The Challenge. Existing tools for project management are not effective for modern project teams. The Gantt chart, PERT diagrams and Critical Path scheduling are rooted in factories a century ago. These methods eliminate diversity from a task, ignore communication, and schedule for central control. These traditional tools are effective " if only everything can be planned ahead of time" .
Experienced project managers now understand that coordination of uncertainty, communication, distribution and diversity are keys to effective project management.
The new work environment requires tools that promote distributed coordination rather than central control, allow diverse work behavior, and include communication as a work activity. GPD has developed the new project team tool for modern work.
The Significance. The social, economic, and technical globalization of our planet is transforming the way we live and work. This period of human history is the first in which people have the opportunity for substantive, global collaboration.
New work partnerships not possible a generation ago are demanded in the global environment. Rapid organization change and the service economy push workers to often change roles. Innovative cross-functional teams, linked by information technology, attempt to solve increasingly complex problems.
The Future of Teamwork. The project manager and team leaders for a new project are brought together, in multiple languages and at distributed sites. Before the project begins, they train for effective collaboration. The training integrates goal definition, sharing of critical background knowledge, and effective cross-cultural teaming.
They use interactive simulation to consider courses of action, agreeing on project structure and coordination strategies, which optimize progress. A reference project model, synchronized to product, process, and organization data, is produced.
During the project they view overall progress from theor own perspective their dependence with others. Project cost, lead time, and quality are managed as new information is gained on progress, feasibility, and performance.
With the help of intelligence integrated in their TeamPort system, the team quickly identifies work issues, smoothly resolving them Following the project the team learns from a retrospective view of total performance, including work, communication, and coordination. Significant trends are extracted for use in improving future projects.