It has been almost six months since I last reported on how Milestone Project Management is working with our Owners and project team members in “Cloud Project Management”.  It has been an exciting time at our firm as we have really standardized and formatted the information disseminated by our web-based project management site.

Early on, we discovered that each user (architect, client, contractor, etc) needs to have a training session on how we access, present and post information to the site.  We build this 45 minute session into our project scope and use it as a team building exercise.  I think it has really “paid off in spades” when it comes to collaboration on the project.

Id like to share with you some thoughts that one of our architect participants has on our transparent and online solution.

David McLemore, AIA, ACHA of Kirksey Architecture, says “Everybody talks about the need for strong communication because we are all trying to find ways to better integrate our processes and better share the information we are utilizing to design, construct and successfully finish our projects. Working with Milestone and St. Luke’s we have just begun to “tap” into the potential for web based project communication, and we are already seeing positive results…in my opinion. Tasks are communicated clearly to all relevant stakeholders, discussion of key issues can be tracked and held without the need for a conference room… and critical documents can be accessed by the entire team, from just about anywhere, without the need of having to track someone down to find them. It will be interesting to see just how much this methodology can be employed to everyone’s advantage in the future…”

As of this writing, we currently have over 35 projects on our web based site, and more importantly we have closed six since the first of the year.  I think that this is significant since we have initiated all six and have closed them out….we have run the entire lifespan of these projects using this web based collaborative tool.  Our Team has learned alot along the way, and we have built a very strong foundation of how we are moving forward with our new and current projects by standing on the shoulders of these completed projects.

The developers of the site we are using to host our projects have been very collaborative to work with by taking our suggestions and working them into their platform.  A very lovely feature is the iPhone application.  With this app, members of our team can access dates, action items, team member status, and if activities are on-time or over due.  This information is crucial to our Owners who are stopped in the hallway and asked about project details…the answers can come straight away during that brief interaction.  No more waiting to get back to someone.  Amazing!

This is an update to my previous posts on Internet Project Management.

In the era of instant communication (twits, smart phones, and instant messaging – email is so 1996), we at Milestone have been pushing the envelope of how we communicate with our clients and project team members, to provide access to project data (timelines, issues, files, “threaded conversations”, etc) quickly and easily.

In the past articles, I have discussed a few hosting services that we explored and did some “beta testing” on, but in this article, I wanted to really drill down on what we are doing to put the philosophy of “Cloud Project Management” into action.

Currently, we are tracking over 25 projects with three clients using TeamworkPm.  Through some easy customization, we are tracking action items, schedules and milestones, sharing files (floorplans, space programs, product data) and “threaded” conversations.

We have had great feedback from not only from the Client’s senior leadership, but from our hospital directors and architects and engineers.  I think we all would agree, our emails or telephone calls about “where are we with this project?”, or “have you called Peter about the chiller” emails, have really dwindled.
In using the project timeline and milestones, we communicate the upcoming dates of projects.  We work in collaboration with the contractors uploaded construction schedule and our posted Project Development schedule, so if the “high level” milestones are not enough information, the Client can pull up the more detailed construction or our development schedule to see when the MRI is going to be delivered.

Of course, the information is only as good as the frequency of when it is input to the website, but by simply responding to a message that is generated by the hosting service, the information is uploaded and disseminated automatically.  No need to remember who to cc on an email….the project profile does that for you.

Currently, we at Milestone have standardized this approach to project management and are looking for ways to “passively” inform our clients and team members of the current status of projects.

Look for my next blog in a few weeks about how we are tracking Action Items and Issues Lists.

Have a terrific Project!!,

Scott

Update to previous post:

Dear Gentle Reader (tip o’ the hat to Dear Abby),

Over the past two weeks, we at Milestone Project Management have continued to review “web based/cloud based” sites that offer project collaboration tools for the various stakeholders for our complex healthcare projects.

The evaluation process was rather informal,but extensive.  We talked to the site developers, viewing online demonstrations/webinars, in some cases, downloading demo’s or trial memberships to “test drive” the capabilities of the systems.

We have decided to move forward for the next six months with TeamWorkPM.   While not as typically robust as other project management sites, we felt that TeamWorkPM had the right balance of detailed and overview information that made it very flexible and easy to use (see October 17th blog about tracking necessary and not-so-necessary information to an Owner) .  Being intuitive to use which was a “must” for us as our stakeholders on a project have a wide disparity of computer skills and/or time to spend trying to find information quickly.

Additionally, one of our clients is moving forward with using the site to not only track their Capital Projects, but also to monitor their leasehold contract terms and minor tenant improvements.  This is one example of the flexibility of this system.

Over the next six months we plan to move forward with over 12 projects on this site.   The project types will range from conceptual – long term projects, to short duration “patch and paint” or equipment switchouts.  We will even use TeamworkPM to assist in the collaboration of some minor electrical projects.

Currently, our “test drive” of the system allowed us to collaborate with our architects and user groups to disseminate project sketches, equipment lists, action items/issue tracking, milestone dates and decision documentation.  I was quite surprised how the team embraced the system and how easily the designers able to uploading sketchs and solutions to the site.  With the release of Teamwork’s free (yes, free) iPhone app, I expect our team members to be able to communicate and to pull up specific project status from the palm of their hand.  If you think about it, what a powerful concept for an Owner to be able to do….sitting at a board meeting, the discussion unexpectedly turns on the specific architecture of an inpatient room , you did not prepare for this conversation – but, you can quickly pull up the drawing and support documentation right on your iPhone or better yet, your iPad – powerful stuff.

As we move forward into 2011, watch this blog for my candid experiences using “cloud” project management (I should coin and trademark this term – a tip o’ the hat to Gene Simmons).  I also welcome comments from you, dear reader – let me know your thoughts.

The journey continues….

Scott