JISC Business and Community Engagement. Collaborative Online Tools infoKit. Collaboration is at the heart of Business and Community Engagement (BCE), manifest in three dimensions: within institutions (across disciplines and functions), across institutions, and between institutions and external partners. While effective and sustainable collaboration requires initial (at least) face-to-face contact, the vast majority of BCE collaborative work is heavily dependent on virtual collaboration through email, telephone or online tools and resources. In a severely time-constrained and information-heavy environment, it is critical that tools that enable collaboration are simple to use, with minimal risk and mutually convenient. Web technologies, in particular, offer exciting opportunities to meet these needs. With all this in mind, Facilitating Collaboration was designed as one of six core streams of work within the BCE Programme, with the aim of ‘enhancing collaboration and provision of service across and between institutions through enabling systems and technology’.
What is Portfolio Management? This resource looks at the role of portfolio management and outlines: How to gauge the level of risk and likely return on investment of particular uses of technologyThe role of very senior managers in directing the programmes and projects within their portfolio Guidance on setting the strategic context that your portfolio is designed to support is covered by the Strategy infoKit. We have attempted to keep this section of the Project, Programme and Portfolio Management resource as free from jargon as possible. It is however inextricably linked to a set of resources for specialist project managers and references two definitive models widely used throughout the UK and elsewhere: PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments)MSP (Managing Successful Programmes) If you do not have a background in this field it is highly recommended that you take a brief look at the Project and Programme Management infoKits in order to familiarise yourself with the key concepts and terminology.
PRINCE2 Website. What Is Project Management? There are many definitions of what constitutes a project such as ‘a unique set of co-ordinated activities, with definite starting and finishing points, undertaken by an individual or team to meet specific objectives within defined time, cost and performance parameters’ (Office of Government Commerce). We are all aware that our organisations undertake projects and, rather than debate the merits of different definitions, it is perhaps more helpful to look at a few of the characteristics that make projects different from other work. Projects are usually characterised by being: Instruments of changeNon-routineUniqueComposed of inter-dependent activitiesCarried out by people who don’t normally work togetherTemporary with defined start and end datesIntended to achieve a specific outcomeFrequently risky and involving uncertainties There is no magic formula for ensuring that a project is successful, but there are well proven techniques available to help plan and manage projects.