presentation by ashish sadekar

0 Project Management in the Collaborative Age


Mantra for leveraging Emerging Trends

Ashish SadekarDirectorProThoughts

The Emerging Trend of Project Management

Project management has travelled a long journey and in no uncertain terms, ready for a big leap to experience a new adventure and embrace a new way of managing a project which will reap high dividends and benefits. It will multiply the chances of success. To take you back, when project management started, the major challenges as we all practitioners remember has been communications and stakeholder management. They are going to be still there but with new age technology the project manager of today and tomorrow has a lot of ammunition to take care of these challenges. The new project manager and importantly the stakeholders will glued to their smartphones and will be under pressure to have all the project data to take important decisions in the dynamic environment. Tomorrow’s project management will be shaped by this ammunition, the tools of the project manager which can help the projects to succeed. These tools will typically be on the cloud and work with a SaaS (software as a Service model) and will throw real time analytics, such as Earned Value analysis and dashboards on your smartphones. There will be strong collaborative platform perhaps integrated with your social media streams such as Facebook, etc. This paper details such a futuristic model and platform of project management.

Ashish Sadekar6/9/2014

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................ 2

DEFINITION OF COLLABORATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT............................................................................2

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AS WE KNOW IT.....................................................................................................3

THE FUTURE MODEL OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT – THE COLLABORATIVE PROJECT MANAGER......................3

COLLABORATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOL – A CASE STUDY..................................................................4

BENEFITS OF COLLABORATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT..............................................................................10

THE FUTURE - COLLABORATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT:............................................................................11


IntroductionProject management has travelled a long journey and in no uncertain terms, ready for a big leap to experience a new adventure and embrace a new way of managing a project which will reap high dividends and benefits. It will multiply the chances of success.

To take you back, when project management started, the major challenges as we all practitioners remember has been communications and stakeholder management. They are going to be still there but with new age technology the project manager of today and tomorrow has a lot of ammunition to take care of these challenges.

In fact, technology advances gives newer opportunities and also throws different and unique problems to handle. Today’s project manager will have a diverse workforce who will be physically around in the globe but always connected as if you are sitting in a war room. The days are not far when video data would be used extensively to communicate in a project scenario and would appear as a commonplace item. The need for immediate data and hence, immediate decisions in this dynamic world of multitude of stakeholders would be demanding on the project manager.

How will the today’s project manager react to this situation? How can he manage the project and yet deliver it to success. This paper will discuss the means and the only way to achieve this by working out a Collaborative way in project management, and introduce the innovative way - Project Management in Collaboration Age. This is a strong emerging trend which needs to be adopted and adapted fast in the project management world.

Welcome to the collaborative world of project management. But what exactly is this collaborative project management? What’s this buzz word that everyone’s talking about in project management circles? Is this just a buzz word or do you want to suggest that the project management was not collaborative earlier? Let’s figure out.

Definition of Collaborative Project Management

Collaborative project management is based on the principle of actively involving all project members in the planning and control process and of networking all the project members using information, communication, and collaboration modules. Management is not regarded as an activity reserved solely for managers but as an integral part of the project work of all team members.

Collaborative project management makes extensive use of localized control loops. Complex projects are broken down into smaller "more tangible" sub-systems which are then assigned to members of the relevant departments. Consequently, planning and control responsibility is assumed by those who are also responsible for project content.

Sub-plans are networked and synchronized to tie all partners into the system of planning and control and to promote a common understanding of overall planning. Changes and/or delays are communicated directly to the relevant project members without active intervention in their areas of responsibility.

The technical platform on which collaborative project management builds is a central database that makes current and consistent planning data available to all project participants wherever they may be located.


Communication and collaboration are the basis for early identification of the impact of potential problems on linked sub-projects. They create a high level of transparency and a shared awareness of quality among team members.

Project Management as we know it

Isn’t the collaborative project management applicable in the earlier era of project management or even now? What’s so new about this project management in collaborative way?

