The State of Project Collaboration Software in 2020: Slack, Teams, G Chat, and now P2
Automattic, the company that manages the open source software, WordPress.org, recently launched P2, its version of project collaboration software for the Remote Work Age. Timely, considering the state of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it also provides commentary on the state of project management today. My reading of the tea leaves is that there are still challenges organizations--from small businesses to large enterprises--are facing in finding the right principles and tools to manage and collaborate effectively on projects and programs both internally and externally. Today, we’re going to discuss the state of project collaboration software in 2020...from Microsoft Teams to Slack and Google Chat to Asana and Trello...and now, P2.
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In this Cast
Ray Sidney-Smith
Augusto Pinaud
Art Gelwicks
Francis Wade
Show Notes | The State of Project Collaboration Software in 2020
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Raw Text Transcript | The State of Project Collaboration Software in 2020
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Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17
And Welcome back, everybody to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney Smith.
Augusto Pinaud 0:24 I am Augusto Pinaud.
Francis Wade 0:26I'm Francis Wade.
Art Gelwicks 0:27 And I'm Art Gelwicks.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:26
Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of ProductivityCast. Today, we have a fun topic, automatic, the company that manages the open source software wordpress.org, which powers if you didn't know about a third of the internet's websites just recently launched p to its version of project collaboration software for the remote work age, timely considering the state of the covid 19 pandemic, but it also provides commentary on the state of project management today. my reading of the tea leaves is that there are still challenges organizations from Small businesses to large enterprises are facing and finding the right principles and tools to manage and collaborate effectively on projects and programs, both internally and externally. So today, I thought what we would do is we discuss the state of project collaboration software in 2020, from Microsoft Teams to slack and Google Chat, to Asana and Trello. And now p two, we have all of these products on the market. And there's a bit of muddy water when we try to understand what they are and how they fit into the schema of both project management proper, but also then our own personal productivity. And so what I thought we would do first is to kind of define the various parts of project management software in the marketplace today. Then have a discussion around what the important characteristics of pm software are and the parts that make project collaboration work, plus, of course, our personal productivity work. And then finally, we can do maybe a light campaign. And contrast of the project collaboration software is on the market today. And that includes automatics p two now that it has entered the fray. So let's start with defining project collaboration software in the context of project management today,
Francis Wade 2:18
I think the software that I longed for is the one that would connect me with other people that I am working with in a seamless fashion. So I've been in my mind hankering after conquering hankering after just a perfect environment that would allow all of us to be able to see the same thing at the same time updated, share the contents of it, have it be somewhat private and separate from the real world or the rest of the world. A kind of a walled off garden that would allow us to focus and get things done without distraction and and also a lot of Zippy fast communication. That Maybe might be, um, speedier than other channels. I've hoped for something like this forever. And I've never found it.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 3:08
Since we're focusing on project collaboration software today, there's an understanding of the various other types of software that are out there. And so in project management, we think of the various aspects of taking a project from the beginning phases of planning through to the outcome, which is deliverables that are that are being produced on the other side. And so there's planning involved and there is project planning software. So we can think about like Microsoft Project, Gantt charting software, like Tom's planner, and so and so forth. We then kind of move forward into the project collaboration space, which is what we're going to be talking about today, which are software that allows you to be able to communicate while maintaining a connection or an integration With the project tasks, as well as milestones of the project itself, and that really comes into then project tracking software. So we have project tracking software that helps teams basically keep all of their tasks that are related to one another, including, you know, budget and expense reporting and resource allocation all together. And, and then there's project budgeting software as well, which really allows you to be able to handle all of the financial aspects of project management, there is a kind of a higher level, which I hear it being called portfolio management software, and that really is on the enterprise level, where management needs a tool, usually somehow related to their RP or otherwise to really manage on that macro level, goals of the organization and all of the resources that really drive down towards the Other software that it's managing. So there's this hierarchy, as well as integration between all of these software to make a cohesive platform for people to really be productive in amongst the various pieces of the puzzle, moving things forward. And so what I'm really interested in is, why is project collaboration software important in the context of making progress in our organization? How do you answer that question? When people ask it,
Art Gelwicks 5:34
I think you hit the key concept that you have to take into consideration here, which is the spectrum of need of collaboration as compared to project management itself, isolating the collaboration part out of it, because there's a lot of applications that do the project task management portion very well and have added on Collaboration Trello is a good example of that. There are other tools that focus primarily on the collaboration side and have started to add on the project management piece. teams, for example. So thinking about the balance between the two, what's, how do you find the one that's going to be right? For me, the really important thing is you have to look at the projects that you are doing. And identify where is the weakness, you're not going to deploy a tool that necessarily just only caters to the strength of your teams. If you have teams that work together really well. They just have a hard time getting their work organized. deploying a tool that focuses on that, working together really well doesn't really move the needle for you. You've got to be able to offset those weaknesses in your team without creating new ones. For is right there isn't one out there that does both sides of this fence equally well. I mean, there are always pluses and minuses to both of them. Everybody's trying to do the same basic things. They make the argument that, oh, if we put all this stuff in one place, we can kill email. That's one of the things you hear a lot with these things that they're email killers. But you can also simplify finding your files and keep your tasks on task and all all the lovely marketing hype. But it still boils down to one core thing and we're talking about the collaboration piece. Projects are successful when everybody is doing what they're supposed to be doing and knows what that is. And if we're able to use tools like Trello, or like a team's to hit that mark, then the actual features are more gravy than anything else in my book.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 7:55
All I have to do is say here here to the the ridiculousness of people attempting to kill email. First of all, just to soapbox for a moment, email is a strata of the internet, it is not something that you can kill off isn't it is an open protocol that is a part of the internet. So, so so that's a foolhardy perspective to begin with. Second, it's an absolutely brilliant piece of technology when used correctly. And so three means we need to learn how to use email correctly, and not use it for things it's not meant to do. And then we'll all be better off. I think the abuse of email is what you know, not the use,
