MBA Lessons Learned #3: Team Collaboration Tools
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Continuing on the MBA projects theme, today I am going to discuss team collaboration. As a part-time student, how to work with your team given schedule constraints was always a challenge. Very few of the full-time students liked to physically meet every time they were going to work on a project either. Further, emailing files back and forth is confusing (what version are we using?) and troublesome (which sections did you just edit?). During the MBA program my system has evolved to the point where, in the last two semesters, collaboration was near perfect; below are some of the key tools.
Documents - There are very few projects that do not require a written document as a deliverable. It is incredibly frustrating and near impossible to merge multiple MS Word files into one when multiple people are working at the same time. My solution - Google Docs. Google Docs allows the entire group to view and edit the same document at once; for example I can be working on the addressable market size while my teammate is editing the competitive positioning tables. Additionally, when someone accidentally deletes a paragraph you can find it again with the see revision history feature (this can take some searching as the final deliverable for my business plan class had 778 changes). Of course some people have a hard time breaking away from MS Word and others do not want to be constantly connected to the Internet. Thankfully there is a solution to this in OffiSync. A Microsoft Office plugin, OffiSync allows you to use MS Word (along with the rest of the MS Office/Google Apps overlapping applications) to view and edit files stored on Google Docs. Further, using OffiSync you can edit a file while offline (you do have to store a copy locally for this) and it will automatically merge the changes when you next connect.
Spreadsheets - As with documents I tried to use Google Docs as much as possible for spreadsheets. Unfortunately there are a few MS Excel functions that do not exist (or at least I could not find) in Google Doc; some functions I could use OffiSync to pick up whereas others did not seem to translate. I did have much better luck using MS Office Live. While it does have the same functionality as Google Docs for documents (including being able to edit on your local copy of MS Office; I am less certain of the offline editing ability), I only preferred it for MS Excel. You may be different.
Conferencing - If you are in a part-time program, someone on your team will undoubtedly have work travel to Japan, Norway, Brazil, New Jersey, or some other equally exciting destination during the project. Assuming you can get your schedules to match, Skype provides an excellent way to video conference in your lost teammate. While there are other services available (such as dimdim) that lets you share documents during the meeting, using Skype with Google Docs (or Office Live) eliminates the need.
Additional Random Information - Often you have tracking, notes, and other random information that you need to store and share. Just for simplicity I try to use something in Google Docs (or Office Live) as much as possible. Otherwise I use Dabbleboard or Google Sites. Dabbleboard is great if you love whiteboards as you can use shapes, freehand, or text to communicate. Alternatively Google Sites is simple way to organize and store lots of notes and text. Both are useful if you cannot come up with a simple solution in a document.
While this list is far from exhaustive (for example many of my classmates preferred Zoho for documents and spreadsheets) and technology continues to rapidly evolve, it should offer you some excellent tools to assist in team collaboration.
September 2nd, 2010 - 20:14
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September 10th, 2010 - 12:22
Hi Dan, I agree with your analysis of Google Docs and Skype. Being involved in a very fast developing company, I sometimes struggle to keep everyone on the same page. Now I use google for virtually everything I do…..even used it when I was across the world to select my fantasy footbal draft!!!! LOL
September 21st, 2010 - 04:29
I love the Google tools (documents, spreadsheets, etc) the new tool from them that I just haven’t used much is Wave. Since it is entirely focused on collaboration I was a bit surprised that it wasn’t mentioned. ( http://wave.google.com )
Have you tried it?
September 21st, 2010 - 06:34
Hi Troy,
I have used Wave and it is a great tool. However just a few days before I wrote the post, Google announced that they are discontinuing Wave at the end of the year. Hopefully most of the features will be rolled into Google’s existing, and surviving, products. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html
Cheers!
- Dan
September 22nd, 2010 - 07:29
I tried out Wave but eventually quit using it because it wasn’t universal enough for me to use with others. Email, for instance, is rather universal.
I collaborate with classmates through google docs, and google groups. I like how we can all pull up a doc and work on it together in real time.
I also use skype a lot. I’ve found its easier to get to know your teamates if you’ve got a webcam running. I also used the “share desktop” feature in skype a ton in the business simulation class I took over the summer. It allowed me to explain things not just by words but by pointing and showing on my screen what I was talking about.
September 22nd, 2010 - 07:30
While I am a big fan of tools that allow for asynchronous collaboration, there are times that a synchronous session is very useful. WebEx, Live Meeting, GoToMeeting, and similar tools are great for virtual teams. They allow teams to share a presentation, mark up a document, and do other work in real time with each other. While these are paid services, there are a growing number of free options available for small teams, such as the one provided by Vyew ( http://vyew.com/ ), which I am currently using and satisfied with.
I meet virtually each week with a software development team using Vyew. We use it to share our desktop and provide teleconference via VOIP as well as phone. It helps us to all stay on the same page, see what work has been accomplished, and what is remaining.
September 22nd, 2010 - 08:31
I just started using Dropbox.com as a lite-weight cross-platform (PC smart-phone) file sharing or ‘networked drive’ solution.
September 22nd, 2010 - 09:18
Hi Bryce — I have also found drop.io to be a useful file sharing and collaboration tool. Unlike Dropbox, it is only web-based. It is very easy to use. Among other capabilities, any files sent to your drop.io email box will automatically be added to the collaboration space. It is also available for free to small groups.
September 23rd, 2010 - 07:18
Hi Bryce and Chad,
Some of our presentations were rather large (hello embedded video) so Dropbox was a huge help.
Chad – How have you liked the desktop sharing with Vyew? Does it transfer quickly or is there a big lag issue?
Thanks!
- Dan
September 23rd, 2010 - 07:32
My experience with Vyew’s responsiveness is that it depends — sometimes it is a bit slower than other times. Generally, there is a lag of a few seconds between the time someone starts sharing their desktop and the time others can see it. After that, the lag has not been a real issue. Also, if everyone using the VOIP audio does not have a headset, I notice the echo is delayed two or three seconds. If I was using a paid service, Adobe Connect would be my first choice. I use this service frequently with large groups (sometimes over a 100) and have found it to be very solid. For a free service, Vyew is meeting my expectations.
September 23rd, 2010 - 09:56
Does anybody know if there is an app which can be customized for web collaboration. For instance, tweet deck is awesome because I can link Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Buzz to it. If we had an app that could link our online collaboration tools together it would provide a sort of dash board to go to for “one stop shopping”.
Perhaps in the future as more widget apps are developed and browsers modified to accept them we’ll be able to build our own dashboards into a browser. Chrome has some plugins but none that I’ve found entirely useful yet.