Speed Virtual Connections, Strengthen Collaboration with the Right Social Networking Tools
This article explores how certain sites or types of social software tools can help virtual teams achieve a variety of worthy objectives. We're zeroing in on some of the most popular and proven sites used by businesspeople who need to collaborate virtually, either with those they know -- or those they want to know.

Innovative Use of Business Process Management Can Benefit IT, Too
IT has been suggesting that business lines leverage BPM for improving the key process of the business. As business professionals experience the success, it is just a matter of time before the business suggests leveraging BPM in IT as well. There are a multitude of processes in IT that are ripe for BPM implementation and they will be highlighted in this article. Furthermore, there are some easy opportunities for those IT types that want to challenge themselves.

Process Improvement Requires a Focus on Productivity
Over 20 years in the software industry, Dr. Adam Kolawa has seen process improvement initiatives come and go, as well as countless attempts to find a silver bullet tool that delivers quality with the click of a button. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet. There have been some good ideas in theory, but few real successes in practice. He thinks the problem we have is that we are pushing these process improvement initiatives without really considering how they affect productivity. We take for granted that quality increases productivity, but that's not the case. If you want to introduce a quality initiative into the organization, you need to figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't disrupt or slow down the normal workflow. Otherwise, there's little chance of it resulting in a sustainable quality process.

How Do I Measure IT Performance?
The need to measure IT performance varies from organization to organization. It can be based on the need to understand the IT value contribution to the business. It can include the need to evaluate current IT development practices and improve those practices so as to improve the ability to make strategic business decisions; e.g., outsourcing. This chapter from The Business Value of IT discusses how to measure IT performance. It takes an in-depth look at key measures and focuses on how to address IT's value contribution to the business, and how to identify the key performance measures--the key "missing measure"-- and the attributes of a successful measurement program.

Strategic Communications Planning for Better Collaboration: Listening and Learning Across the Generations
This article offers practical guidelines to connect people from different generations through more targeted communications.

How Wikis Are Transforming Knowledge Management
As information management undergoes a potentially disruptive transformation, generated by exiting Boomers, companies are finding much more success in encouraging personnel to share their knowledge through socially based models like the wiki than with other technology. The wiki’s simplicity is inspiring employees and managers alike to contribute more to the knowledge base. The result is likely to be that Boomers will not create a shockwave in their wake, but will help lay the groundwork for an intuitive knowledge management system that invites all minds to participate.

Categorizing Project Requirements
Gathering and documenting requirements can be difficult. Knowing how to create a structure that enhances comprehension and makes it easier to divide and conquer the analysis phase can be useful and is actually critical for success on large and complex undertakings. There are many approaches to categorizing requirements and in this chapter from Determining Project Requirements by Hans Jonasson explores some of the more common ones. It reviews the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) approach to classification and other, equally good approaches. It is not the intent in this chapter to promote one specific classification system; Jonasson's view is that different projects and different business situations need different classification approaches, and he explains the reasoning for this in this chapter as well.

Creativity Produces Profit
In today’s competitive world, creativity is in short supply and it is more important than ever for businesses to attract and keep highly talented people. In order to do that, a company must provide a work place environment that is challenging, creative, and fun. Because creativity is at the root of innovation and invention, it would benefit all companies - large or small - to help promote a creative atmosphere in which this talent may flourish. What better way to get a huge return on your investment? Champion those innovators.

Staying Connected When Teams Disperse
When people work side by side every day, they develop a certain rhythm, a way of collaborating that relies in large part on the familiarity and trust they have built up over the years. So what happens to those close-knit working relationships when offices close, people move and team members are now scattered too far away to meet regularly? How can they replicate the kind of close contact they once had that's so instrumental to close collaboration? This article offers guidelines for business leaders and team members as they seek ways to remain connected despite the distance that now separates them.

Outsourcing: Single Source vs. Best of Breed
In today's business world with all its complexities and nuances, specialization in operational tasks is really the better way to go. Every operation requires so much specific knowledge that it's impossible for any one person or even one organization to possess it. While taking a holistic approach may sound good in theory, in practice it tends to lead more to frustration and disappointment than success. When that happens, the business almost always suffers, and often a very good supplier for certain things winds up getting judged more for what it can't do very well than what it can.

