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ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS WRITE COMMENTS FOR MY CLASSMATES POST FOR THIS DISCUSSION. TWO COMMENTS OF NOT LESS THAN 100 WORDS. I HAVE PROVIDED 3 COMMENTS, PICK TWO AND COMMENT

THE DISCUSSION QUESTION WAS “You are a project manager for a large business intelligence project. What tools will you use to help communicate and present data to help make decisions throughout the project lifecycle?”

HERE IS THE FIRST POST

FOR CHAD

When running a project as a project manager, there are many tools available for effectively communicating and several ways to present data to help stakeholders make informed decisions during the length of the project.

Some excellent communication tools used during projects range from phone calls, teleconference/video conference meetings, in-person meetings, chat applications (my company uses Skype for Business), e-mails, and project management/workflow software like JIRA. In addition to these methods of communication, Marsan (2015) also suggests having a weekly discussion board, and a document repository.

Instant Messaging is helpful if there is a quick question that needs to be answered, while e-mail works well for documenting approvals and changes, and having a discussion board helps reduce emails as it is a self-service way to disperse information. Having that document repository is important for storing key documents that all project members can reference.

Another important form of communication, especially for the stakeholders, is a weekly status report via a dashboard or email. I find that having an interactive dashboard, built via Tableau for example, that allows users to drill down into specific areas, works well for those involved with the project. I also find that when dealing with stakeholders or project sponsors, they tend to like their information provided to them via a power point presentation. These are usually compiled with screenshots taken of the Tableau dashboard with some additional information to provide some context of the data being presented. Also, when performing presentations, it is troublesome to do a live feed of the dashboard, so presenting with the power point presentation works well.

HERE IS THE SECOND POST

FOR KELLY

Without the adequate planning and risk management that a large project requires, it can easily become derailed regarding cost, scope, or time. Dennis, Wixom, and Roth (2015) pointed out an interesting statistic that even projects with well-prepared plans have a 100% margin of error in project cost and 25% margin of error for project time. The authors offer this simple example: a well-planned project that is estimated to cost $100,000 and take 20 weeks could actually cost up to $200,000 and take up to 25 weeks to complete. Gantt charts and PERT charts can both be highly valuable tools for project managers to keep track of the project’s progression and to manage available resources accordingly (Dennis et al., 2015).

For additional tools, project management expert Dow (n.d.) offers the list below of the minimum tools that should be used for project communication, in their opinion.

  • Project Organization Chart
  • Circle of Communications Chart
  • Communication Requirements Matrix
  • Role Report Matrix
  • Project Calendar
  • Project Report Creation Calendar
  • Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
  • Scatter Chart
  • Project Newsletter

The author places specific emphasis on the project calendar and work breakdown structure tools as especially important for project communication, which is such an important aspect to get right during a project (Dow, n.d.).

As already mentioned in Bryan’s post, some of these tools, especially Gantt charts, are included in many of the different project management software and SaaS solutions, such as Microsoft Project, Monday, Wrike, or ProjectManager.com. Most offer some form of collaboration and data sharing between team members and other stakeholders. Weigh the pros and cons of each option and choose the one that is most suited for the organization and the project.

HERE IS THE THIRD POST

FOR ANDREW

For a large BI project, I would anticipate the need for sophisticated project management software. The PM for the project that I’m currently working on uses Jira. Zulch recommends having a clear communication plan in place prior to beginning complex projects. (Zulch, 2014) Within Jira issues (tickets) can be assigned to different users. Once an issue is assigned, the user is notified, can open the issue and see any conversation that has taken place with the issue, and any files that have been attached to the issue, all in one place. Jira also tracks the issues on a Kanban board to monitor work, and make it easy to assign tasks to sprints in agile development. It also displays issues in a Gantt chart, which as several of my classmates have already pointed out, is a huge boon to help everyone quickly visualize which tasks are on track, and which are being held up.

Video-conferencing/conference calls are integral to any large project. These allow teams to all communicate together and discuss issues that might be too complex, or lengthy for email. Zoom and GoToMeeting are both popular options for this sort of collaboration, and they allow for the sharing of computer screens, which can quickly get everyone on the same page, and allow for walkthroughs of software.

 
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