Listen to The PM Podcast

Play Now:

This episode is sponsored by:

Have you ever seen Microsoft SharePoint? And after you saw it, did you feel like this was a tool that you’d like to use in order to manage your projects? If the answer is no then you are like most companies who don’t understand MS SharePoint’s power and use it simply to share documents or spreadsheets. That is where the book “SharePoint for Project Management” comes into play. It demonstrates how SharePoint can also help you organize and manage complex projects.

In today’s episode we welcome Dux Raymond Sy, who is the author of SharePoint for Project Management. It turned out that in the interview we talked less about the book and more about the fact that the most important factor of solid project management are the processes that need to be in place first and that the book & SharePoint are just tools to help you eliminate waste.

We also talk to Jennifer Girdish who is the content editor of our Gizmo: PM Boulevard [Update: the template website is no longer available, so we removed the link] .

We are giving away two copies of Dux's book SharePoint for Project Management - listen in to hear how to participate.

And the winners of our last promotional giveaway are:

• Tom Verghese's Book The Invisible Elephant: Fernando Lenga from Buenos Aires, Argentina and Robert Bessette (Premium Subscriber)
• Tom Verghese's CD Raising Your Cultural IQ: Otba Alsboul, from Ryad in the UAE
• Tom Verghese's recording Sourcing Across Cultures: CD: Sayyed Saheer, Tumba Sweden & DVD Amane Nakayama (Premium Subscriber)

Play Now:

This episode is sponsored by:

Companies and project managers have believed for years that their only responsibility was mainly a financial one – maximizing value for shareholders and finish your projects on time and on budget. Sustainability is a new idea, where the corporate sector incorporates social and environmental concerns in its strategies and plays a more responsible role in the world.

But why should project managers care about it?

Our guest today is Jennifer Russell, PMP (www.mastodonconsulting.com) who argues that with some effort and foresight, sustainability can be integrated seamlessly in the goals of almost all projects and organizations. Furthermore, it is not necessarily the chief executives who must always initiate and implement sustainability. Project managers have the ability to introduce sustainability in their work and promote social good within the firm. If properly understood and executed, sustainability is a win–win strategy that benefits the project, the company, as well as society.

In our Gizmo's section we talk to Kay Wais who is the creator of the Project Risk Board Game, a fun way to get your mind in shape for project risk management. We are giving away to copies of the game - listen in to hear how to participate.

And the winners of two copies of Dux Raymond Sy's book SharePoint for Project Management are:

• Glenn Rogers, Ontario, Canada (Premium Listener)
• Eliseo Pita, A Coruna, Spain (Free Listener)

Play Now:

This episode is sponsored by:

The number of social media websites is sheer overwhelming. There are Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Myspace, Skype, Google Chat, Plurk, Bebo, Xing, Hi5, Orkut, Pownce and LinkedIn. And these are just the more popular ones. But why should you as a project manager care about this?

Bas de Baar (http://blog.softwareprojects.org/) thinks you should. Bas argues that social media will help you personally by growing your visibility within the worldwide community of project managers and he also argues that social media helps your worldwide, virtual project team to grow together faster and deliver better projects.

As we were recording the interview we requested live questions from our Twitter followers. Three of them responded in time and the questions from @CobPEZ, @CoachM and @jgodfrey were answered right there and then. It's the start of integrating social media into The PM Podcast as well.

Bas also offers a free video blog at http://blog.softwareprojects.org/category/video-chat [Update: The web page is no longer available so we removed the link].

This Premium episode is available to all listeners. Enjoy!

Play Now:

This episode is sponsored by:

Last week's discussion with Bas de Baar on "Everything a Project Manager should know about Social Media" largely focused on how you as a project manager can use social media for career growth. We also touched upon how social media can be used in your projects.

In this Premium Episode we welcome Elizabeth Harrin (Author of Project Management in the Real World) to look more in depth into how a project manager can use Project Management 2.0 and Social Media on your projects. We discuss if and how we should use these tools, how confidentiality plays into this, how the increasing availability of easy to use online project management tools will turn the "technical" project management skills into a commodity and we touch upon the presentations that Elizabeth gave at the BPUG and APM on these topics.