Worth a Thousand Words: Connecting Virtual Teams Through Imagery and Metaphor
Using images and metaphors can work wonders to break the ice, create a shared sense of purpose and cultivate an environment of real collaboration. But when a team is confined to connecting only through virtual means, the use of visuals as a springboard for meaningful discussion is typically limited. Not because it has to be - but because it takes a lot of thought to figure out how to use imagery when people work miles apart. This article explores how visual concepts can be used to break the ice and connect people in ways that words alone cannot do. Although these tips were written with remote teams in mind, many can be modified for teams where members work face to face as well.

Why Social Networking Can Mean Serious Business for Your Virtual Teams
How can we use social networking tools to create a virtual community among those we work with? The answer is so complex, we needed to carve out a couple of issues to get the job done. This first part provides some guidelines for success and a framework for getting started. The next part in the series will explore how specific social networking tools can best be applied for virtual teams that are serious about getting down to business.

Productive Relationships Rule
Successful organizations can be defined as a web of relationships, which requires all parties to work and contribute their share in order to achieve a common goal. Having relationships that are healthy, where cooperation and respect are manifested, can make an organization perform better. In this way, every employee works for the good of the whole and towards achieving the common organizational goals. Ultimately this can only be attained with ...

The People IT Needs Don't Want to Work in IT
Enterprise IT - and outsourcers - can still attract hard-core computer nerds because working with computers and technology is all the fun they need - at least for a few years. I have nothing against computer nerds, but having too many computer nerds in IT is one of the main reasons why many enterprises think IT is not doing a good job of supporting their business and competitive initiatives. If enterprise IT wants to attract and hold onto more non-nerds, it is going to have to make some fundamental changes in its work environment. Here are four action items on making enterprise IT a more attractive career option.

Get Out-of-the-Box Thinking in a Virtual World
The brainstorming sessions you're used to take place with people happily ensconced in a conference room, pots of coffee and carbo-loaded snacks to fuel the brain, and colored papers littering the walls. So how do you translate this type of high-energy, face-to-face brainstorming experience into a virtual session where you encourage innovative ideas from each person using just a phone and a keyboard as the stimulus? And how can you expand some tips and techniques to "bake" in a culture of innovation beyond this one opportunity? This article presents a simple process that promotes seven key behaviors essential for success in virtual session.

For Project Success, Get New Team Members Up To Speed Quickly
This article outlines some of the critical steps virtual teams need to undertake when bringing in new members whose work needs to be integrated into the whole-ASAP.

Recipe for Great Virtual Teamwork: The Right Communications Tools at the Right Time
You've just finished the project kick-off meeting with your new virtual team. Everyone seems clear about roles, responsibilities, deliverables and deadlines. So far, so good. But as you think about the magnitude and velocity of the work that lies ahead, you realize how critical a well-orchestrated team communications plan will be to getting the work done. Here are simple guidelines to keep in mind as you assemble a communications plan to make it easy for virtual team members to communicate and collaborate wherever they are, whenever they need to.

Respect the Iron Triangle
Organizations need to perform and deliver projects under certain constraints, which traditionally include scope, time and cost. Another way to refer to these three constraints is the "iron triangle," with each side representing a constraint. A passing familiarity with geometry tells us that one side of the triangle cannot be changed without impact on the others.

Building the IT Consulting Competency
IT consulting groups are springing up all over. Forming consulting "teams" has become a popular strategy designed to enable IT organizations to get closer to their customers. Some work well; many do not. What accounts for the differences? This article focuses on the critical success factors (CSFs) necessary to improve IT performance through internal consulting initiatives. It includes an action plan to create successful IT consulting groups that will provide services in technology consulting, process redesign, and change management.

Four Steps to Ensure Adoption of Project Management Software
Not surprisingly, the way businesses manage projects is changing rapidly and in some cases dramatically. Often, however, project managers and team members lack appropriate tools allowing them to adapt to this new reality. Just as it has transformed the way we shop, the way we travel and the way we stay connected, the Web has reshaped the ways we collaborate and make decisions. Businesses can help ensure adoption of PM software by considering four steps that will promote buy-in from staff and higher productivity by instilling more efficiency throughout the organization.

When Do I Turn on Project Management?
Introducing program management before an IT implementation can be a time-consuming activity. But wouldn't your organization prefer to have this information at hand before the technology is unwrapped and the meter starts running on the hours of effort your employees, vendors, and subcontractors put into costly rework? In either case, there is no free ride. But, as this article explains, the upfront ride involving careful planning is ultimately cheaper, smoother and less painful than jolting ride involving brutal back-end rework and cost and schedule overruns.