In our earlier times or even, I would not be wrong is stating that in our present times, project management as a discipline is still evolving. Project management, especially in the Indian diaspora is still evolving and is not being treated as a necessary function to deliver projects. The project management as a function and the project management knowledge is still not perceived as game changer or even a mere “changer” in the delivery of the projects.

The crux is do we manage projects in the collaborative way currently? The collaborative way is some miles ahead, however, the right people and employers are slowly recognizing the need for project management. The awareness is getting built for project management as a function in the organization. For example, one of my clients, a large pharma client is slowly recognizing the need for project management and moving from the project co-ordinating kind of work with empowering the project manager to deliver the projects successfully. They have involved all their executive directors to understand the essence of project management and investing heavily to get the right talent, right processes and the right tools to win in their projects. It is necessary for all sectors as in pharma that projects are delivered within the schedule. For example, any delay of a day in pharma means a large revenue being lost, as the pharma company gains most of the revenue share in the early launch of the product. Similarly, in the telecom industry, a day’s delay in product launch or even a marketing gimmick would result in a heavy loss of revenue or mindshare of customer. Everyone, including the IT sector is waking up to the right way of doing the project management.

To sum it up, the current project management seriously lacks collaboration and a lot of organizations are looking for the right way of doing the projects. It is time that it is quickly latches up the collaborative way of doing the projects to succeed in the projects.

The Future Model of Project Management – The collaborative project manager

As touched upon in the previous sections, tomorrow’s workforce will shift to the smartphones or video phones and will be a mobile diverse team. As a research suggests, the project team will be global workforce working in different time zones with their different culture sets and thriving in a dynamic environment. One common thread across the different culture set is the virtue of impatience; this workforce will need data on real time basis else can even be a de-motivator for the team. Can the current project manager survive with its own MS project desktop version running behind every team member for the updates. No wonder the project manager today is considered an overhead in the team and is seen as a non – value adding person providing statuses to the management.

The Collaborative age of project management will provide real time status and immediate data to take decisions in the project, among many other things. The future of the project management is the Collaborative Age of Project Management.


The collaborative project management methodology provides adequate support for the widespread practice of working in development teams with direct responsibility.

Proactive, tool-assisted communication and collaboration replace the rigid algorithms of conventional project management systems.

A central database provides current and uniform planning information for all project members – even between companies and across locations.

Clearly allocated responsibilities and interfaces promote transparency and currency of information, thus ensuring improved planning reliability and quality.

Project management sets up a top-down planning framework by defining important milestones and key data. Project members plan their work scopes independently, confirm that specified requirements have been fulfilled, and assume direct responsibility for coordination with other sub-projects.

Communication modules permit simple and intuitive networking of sub-projects and thus support rapid and transparent problem resolution processes. Changes are communicated automatically to those involved and problems are resolved by reaching mutual agreement on suitable measures.

Managing the tasks all the way through the process with a central workspace enabling the users the ability to have greater information at less cost/time. This is because it enables the team to work on what is needed and provide updates almost without thinking about it.

Having a collaboratively updated task list also allows automatic creation of burn-down charts, or other reporting; again facilitating the project manager’s role and allowing them to quickly understand if items are running late. Further, good knowledge management replaces the difficulties of file storage and hidden deposits of valuable information. Whilst a project manager may keep excellent documentation, the issue tends to come several months later when trying to find out information. Or, as we’ve all experienced, when you take over from a departing PM and have to try and pick up where they left off.

Collaboration software steps around these issues if properly managed by enabling search and by spreading the knowledge around the team as to where things are stored.

Collaborative tools are the social media of the workplace. Generally presenting as a central dashboard or workspace that everyone has access to and has a reason to use, they increase the team’s buy-in to the project rather than just their work package. These tools tend to support three key areas:

Knowledge management: Whether this is the enterprise item like SharePoint or a centrally maintained wiki, it is difficult to argue that having a central location that is searchable and collaborative is anything other than beneficial.

