SharePoint for Project Management

Preface

Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinangalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan. (He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination.)

—Dr. José P. Rizal, Philippine national hero

Do you find yourself asking for more time whenever you work on a project? Do you ever get the extra time you asked for? Well, if you’re like me, you rarely get the extra time that you need from your customers. This got me thinking about how I can buy more time for my projects.

I decided to find out if I could gain more time by reducing inefficiencies within the project team (which also includes myself). In a recent project, I monitored and analyzed a few individuals for a week and was amazed at what I discovered.

During an average eight-hour workday, each individual spent about 45 minutes looking for information. For example, when asked by a client to retrieve a specific status report, the project coordinator had to look for it on the network share, in her email inbox, in the project folder of her computer, and she even had to call up another colleague to help her find it. This typical mode of searching took up time that could have been spent on something more productive. In addition, project resources were unproductive due to poor document management practices, inefficient project communication standards, and ineffective project collaboration tools. According to a May 31, 2007 New York Times article titled, “Time Wasted? Perhaps It’s Well Spent” (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/fashion/31work.html ...