By Jason R. Ames, PMP

Improving collaboration on a project can significantly raise the probability of project success. So, can you improve team collaboration and ensure every team member is on the same proverbial page? Primavera features several tools to aid the collaboration process. This article includes screenshots to facilitate your understanding of these tools.

The first step in collaboration is ensuring all team members are on the same page of the playbook. Imagine an (American style) football team where half the offense thinks they will pass, and the other half says they will run (for non-football fans, take our word on this, it is not good). The same holds true with your projects. When team members don’t know what they should be working on, the only likely outcome is someone getting sacked. With Primavera’s P6 v7 Web Project, team members can easily see what tasks they are assigned per project and when they are scheduled to be completed.

Primavera P6 Team Member Screenshot

Once team members know what they are supposed to be working on, understanding exactly what is expected becomes critical. Like in football, knowing that the play is a pass is one thing, but knowing what route to run is even more critical. Of crucial importance is that Primavera offers its own collaboration strengths and enables integration with Microsoft Sharepoint or Oracle’s UCM. You can also save document templates and route documents for review through Primavera’s workflow engine.

Document Review Screenshot

It’s not enough that everyone starts on the same page. Project team members must continue communicating throughout the project, and Primavera makes that easy. Primavera provides project workspaces to allow project teams to share and identify issues and risks as they arise.

Screenshot of Primavera Workspace

Lastly, project teams must regularly update their activity status to ensure progress toward project completion. Primavera provides an easy-to-use application called progress Reporter that allows team members to update the activities they are assigned to as a resource. Once progress has been submitted, the project manager or functional manager can still approve the hours.

Primavera P6 Progress Reporter

Good team collaboration takes time, but with some practice and a few tools from Primavera, your team can win Super Bowls or complete projects on time and on schedule. If you want to know more about Primavera tools, contact Project Partners at sales@projectp.com.