Running a project: One of the biggest areas that has seen a range of developments is the area of issue management. Tools allowing each task that is required to be tracked, and effort, issues logged by the person responsible for delivery and then transitioned through a proper workflow have a significant impact of how a project can be run.

Reporting & Analytics: Making sense of the data captured through the knowledge management and giving reports suiting different stakeholders tastes and preferences, leaves a satisfied customer at the end of the project. The reports and analytics provide real time updates which helps to take decisions at the right time for the right people.

Let’s understand a live case study of Project Management in Collaborative Age…

Collaborative Project Management tool – A Case Study

The collaborative way of project management can be best explained by an actual live case study where it was implemented and the benefits were clearly visible. The Project management in


Collaborative age has arrived and the below case study illustrates the point well. The case study illustrated below is for a mid-sized Gaming IT company based out of Noida, India.

Organization Background: The organization is a leading developer of high quality innovative game content and game development for the online, land-based, mobile and social gaming platforms. Its’ primary area of business is the established services sector that provides subcontracted game art and software for the industry.

Regarding the projects, it is a 200 member team and grown organically over the last 6 years. This organization is based out of Noida, New Delhi, India.

Some of the typical aspects of their projects were:

At any given moment of time, there are around of 25 -50 projects handled by 2 project managers and assisted by 3-4 team leaders.

The project team is typically of 5 member team and the duration of each of the project is around 4-5 month period.

The Project manager reports directly into the managing director and is a senior authority in the organization.

Before the collaborative way of working, the projects were managed in excel spreadsheets. The communication earlier used to happen verbally or through mails, i.e., Microsoft Outlook. The Configuration Management function happens with VSS and managed separately, and not

tied up to the projects.

Challenges: Some of the typical challenges the projects faced:

The entire effort to create, execute, track and close the project is manual which results into a lot of time and lot of mistakes.

Only a single person can track the excel sheet at any given point of time which adds to idle time and lack of collaborative effort, again leading to wastage of time and constrained time.

Excel involves a lot of macros and formulae and in case, any of the logic is modified, it takes a mammoth effort to correct and restore it to original. Maintenance of the project worksheets is quite a huge task in terms of cost and money.

A lot of time and energy is invested in communication the project updates; excel screenshot is being taken and sent to the team and the details have to be explained on 1:1 basis. Standardization and Collaboration is lacking in the projects.

Due to the lack of proper data, a lot of time in invested to get the correct data and find different trends and variances. In case of any issue, a good amount of time is invested to find the root causes and the real cause of the problem.

Due to lack of data, quality of reports is lacking.

Solution Description: For the paucity of the technical paper, the critical aspects of the collaborative way of working in the projects are highlighted. These critical features along with other ancillary functionality helped overcome the challenges and reap high value to their projects. The customer in this case, has mentioned that it helped them to get repeat business and even one of their customers wants to implement a similar way of project management.

A Central Repository of Data:Data should be stored in a single place and every element of the data should be appropriately linked to create a meaningful data.


Ability to generate Data and high quality reports: The data if mined properly should generate high quality reports and analytics for quick decision making. Attached are some of the snapshots of some critical reports used in various projects.


Executive Dashboards: Every member of the project team right upto the CEO can have its own blend of project items, called the Dashboard. The management and a team member’s dashboardsare shown below for the illustrative purpose:

Time Sheet entries linked to a particular task in the project:The time sheet entries should be linked to the particular task in the project. It should help to enter the actual as well as the billable time entries. These time entries can be shared with the appropriate approver or the customer.


Centralized Document Management System:Every document in the project is important and also, it is essential that it is linked to the deliverables or milestones in the project. It can further help to have a version history of the document with Check In and Check out flags. This helps the team to collaborate with deliverables and discussions on the deliverables in one single place and tied to the right item in the project plan.


