Page 352 - Global Project Management Handbook

MANAGING GLOBAL PROJECTS 17-9

FIGURE 17.2 Business context.

During project initiation, the project manager should identify the business context
based on the needs of the project. Some information in the business context that may
not have been in the project manager’s top priority list later may turn into a major
threat to survival of the project. Hence it is important for a project manager to work
with domain experts and sponsors to identify the crucial business context and con-
stantly validate its latest update through the connection from the project workplace.
The knowledge portal is capable of integrating with other tools/services to provide
online communication, collaboration, and community functions in a single look and
feel. The portal also provides personalizing functions to let users customize their indi-
vidual workplace according to their jobs and responsibilities. In addition, the portal
also can provides resource links to subscribed intelligence services, publications (such
as books or journals), online tutorials, courses, and mentoring guidance for personal
development. Very often the project manager and team members are so caught up in
the day-to-day work that they may not know all the latest technology, market, and
consumer trends. With all the useful information available in one place, the knowl-
edge management portal will be able to turn project members into knowledge workers
and productive employees.

The knowledge portal module mainly takes advantage of portal middleware to tap
into the organization’s structured contents and services. By customizing the knowl-
edge portal at the project level, the project team can easily access the organization’s
intellectual property, shared assets, lessons learned, and best practices. However,
owing to performance concerns and compatibility among tools, the project-specific
information repositories and workbenches are grouped under the project workplace
and managed through the project center.
In order to get the expected benefits from the organizational portal, the project man-
ager needs to communicate with the IT office to propose the requested services. Without
proper planning and support, the value of the knowledge portal may diminish. As part of
its business transformation, the organization needs to define its portal strategy for long-
term planning and support through the leadership of the organization’s IT office.

Project Center Module
In the past, projects have been managed individually. Now, many organizations
manage projects by portfolio(s). According to the PMBOK Guide, a portfolio is a