Step Two Designs

Book review: Seamless Teamwork

Written by James Robertson, published December 15th, 2008

Categorised under: Book & product reviews

Seamless Teamwork
Michael Sampson

Team-based collaboration is now a key part of project delivery in many organisations. Despite this, success can be hit-and-miss, with some teams prospering and others not.

Tools such as SharePoint are spreading rapidly through organisations. While these can bring significant new capabilities, they are not simple tools, and can often be daunting for project teams. Teams may also not have the necessary people and planning skills to fully benefit from collaborative approaches.

This book addresses both these issues in a unique way.

The first aspect of the book provides step-by-step instructions on using SharePoint for team-based collaboration. Starting from setting up the initial team spaces, Michael walks through configuring the tools for best effect, how to use notifications, the role of blogs and wikis, and much more.

The other aspect looks at how to manage team collaboration from a people and process perspective. Injecting his unique perspectives on how teams should work together, Michael provides an underlying narrative that describes the lifecycle of typical project.

The connection between the technology and people makes this book particularly valuable for business teams (the target for this book, rather than the typical IT audience). Many challenges remain for project teams to learn new collaboration skills, but this book provides a solid foundation for ongoing cultural change.

Overall, highly recommended, and required reading for any organisation planning to roll out a tool like SharePoint (or equivalent) for team collaboration.

Score: 8/10

Tags: Collaboration