Project Management Software Embracing Social?

In the last issue of ProjectNews, our post visited on the ways in which a successful project manager communicates with their team. Do you email, text, or call? Do you prefer in person meetings? Do you rely on a project management software to document communication and tasks?

I put the question to our LinkedIn group and also posted on Quora to get some more opinions on the subject. Many who weighed in agreed that their is a certain level (over three emails?) where in-person or phone communication is necessary. However, there is also the sentiment that written communication using email or a portal provides back-up documentation of the process, tasks assigned and decisions made.

With this in mind, I was interested to read about the recent integration of CA Technologies Inc.’s project and portfolio management (PPM) software with Salesforce.com’s Chatter collaboration tool.

As reported in IT World Canada, this integration may help with the adoption levels of PPM software, and allow more stakeholders to view project progress. Ken Jochims, senior product marketing manager for PPM software at CA Technologies reasoned that "the integration means non-PPM users, such as stakeholders who are not part of the project team, can also monitor the project’s progression." Brian Bell, CA's general manager of service and portfolio management was quoted in this piece on enterprise APPS today as saying "Integrating Chatter with our PPM solution helps manage collaboration across the innovation life-cycle."

Similarly, this article in The Brainyard explored the evolution of Liquid Planner 3.0 and Mendix's Sprintr specifically and the rise of social streams as part of project management software in general.

Regarding Sprintr, a tool built around agile development concepts, the following feature sounds particularly useful "More specific modules like a tool for creating project "stories" (a technique for gathering requirements) also have a wall-like feel to them, including the ability to make comments on stories and sub-stories." Sprintr is currently only available in private beta, but it will be interesting to see the tool on its full launch.

Are you using any sort of social-style tools to manage projects? Do you find traditional project management tools to clunky for agile projects? Share with us in the comments, or go social and join the discussion on our LinkedIn group or twitter @Project_World.

If you're interested in learning more about social-style collaboration for project management, consider checking out our track on "The New Era of Social Communication,
Leadership & Collaboration" at this fall's PWWCBA conference. To learn more about this track, and the conference, download the brochure. Save 15% off the standard registration rate as a reader of our blog with code PW11BLOG.

Michelle LeBlanc is a Social Media Strategist at IIR USA with a specialization in marketing. She may be reached at mleblanc@iirusa.com.