Project Management
Change Management Meets Web 2.0
Web 2.0 technologies like wikis and blogs
are dramatically impacting teaching and
learning. But how will they affect IT projects
and change management on your campus?
"There is nothing
more difficult to take in hand, more perilous
to conduct, or more uncertain in its
success, than to take the lead in the
introduction of a new order of things."
When Niccolo Machiavelli uttered these
words he certainly wasn't speaking of
the advent of Web 2.0. But the words are
eerily relevant, nonetheless.
Unless you've been dozing through the
past few years, you're no doubt aware that
Web 2.0 is the term describing a group
of web-based creativity, informationsharing,
and collaboration tools including
wikis, blogs, social networks, and
folksonomies. (See "Web 2.0 Tools 101") The common thread in all of
these tools is twofold: They enable collaboration
and information sharing, and
their impact on higher education
has been dramatic. See, for example,
"Unleashing the Power of Web 2.0"
(CT June 2008) and "Taking the ‘A'
out of Asynchronous" (CT July 2008). But how have these technologies
changed the way higher education goes
about managing projects and managing
the change process itself?
Web 2.0 and Change
Traditionally, project management (PM)
focused on the process of implementing
technical change, while change management
focused on the sociological aspects
of introducing change. Yet, with the
introduction of Web 2.0 tools and their
emphasis on collaboration and information
sharing, the differences between the
two are fading.
At Carnegie Mellon University, there were problems
with the homegrown project management system:
Access was cumbersome for non-IT professionals, it didn't
provide execs with ready access to business intelligence,
and it didn't include enough in-depth information.
Wikis and blogs, for instance, have
been extensively used in a standalone
fashion to support project management
for some time now. Information infrastructure
solution provider EMC, for one, has for several years
been using wikis in IT projects, to store
documents, create logs, and encourage
discussions. According to Tony Pagliarulo,
VP of application development at the
company, wikis work best when they are
focused on a specific project or group of
users. They are "very good for a departmental
project," he reports.
And interestingly, the CIA has
applied the technology to intelligence
gathering through its Intellipedia wiki
(more information here), which is designed
to serve a clearinghouse function
between government intelligence agencies.
Intellipedia led to the use of other
Web 2.0 tools including documentsharing
blogs, Jabber-based chat, RSS,
and YouTube-style video. Not surprisingly,
IT behemoth Oracle has begun adding software offerings
that tap two Web 2.0 technologies:
software as a service (SaaS) and social
networking. And another IT giant, IBM has added social networking
to its Rational software development
platform, in order to allow all participants
in the development process--
not just developers-- to collaborate.
Fortunately, there now is no shortage
of wiki software, both open source and
fee-based. (Head to WikiMatrix.org to
compare the prices and features of over a
hundred different wikis.) Two of the
most popular are TWiki a widely used open source package
(commercial support is available here), and Socialtext, one of the first commercial
wikis.