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SHAREPOINT FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT COLLABORATION

Gerry BrimacombeSector Learning Solutions Inc.www.sectorlearning.com

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Agenda• Challenges in project communication• The importance of collaboration

tools• One Stop Shop• One Version of the Truth• SharePoint Tools applied to Project

Management

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Leveraging Collaboration tools• What is a “collaboration tool”?• Teams Inside/outside/across your organization

need to efficiently share private information• A plethora of tools makes work confusing• 24/7 work• Offsite work (home, travel, client site)

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Importance of Collaboration Tools

• One study showed project team members spend an average of 45 minutes per day searching for information.

• Project Managers need to consider collaboration tools to better manage information with key stakeholders and team members.

• Our Collaboration Tool of choice is SharePoint.

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Challenges in Project Communication

• More with Less mentality• Lay-offs but work load actually has gone up• Using contractors and specialist in diverse locations and

time zones• Tracking of budgets and schedules must be timely and

accurate• Expensive tools can help, but who can afford them right

now• Email and telephone are inefficient• Changing work hours and expectations of 24/7

collaboration

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SharePoint: One Stop Shop

• Central repository for a variety of information. • If your project team can call one place "home"

then they are more able to quickly find the information they need, when they need it.

• “Home site” for your project, your team, your family, your club, your company, etc.

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One Version of the Truth• One current version of the document stored in a

place that everyone can access. • Don’t have different versions of documents stored in

different places• Don’t waste effort of searching for the most current

version • Same for accidentally using an out-dated version. • Email a link to the SharePoint document. • Encourage / enforce everyone to not create copies

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The power of version controlVersion Control in Document Libraries• Versioning Settings• Major vs. Minor (draft) versions• Managing Versions – delete/restore• Versions and Check-out / Check-in• Track changes vs. Versioning (and Word

“compare”)

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The power of version controlVersion Control elsewhere

• Versioning Settings in Lists• Tasks and Issues Log Version control• Append Changes to Existing Text• Versioning in Wiki

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• Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010: "SharePoint aware"

• Metadata access from Office• Timesaving features. For example:– Word 2007 to compare two versions of a file– Take documents offline– Take entire document libraries offline– Take contacts and calendars offline

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Microsoft Office Integration

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Shared Calendars

• Especially useful if your team is not using the same Exchange server.

• Even if you are, the “One Stop Shop” access to a project calendar is very useful.

• Everyone on your team can read and edit shared calendars.

• Can be sync'ed with Outlook.

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Task Lists

• “To-do” list shared across your project.• Can email a person when a task is assigned to

them, with a link to the SharePoint task.• Straight out of the box, the tasks lists have

several fields including priority, owner, start date, due date, status, comments, etc.

• Completely customizable.• Issues Log

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Contact lists

• Successful projects are all about good communication.

• Capture contact information for every member of your team in a list that can be easily updated by every team member.

• Connect to Outlook so contacts are always accessible and automatically synchronized.

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Alerts

• Email you (and your team members) when changes occur

• Use for immediate reminder when a task or a document is updated.

• Use for a daily or weekly summary.

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SharePoint Help• SharePoint best practices document:

www.thedynamicsector.com/e/wss/Shared%20Documents/Best_Practices_for_SharePoint_End-User_Success.pdf

• Sector’s Ask-an-Instructor site:www.thedynamicsector.com/docs/ask-an-instructor.aspx

• SharePoint 2010 courses under development and will be launched January 18.

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Contact Us.

Sector Learning Solutions for:• A copy of this PowerPoint• SharePoint and MS Office Training • SharePoint Consulting• A presentation like this for your organization

…contact Gerry Brimacombe at 250-727-2266 or gerry@sectorlearning.com

www.sectorlearning.com