meantime such as tips, updates or delays. Daimler has targeted Twitter accounts, for example “Daimler-News” or “Daimler Career“.

Allianz has an own Twitter account since April 2009 with 230 followers. The figure is ridiculous compared to the large organisation, but Allianz focusses on personal exchange with the goal of a better relationship to customers.

Siemens is not represented at Twitter at all. For them, “Twitter is more a medium for communication between individuals rather than for the dispersion of corporate-messages” (Speaker Constantin Birnstiel). But Twitter is observed and might be used for events.

The car manufacturer BMW goes similar ways. Speaker Micaela Sandstede states: “We are not sure if Twitter is only a hype.” Two international accounts for the brand Mini are used for tests.

The Commerzbank is a bank without a company account. The communication department told the newspaper Süddeutsche, some employees use Twitter in their spare time. That should be enough.

Most of the mentioned organisations use Twitter only for a short while. The Twitter community in Germany grows and has about 100.000 active tweeders with double-digit growth monthly. It is recommended that companies start using Twitter as soon as possible as they might make mistakes in the beginning. Better to do them now than doing then when most customers and stakeholders are active on Twitter.

Google Wave – the new form of business collaboration?

Recently Google has introduced their new google wave platform with big media frenzy and on the 30th of September the test pool was released. Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. The code is open sourced as a way to encourage the developer community to get involved and Google invites developers to add all kinds of cool stuff before the public launch.

PC World published on the day of release an interesting article about “Five Reasons to Dive Into Google Wave”.Google Wave is part social networking, and part unified communications, and all Google. Wave combines email, instant messaging, blogging, document sharing, wikis, and multimedia content to provide a seamless communications platform. The main benefits are ‘single point of access’, ‘next-generation communication’, ‘real time sharing and collaboration’, ‘the waves lives on and all wave members are updated in time’, ‘the wave is in the cloud and has web access’.

The fantastic post of Siegler provides a comprehensive overview about the features and functionalities with supporting screens and explanations. It is really worth a read. Another wunderful description of “the top 6 game changing features of Google Wave” was written by Ben Parr.

Wiki style functionality
While Google Wave works a lot like email or IM, there is a huge difference: you can edit not only your messages, but the messages of anybody within your wave. You can reply to messages within a conversation string and reorganize conversations.

Wave extensions
There are two types: gadgets and robots. Gadgets are just like Facebook applications, so you can run an app like an online game or a project management tool from within Wave. Robots are smart, automated conversation participants. They can detect keywords and respond, bring in outside information from services like Twitter and more.

Drag and drop file uploads
In email, you have to search for files, and then attach them before sending. Then you need to open them up when you actually receive the email. Google Wave ignores that entire process by allowing users to drag files from the desktop and dropping them. Anyone can then see the files as they’re being uploaded. Images are shown in an album format, music can be played, and docs can be quickly shared.

Wave embeds
Wave Embeds is just like what it says – you can embed any wave onto a website. Embeds can be customized and used for a multitude of purposes.

Playback
If you’re added to an email conversation late into the game, it can be a pain to parse all of the back-and-forth within an email conversation. With Wave’s playback feature, you can actually see how the entire conversation developed from the start, making it incredibly easy to catch up on conversations.

Open source
Google Wave is not only extendable, but is an open-source project. This means two big things. First, developers can build their own version of Google Wave. Second, Google Wave can be hosted on your own server – just like an Exchange email server.

All this sounds like Google Wave will bring the new form of communication. But how can all this be used by business? Are there efforts to combine Google Wave with other business tools to absorb the full power of communication and collaboration?

The ability to interact in real-time collaborative conversations, record and playback discussion & decision making, Google Wave for business will quite simply ‘blow away’ most current online project management tools, as stated by Entropy Digital. But even though Google Wave is a powerful competitor for many tools, it offers opportunities which should be discovered in an early stage. SAP for example has already developed a prototype of Gravity, a tool for collaborative Business Process Modelling within Google Wave. Gravity is embedded as a Google Wave “gadget” that can be added within the Google Wave client. Leveraging the collaborative features of Google Wave, all business process modelling activities get propagated in near real-time to all other participants of the Wave. In addition, participants of the Wave can use all other features provided by Google and its developer community to enrich the collaborative modelling experience.

Travel agencies could embedd booking extensions to Google Wave and magazines or newspaper can update their clients within a wave. It remains thrilling and in the end stays the question: Do you think it will succeed?