Managing virtual teams: getting the most from wikis, blogs, and other collaborative tools

401 Pages·2007·3.999 MB·English

by  Brenda Huettner, M. Katherine Brown, Char James-Tanny

Managing
Virtual Teams:
Getting the Most From
Wikis, Blogs, and Other
Collaborative Tools
M. Katherine Brown
Brenda Huettner
Char James-Tanny
Wordware Publishing, Inc.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Brown,M.Katherine,1965-.
Managingvirtualteams:gettingthemostfromwikis,blogs,andother
collaborativetools/byM.KatherineBrown,BrendaHuettner,and
CharJames-Tanny.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex
ISBN-10:1-59822-028-4(paperback)
ISBN-13:978-1-59822-028-5
1. Virtualworkteams--Computernetworkresources. 2. Teamsintheworkplace--
Computernetworkresources. 3. Businesscommunication--Computernetwork
resources. 4. Projectmanagement--Computernetworkresources.
I. Huettner,Brenda. II. James-Tanny,Char. III. Title.
HD66.2.B762006
658.4'022--dc22 2006037027
©2007,WordwarePublishing,Inc.
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ISBN-10:1-59822-028-4
ISBN-13:978-1-59822-028-5
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Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Part I: Building and Managing a Virtual Team
Chapter1 UnderstandingTeamDynamicsinaVirtualEnvironment. . . . . . . 5
LifecycleofaTeam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
CharacteristicsofanEffectiveTeam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
SharedTeamObjective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Ability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Desire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
CharacteristicsofanEffectiveTeamLeader . . . . . . . . . . 13
ChallengesandOpportunitieswithVirtualTeams . . . . . . . 18
Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Logistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
ProjectManagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
PersonnelManagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
RelatedResources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Chapter2 SettingUpaVirtualTeam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Hiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
BeforeYouNeedtoHire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
DuringtheHiringProcess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
SelectingTeamMembersfromwithintheOrganization . . . . 41
EstablishingTeamStructureandRoles. . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Structure,Roles,andResponsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
CoreTeam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
AssociatedSubjectMatterExperts. . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
iii
Contents
LocalizationandOtherVendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
SettingtheGroundRules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
InitialMeeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
TeambuildingActivities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
InPerson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Virtually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
BuildingaTeamCulture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
RelatedResources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Chapter3 EvaluatingYourNeeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
WhatAreYouTryingtoAccomplish?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
WhatAreYourCurrentCapabilities?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Hardware/SoftwareIssues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
CommunicationIssues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
WhoIsonYourTeam? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
WhichToolIsAppropriateforEachTask? . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
RelatedResources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Chapter4 CommunicatingwiththeTeam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Synchronousvs.AsynchronousInteraction. . . . . . . . . . . 80
One-to-OneConversations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
One-to-ManyEmail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
SampleEmailGuidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
One-to-ManyDocuments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Many-to-ManyTeamMeetings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
BeforetheMeetingBegins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
DuringtheMeeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
SpecialNotesforVoice-OnlyMeetings . . . . . . . . . 90
SpecialNotesforText-OnlyMeetings . . . . . . . . . . 91
WhentheMeetingIsOver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
RelatedResources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Chapter5 ProjectPlanningandTracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Planning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
ScopeoftheProject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
iv
Contents
CostEstimate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
TrackingYourProgress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
IncorporatingProgressintoYourPlan. . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
RelatedResources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Chapter6 CollaboratingandTroubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
WorkingCollaboratively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
AgileEnvironmentsandVirtualTeams. . . . . . . . . . 116
WorkingwithVendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Localization/Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
ComponentsofanRFP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
EvaluationChecklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
ProductionorHardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Contractors/Consultants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
ChallengesforVirtualTeams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
DoNotLeaveAnyoneBehind! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
ManagingConflictwithinYourTeam. . . . . . . . . . . 131
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
RelatedResources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Chapter7 ConductingReviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
ContentReviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
TechnicalReviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
GettheRightPeopleInvolvedEarly . . . . . . . . . . 143
IdentifytheReviewTeam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
PlanandPrepare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
ProvideClearObjectivesandInstructionsfor
EachReview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
ClearlyIdentifythePurpose,Audience,andScope . . 146
ProvideSufficientTimefortheReview . . . . . . . . 147
ManagetheMeeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Follow-up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
In-countryReviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
ProblemsthatCanArise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
WhyIn-CountryReviewsGoWrong . . . . . . . . . . 154
ReviewerSkillsNeeded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
BestPractices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Sign-off(Approval)Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
PerformanceAppraisals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
BestPractices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
v
Contents
ProjectReviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
MilestoneReviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
