Project Management For Dummies®

Chapter 17. Using Technology to Up Your Game

In This Chapter

• Recognizing software's role in project planning and control

• Sizing up the benefits and limitations of e‐mail

• Using technology to support virtual teams

Effective project management requires systems and procedures that help people work together to achieve common goals. A major part of project management is information — getting it, storing it, analyzing it, and sharing it. However, the key to successful project management is using this information to guide and encourage people's performance.

Technological advances provide easier and more affordable ways to handle information. For example, computer software allows you to enter, store, and analyze information and then present the results in professional formats. And e‐mail allows written communication with people in remote locations at all hours of the day (and night!).

However, technology alone can't encourage focused and committed team performance. In fact, excessive reliance on today's technology can actually result in poor morale, confused and disorganized team members, and lower overall performance. This chapter guides your use of technology in jobs that it handles well. For the jobs that aren't well suited for technology, I discuss other, more‐appropriate means of handling people's information needs.

Using Computer Software Effectively

Today's software for special analyses and reporting looks so good that you may be tempted to believe it's all you need to ensure your project's ...