A few months ago I ended my MBA course in Brazil. Since the focus was project management I wanted to make a deep dive into new approaches considering this all new techonology era and social changes.

I was interested in searching about tools, methodologies, techniques, that could help PMs in their final objetive: Project sucess (I know… a very subjective concept, but we'll leave it like that for this moment). While reading about the evolution of project management, as a formal practice, I was surprise about one thing: in basic terms, project management approach has been almost unchanged since its origins. Plan, execute, monitoring and controlling. Every new methodology is based on these "simple" concepts. This means that the evolution is measured by the type and quality of tools applied in Project Managament. But again, in the last decades we almost use the same tools again and again (Gantt's, RACI's, etc.)

The big question that emerged was that, if technology and social media has changed people's life and society interactions, how was project management affected by this? Very few content (specially in Brazil) was written about these two worlds. Today's new social environment and markets are very different from those 30 years ago. Project nowdays are not only trying to reduce risks but are also pressured by time restrictions, communication issues and changes. Social Media has broken all geographical/economic barriers, letting people get in touch at any time and really building the "connection era" (great Seth Godin's video about this: http://vimeo.com/68470240). So, if Social Media is capable of all these benefits, why is Project Management ignoring this tool? Here's were Social Project Management comes into play.

My MBA final work was based on discovering different social media tools and the way of applying them into project management. I was glad to have some good insights that are very cost and time-effective. Since communication is one of the main problems in projects, social media can bring real benefits no matter the type of project that you're working in. For instance, Twitter can be an excellent tool to communicate quick status (instead of knowing the real picture of your project once-per-week). Realtime feeds from team members can speed up discussions and decision-making. Creating a communication/sharing/social platform within your project team will allow people to exchanges ideas and really take advantage of real collaboration. Projects isn't just about specialists and project managers; it's about team and collaboration. Success in your projects!

CR.