WhoShouldAttend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Reporting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Agenda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Post-ProjectEvaluations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Preparation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Agenda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Follow-up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
RelatedResources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Chapter8 ManagingRiskandChange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
ChangestoTeamStructureorPersonnel . . . . . . . . . . . 174
PlanningforPersonnelChanges . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
WelcomingNewTeamMembers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
PreparingfortheNewArrival . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
IntegratingtheNewPersonwiththeTeam . . . . . . 179
HandlingPersonnelConflicts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
ProductDesignorDocumentationChanges. . . . . . . . . . 181
BestPracticesinChangeManagement . . . . . . . . . . 181
IntegratingLocalizationintotheProcess. . . . . . . . . 184
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
RelatedResources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Chapter9 EvaluatingProjectSuccess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
WhatAreMetrics? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
WhereDoYouStart? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
WhatDoYouMeasure?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
HowDoYouMeasure? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
AutomaticTrackingTools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
ManualEntries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
UsingSurveyTools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
AfterYouMeasure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
1.ComparetheNumberswithinCategoriesand
AcrossCategories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
2.LookforTrendsandTroubleSpots . . . . . . . . . . 205
3.StoretheInformationsothatYourTeamand
OtherTeamsCanAccessItintheFuture . . . . . . . 207
vi
Contents
4.RepeatSteps1through3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
RelatedResources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Part II: Evaluating the Tools
Chapter10 ComparingFeatures,Tools,andMore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
ComparingTasksandCategories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Chapter11 Installation,Customization,andSecurity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
InstallingApplications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
UsingFantastico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
GeneralInstallationNotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
CustomizingApplications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
ImplementingSecurity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
ChallengeEmails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
CAPTCHA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Whitelists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Role-basedPermissions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Chapter12 CollaborativeSoftwareSuites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Chapter13 MeetingandCommunicationTools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
InstantMessaging(IM)Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
CustomizingIMApplications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
AddingSecuritytoInstantMessaging . . . . . . . . . . 240
IMApplications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Web-basedMeetingPrograms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Web-basedMeetingTools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Chapter14 InformationBroadcastingTools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Blogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
BlogSoftware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Podcasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
CreatingaPodcast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
FindingExistingPodcasts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
TheFutureofPodcasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
PodcastSoftware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
vii
Contents
Chapter15 InformationSharingTools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Calendars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
CalendarSoftware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
FileSharingSoftware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
ForumsandBulletinBoards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
ApplicationSharing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Chapter16 InformationGatheringTools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Surveys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
ProjectManagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
TimeTracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Chapter17 Wikis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Chapter18 RSSFeedsandOther“Push”Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Emails,Faxes,andVoiceMails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Newsletters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
RSS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
CreatingandValidatinganRSSFile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
UsingHTMLinRSSandAtomFeeds. . . . . . . . . . . 294
ApplyingFormattingtoRSSandAtomFeeds. . . . . . . 295
VulnerabilitiesinRSSFeeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
SyndicatinganRSSFeed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
UsinganRSSAggregator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
VulnerabilitieswithAggregators . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
AppendixA It’saWikiWackyWorld. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
AppendixB Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
viii
Acknowledgments
It has been said that books are not written in a vacuum.
A book on the subject of virtual teams by three authors
who live in different time zones definitely proves that
statement.
We would like to thank Mike Markley, Judy Herr, and
our editor, Beth Kohler, for their assistance in reviewing
the book. Brian Walker shared information on accessibil-
ity for different applications. Thanks also to Paula Berger
for her support and advice.
We are also grateful to our friends and colleagues in
the Society for Technical Communication and IEEE-Pro-
fessional Communication Society for their years of advice,
mentoring, support, and encouragement.
Kit would like to thank her family, particularly her
grandmother Virginia Brown, for their support and
encouragement, and Merlin the wonder dog for keeping
her sane. Keri Webster, Stephanie Bates, Jean Labrenz,
Dave Antonie, Sarah and Todd Harris, Elton and Kathy
Hall, and Elizabeth Greene have been stalwart friends
and advisors. Many thanks to Lisa Claypool-Lund, Dave
Hoekstra, and the rest of the Loomis Social Club for the
many years of friendship, support, twisted humor, and
gaming. Without you, Kit would not be the person she is
today.
Brenda would like to thank everyone who has
inspired her in so many ways. The desire to learn new
things and the urge to share that knowledge comes from
her parents, James Phalon and Mary Phalon Ondrick,
who though very different from each other, both contrib-
uted to her today. The opportunities to fulfill that desire
ix