Page 351 - Global Project Management Handbook

17-8 MANAGEMENT OF GLOBAL PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS

meeting invitation or broadcast announcement in their messaging system. Before the
meeting, the attendees may need to access the organization knowledge portal to refer
to historical data and lessons learned from the past to prepare for the meeting. After
the meeting, all the meeting-related materials and discussion are captured and stored
in the project center and project workplace. Those who are not able to participate in
the discussion can replay and view all the materials in the information repositories at
any time.
To build a sustainable infrastructure for worldwide connection, a project manager
needs to estimate the expected network utilization in terms of traffic volume, capacity
bandwidth, response time, and throughput in advance through simulation or past expe-
rience and then allocate the budget and resources in the project plan. In fact, the con-
nection method determines how fast the information will flow through the process, as
well as the bottom line of project efficiency. Thus it is a good practice for a project
manager to revisit the organizational IT strategy and existing availability during proj-
ect initiation so that additional resources may be allocated adequately to support the
project-specific needs. However, a collaboration platform need not be set up for each
project independently. It should be part of organizational business transformation
through the leadership of the organizational IT office.

Knowledge Portal Module

Most of the organizational intranet portal is in some form of knowledge management.
This knowledge management module facilitates the following general functions
through a single entrance:
1. News, press releases, and latest updates
2. Smart search and skills matching
3. Intellectual asset sharing and mining, allowing users to contribute and reuse project
results
4. Online tutorial, learning, and personal development for job-related training and skills
development
5. On-demand services such as online help and human resources–related services

6. Business context. The business context is organized and represented by a group of infor-
mation repositories and resource links through the customized knowledge portal and
further linked to external Web sites with e-mail notification and/or update alerts by sub-
scription. As depicted in Fig. 17.2, the business context may include the following infor-
mation and resource links:
● Government-related regulations and policies updates
● Business-related trade agreements and market research updates
● Industry-related development of standards, standards body activities, and the latest
technology trends
● Consumer-related protection, safety reports, focus-group activities, and forecasts
● Organization-related business control, instructions, and security guidelines
Some of the information repositories provide only the resource links to external
Web sites for the news and intelligence gathering. Most of the information reposito-
ries are structured data such as organizational instructions, business control guide-
lines, market information, and recent developments in special interest group activities.
In general, the business context is for information only, since its activities are beyond
the project scope.