Discussion Threads:There was a need to communicate and discuss on issues, tasks or any other items in the project. This might help to gather the data and report as organization process asset, i.e., Lessons Learnt or Retrospectives.

Budgeting and Costing: This helps to give a snapshot of the project performance in terms of cost and schedule to all the stakeholders on a real time basis.


Schedule Management: This helps the project manager to check the Critical path for the project and track time on the plan. The red bars are the critical tasks which the project should focus on.

Benefits of Collaborative Project Management

1. Speed Decisions need to be taken at the right time and in today’s world at breakneck speed, else competitor is always ahead of you. Project Management in collaborative way enables you to garner speed in your project. With speed and momentum, there are also by-products of enhanced team motivation and high energy on the projects.

2. Better Project DataOne of the greatest things about having a shared space is that everyone who is involved in the project can have access to it all at once, no matter what their level of responsibility. Brainstorming can also happen no matter where team members are located improving the quantity and quality of input.

3. Working with Distributed TeamsMany of us these days work with widely dispersed teams. In the past, that might have caused problems of some people not being fully aware of all project parameters. With a shared project space there’s no need to worry about someone being out of the loop. All project communications are saved in the project space, improving both communication and efficiency. Team members in different time zones no longer have to wait for an office to be open to track project status - they can log in to their dashboard and see.

4. Big Picture, Fine DetailThat brings us to the next point - the ability to simultaneously see the big picture and drill down to the fine detail. A collaborative project management tool allows both aspects. Online project management software can allow the managers of different sub-projects to have their own work view while still having access to the overview. If you have one overarching project on which several sub-projects depend, it’s easy to see these dependencies, assess how the projects are going and make decisions based on the overview. Goals, strategies and schedules are all beautifully organized, making it easy to keep track of accountability and performance.


5. Saving MoneyAnd let’s not forget about the financial benefits. You deliver the project well within your schedule with your planned effort, involving your stakeholders and increased customer satisfaction. This definitely augurs well for your next project, isn’t it?

The Future - Collaborative project management:

Project Management in the Collaborative has set in; the quicker the decision makers and project managers realize the better for them and their organizations. Project Management in the diverse and dynamic environment would be challenging and there is no other option, but to operate in a collaborative way to succeed in your projects.

The idea is to quickly become aware of this fact, use the collaborative way of working together, which involves the people, processes and tools to win in your projects. It is the time now to do the project in a different way. Let’s adopt and adapt – and make a new beginning and succeed in our projects.

Let’s embrace the Project Management in the Collaboration Age.

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_project_management

http://www.icoordinator.com/en/blog/collaborative-project-management


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_project_management

About the Author

Ashish Sadekar is passionate about project management and likes to call himself as an aspiring thought leader in this space. And he decided to devote his further career specifically for this field and turned an entrepreneur exclusively focussing on project management space. His company, ProThoughts, offers collaborative project management software, advisory & training services, and advanced project management concepts / theories. He is an invited speaker on PM forums and his papers are selected for prestigious project events (this is one among many). He is a visiting faculty to the city’s top 2 B-schools for Project Management. He is PfMP (one of the 1 st few in Portfolio), PMP, Scrum Alliance certified and has trained more than 1000 project practitioners so far.

Ashish had the privilege of working with the best minds in the top companies he has worked so far. He has worked with Microsoft where he bootstrapped the Consulting practice for Dynamics in India and he led a unit in SAS India, a leader in Business Intelligence. Earlier, he has worked with top Indian organizations like Infosys and TCS where he executed some of the first and complex deals. He is well versed with technology and especially in ERP, CRM and Business Intelligence & Analytics.

He is an active member with PMI Mumbai chapter and participates in the certification training and other volunteer activities of the chapter.

Details: Communication Address: E 604, OberoiSplendor, JVLR, Andheri (East) - 400060Email Address: [email protected] Mobile Number: +91 9820982723


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