A collaborative project management architecture

The project management (PM) paradigm is rapidly shifting due to business globalization and information technology (IT) advances that support distributed and virtual project teams. Traditional PM focuses on a single project at a single location according to R. Evaristo and P. C. van Fenema (1999) and is more concerned with project inputs and outputs than with project process by J. R. Turner (2000). Management in the past implied projects were conducted with a top down view by K. J. Cleetus et al. (1996). The PM paradigm has begun to change due to the increasing number of distributed projects involving project collaborators from different locations, organizations, and cultures according to N. D. Jonsson et al. (2001). Current and future PM are more concerned with tracking project work processes and efficient and effective sharing of information and knowledge, among project contributors. High-levels of collaboration become essential for distributed project success. Task interdependence and member distribution across time, space, and technology make high degrees of collaboration necessary to accomplish project work. Adequate and timely sharing of information, and knowledge in all directions, proactive change management, and process monitoring are some of the important factors required for successful project collaboration according to F. Maurer (1996). In this article, we review problems associated with traditional PM scenarios, explain how collaborative PM can provide solutions, present a comparison of current commercial collaborative PM tools, and propose a collaborative PM architecture to address the challenges facing distributed projects teams.