PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Value Of Social Media In Project Management

Abstract

As more and more project teams have shifted from single location teams to groups of teams working together from different locations around the country and globe, the ability to effectively communicate with team members and manage the project information has become an overwhelming challenge for many project managers. The purpose of the study is to examine the value of using social media tools within the corporate environment to enhance team communications and improve overall project management results in software development by investigating some of the latest trends, tools and research on the subject. The study will also present some advice in the form of experiences of others to help those considering the use of enterprise-level social media tools in their organizations. These new web-based social media technologies can help all types of project teams work together to solve the complex problem of effective communication in multi-site globally located, virtual project teams and thus improve overall project management effectiveness.

Keywords: communications, project management, social media, technology, virtual teaming

Chapter 1: Introduction

Social media is one of the hottest trends on the web these days and when it is mentioned many immediately think of applications like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter. So what value do web applications like these have when it comes to project management? Why would a professional organization care about what someone says on Tweeter, why is being LinkedIn important? Why would a project manager invest resources to setup social media software to help make the team more productive?

This paper will investigate some of the latest social media trends and tools for use in the corporate environment and how they can help enhance team communications, especially in the more virtual environments. Also, because a great deal of project management effectiveness depends on the ability to build teams that work together well and are productive at delivering on the project goals, we need for team members to trust one another, which happens on a more social note and builds from there. Thus, social media tools in the corporate environment become a way for team members to communicate and share information on various levels. It is a wonderful opportunity for project management to take advantage of the technological advances of social media to help develop the project team and move it from the forming/storming phases to the norming/performing phase faster.

Today's social media is not just for fun, it has evolved into a viable communications platform for enterprise level success and it is a valuable tool to improve overall project management success.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Terminology

With so many different views of what “social media” is and the various terms and technologies around it, we will start with some basic definitions to help us level set.

Term

Definition

Reference

Social Media

Social Networking

Social Software

Portal

Generation Y

Web 2.0

Communications

Project teams must have open communication channels, because a strong project team is the backbone of a project, thus developing the communications plan is key to effective team building according to Verma ...