Outline from my talk on Using Wikis for Projects at People On the Go Jan-24-2008. Talk includes benefits we have experienced in our practice.
Lunch & Learn: Using Wikis for Projects
Pierre Khawand of People-OnTheGo and I were on a panel at GABA in October of last year on “Communication Today: Blogs, E-mail and More” and we had a great conversation on blogs and wikis. He has invited me to speak on “Wiki Use Case: Managing Team Meetings: Agendas, Minutes and Tasks” at today’s Lunch & Learn webinar.
You can sign up here at GoToMeeting. [Registration Closed]
Here is a brief description of the topics we will be covering
Project management tools are great for managing and presenting the highly structured elements of a project: resources, milestones, time-line, and budget. But they are not as effective for managing the unstructured information and the their inter-linkages: documents, notes, meeting agendas, and specifications. Wikis provide an on-line workspace for a project team to store and manage unstructured documents that’s browser accessible. Learn tips on how wikis can cut the time needed to reach consensus on project deliverables when a deadline looms. You will leave with a practical understanding of usage models that leverage the distinct strengths of wikis for global project teams. This session will be presented by Sean Murphy, CEO of SKMurphy Inc. (https://www.skmurphy.com).
More background on what we will be talking about can be found in our article on “Using Blogs & Wikis for Better Collaboration.”
Afternoon update: this was a lot of fun. I was very impressed by Pierre’s method and approach. I have listened to a number of webinars where one speaker talks for 20-30 minutes and then another one talks for 20-30 minutes and invariably each runs out of steam a few minutes into the talk, their voices become less animated and finally monotone, and you lose a sense of connection. We had a mix of Q&A, short 2-4 minute presentations on some prepared topics and then a number of questions from the audience as well as an interactive demo of Central Desktop. I still miss the non-verbal cues you get from facing your audience but this was a lot of fun. I am glad Pierre invited me to take part.
People-OnTheGo also offers workshops on “Accomplishing More With Less” in addition to the free Lunch & Learn series.
Late Afternoon Update: Pierre blogged about it at “Wiki Use Case: Managing Team Meetings”
Talk Outline
Wiki Use Case: Managing Team Mtg Agendas, Minutes, & Tasks
- Sean Murphy, SKMurphy Inc.
- Jan-24-08 @ Lunch & Learn
- (People-On-The-Go )
Wiki’s Are A “New Technology” …That Is Thirteen Years Old
- Invented by Ward Cunningham in 1995
- “Simplest Thing That Could Work”
- To Enable A Group To Edit A Website
- Wiki Means Quick in Hawaiian
- First Site Was for Software Design Patterns: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiWeb
What are Wikis
- Content Management Systems
- Requiring Only a Web Browser to Access/Edit
- Typically With a Built-in WYSIWYG Editor
- Server-Based Web Publishing Systems
- Edit in a Text Window vs. Local Application
- No FTP upload
- Obsolete FrontPage, Dreamweaver, GoLive
How Do They Work?
- Read/Write a Website Using a Browser
- Built-in Revision Control – Easy Undo
- Basic Editing Tools: Text, Tables
- Advanced Ones Offer Spreadsheets and Workflow
- Can be Public or Private, Most are Private
- Single Simple Name Space for Pages
Some Popular Wiki Platforms
- Atlassian’s Confluence – install or service
- SocialText.com – install or service
- CentralDesktop.com – service
- PBWiki.com – service
- EditMe.com – service
- MediaWiki (Wikipedia) – open source
- Twiki – open source
Current Project Management Tools
- Put the Project Manager at the “Neck of the Bottle”
- Focus: Schedule, Budget, Task Completion
- Most Projects Have a Handful of Key Dates
- Poor Support for
- Agenda -> Minutes -> Action Items
- Specifications, Issues Lists,
- Working Consensus on Status, Next Steps
Using Wikis to Deliver Projects
- Cut Time Needed To Reach Consensus On Deliverables Against A Deadline
- Source for Specs, Status, Agendas, Issues
- Leverage Hypertext;
- Avoid E-Mail, Attachments, File Servers
- Now Documents Can Link to Other Documents
- Keep Final Report Clean: But Still Track Issues, Arguments, Decisions
Example SKMurphy Uses
- Strategic Plans: 1-2 Pages
- Client Meetings
- Sales & Negotiation Support
- Sales Presentations
- Company & Product Positioning
- Data Sheets
- Corporate Backgrounders
Wikis: Advantages and Benefits
- Private Searchable Shared Documents
- Group Edit / Social Process
- Browser Based: No App Compatibility
- Revision Control is Built In
- Changes Never Lost
- Facilitates Project Post Mortem Analysis
Why We Use Central Desktop
- Multi-Wiki Model
- Many Small Wikis Better Than One Big One
- Common Identity Across All Wikis
- Search Across All Wikis
- Start a New Wiki by Cloning an Old One
- Good for Templates & Methodologies
- Corporate vs. Outsider (Customer/Partner)
- Only Pay for Corporate Members
About SKMurphy
- We Use Blogs & Wikis In Our Practice
- We Are A Small Team Of Six
- We Work Face To Face & Remotely
- Projects Run Weeks To Months
- Business Development For SW Startups
- Focus: Early Revenue & Early Customers
Related Blog Posts
- Ten Tips for Leveraging Blogs and Wikis in Your Consulting Practice
- Do You Use a Wiki to Deliver Services or Develop Content?
- Using Blogs & Wikis for Better Collaboration
- Use Wikis for Team Projects
- Fantastic On-Line Workshop on Wikis at CPSquare in January 2009
- We Use a Wiki to Organize Customer Interviews