Project Management 2.0

Project Management 2.0 (or PM 2.0) is a new term that is becoming more and more popular, but the exact definition is still unclear to many people. In short, PM 2.0 is a term used to describe an evolution of project management practices using the support of Web 2.0 technologies aiming to increase team productivity, knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Let’s look as an example at a typical day of a project manager. The daily tasks consist of checking emails for projects updates, call or email team members to make sure everything is on track and elaborate reports to the senior management. With less administrative work, project managers would be able to concentrate more on the leadership part of the management job. With a PM 2.0 concept the top-down conceptions of managing projects are giving way to a new model, one where the manager’s role has less controller or overseer responsibilities and more emphasis is placed on the ability to plan, adapt and communicate – as a leader.

The following table is a comparison between traditional Project management and PM2.0:

Traditional Project Management	Project Management 2.0
Centralization of control	Decentralization of control
Top-down planning	Bottom-up planning
Authoritarian environment	Collaborative environment
Implied structure	Emergent structures
Limited/Restricted Access to the plan	Organized/Unlimited Access to the plan
Local Access to information	Global/Live Access to information
Limited Communications within team	Unlimited Communications within team
Separate projects	Holistic approach
Overly complex tools	Easy to use tools
Rigidity of tools	Flexibility of tools

PM 2.0 relies on the same concept as Enterprise 2.0. So, while the collective intelligence helps to build, maintain and evolve an up-to-date picture of operations, the Web 2.0 tools will boost the efficiency of teams and at the same time reduce the daily routine, leaving room for creativity and leadership.