Web 2.0 projects still get plenty of buzz--and money. Global spending
on the technology is expected to reach $4.6 billion in 2013, up
from $764 billion in spending this year, according to a survey by
Forrester Research. But does it actually deliver an ROI? The answer is
a resounding maybe, or sometimes. You can check out the full results in
the November PM Network, but here's a glimpse of what people are using--and not.
Cindee,
As the host of The Project Management Podcast (www.thepmpodcast.com) I am of course happy to see that there seems to be a rise in the past year of people using podcasts and other Web 2.0 tools. However, I have a word of caution for project managers looking around for new tools to help them manage their ever more complex tasks.
I have seen a number of new software companies enter the PM market. They have built feature rich tools that do a lot of nifty stuff that at first glance look like they will make a PM's life easier. But in some cases it seems to me that these companies have first built these tools and are now trying to sell them to us as the next killer application for PM.
Please remember the old saying that "a fool with a tool is still a fool". The primary concern of project management is not to input your data into a tool and show a nice progress bar (or whatever feature the software offers). That's the smallest part. Most of what a project manager does happens OUTSIDE of any software or Web 2.0 tool. We manage stakeholders by engaging them directly, we motivate our team members by supporting and developing them, or we manage the project scope by applying our and other people's brains to the requirements.
My recommendation to PMs is still the same: focus on your personal skills as a project manager first and the features of your software second.