A strong project team can assure the success of a project. While there isn't one right way to do it, there are some common things that we can look at. The purpose of the techniques described below is to serve as an exploration point in your own journey to build the best team ever.

• Build a broad-based team. If there is a possibility do a thorough check on team-to be members, choose only people that are known to get things done and are good team players. Know their strengths and weaknesses, get feedbacks from previous projects.
• Comprehensive team reviews. In ideal - all team members should be available to freely express and asses their thought about other team members work. It should be non-threatening and then we should find out where things are going well and where we need improvement. In reality this is very hard to achieve, because people tend not to express their thoughts about other team members, team needs to be socialised to achieve this.
• Team decision making. Team members need to know how their thoughts and suggestions can influence the outcome of the project, for that they need to know which team decision technique is being used (consensus, majority rule, minority rule, averaging, expert, authority rule without discussion, authority rule with discussion).
• Team spirit and support. Team members should share personal motivation and ambition. Usually people want more then they are willing to put in, so sharing it within the team will help to address these issues. Project manager should keep the "bad" stuff to himself as long till it doesn't affect team member's ability to perform the job successfully. Project manager should provide full support to his team in the eyes of upper management - if there will be no trust between the manager and other team members, I doubt there can be a successful project.
• Team objectives. Last but not least, all the things should be clearly stated to the team for a successful onward collaboration: team objectives, phases and timelines, stakeholders, project outputs, deliverables, risks, SWOT.

These are just some of the many available techniques, but I believe the first thing needed - get the right people, after that you'll need some collaboration space for your team, so just sign up for a free Comindwork account and start doing successful projects.

Among the issues that need to be addressed in the project initiation document, some are required and some are optional. Here are some common things that should be taken into consideration when putting up such documents:

• Problem/opportunity statement (required): What is the problem or opportunity of the project? This section should provide background on the factors that led to the project and, where appropriate, some history of what has been attempted in the past.
• Scope definition (required): What are the quantifiable characteristics or end results to be achieved? The scope definition should respond to the problem or to the opportunity. The end product might be a specified product, process, or service.
• Completion criteria (required): What needs to be done? How will it be measured in the most objective terms? How will we know when we're finished? The completion criteria should indicate whether it is the design, the prototype, or a complete working product, system, or process that is the goal of the project. Consequently, this completion criterion or standard of performance needs to be quantifiable. The objective is to sate the goal clearly so that there wouldn't be any questions upon project completion
• Assumptions (optional): What has been assumed? Is everyone aware of these assumptions? Remember that what you, the project manager, assume will form the basis upon which to build the project plans. If the other stakeholders, particularly the client, have not made the same assumptions, there will be a major difference in expectations.
• Risk (required): What are the risks of doing or not doing this project? It can be a detailed mathematical presentation with which to project the financial and other benefits. Or you can provide a business analysis of the major risks and rewards that provide the basis for deciding whether it is worth to proceed with the project.
• Resource requirements (optional): What resources will be required? This section should alert particular areas of the organization that their staff members will be required to support this project. You may also want to announce whether you will need any special or unusual resources for the project. Do not make definitive specifications at this point since you do not have enough information to plan. Rather, include a generic statement of skill mixes that will be eventually requested.
• Constraints (optional): Are there any special constraints imposed upon the project? These could be environmental factors such as terrain, weather conditions, or Environmental Protection Agency requirements. There may be constraints imposed by equipment, technology, or chronological limitations to be considered. Get them out on the table at the beginning of the project so that you will have the opportunity to re-evaluate and pursue alternative solutions.

Remember that Comindwork integratred wiki system is ideal for creating and managing all kinds of project documents as wiki pages weather it is PID (Project Initiations Documents), project charter, risk analysis or any other.

In my previous post I gave you the idea what the getting things done software is all about and how you could use Comindwork as a GTD software. There are two more things that I'd like to point out and share some tips how to use Comindwork for your advantage.

• Workflow process. Collect - use Comindwork wiki to store all the information, even if you'll forget where you have written something - the powerful Comindwork search feature will help you find it; Process - on personal or project dashboards you can easily sort tasks/cases by priority, you can easily assign (to yourself and to the team) and resolve tasks, set due dates and reminders; Organize, Review and Do techniques just needs simple and effective way to move between a lot of tasks and info, dashboards and tagging does a great job when you are just getting things done.
• Natural planning method. This planning things connects five methods: defining the purpose and principles (wiki documents, like requirements, vision etc.), envisioning the outcome (project goals), brainstorming, organizing (tagging), defining next actions.

The GTD is all about to save, organize, control and get all the related information related to things that needs to get done. Sign up for a free Comindwork account and start getting things done!

The Universal 'Wiki' Edit Button leads to a page where you can collaborate, not just comment, commit or comply. -- Ward Cunningham, Inventor of Wiki

Comindwork joins wiki providers initiative and introduces support for the Universal Edit Button (UEB). This button is a 'don't forget about me' type of things. If you can edit the current page, a green pencil icon appears in the URL bar of your browser (similar to the RSS icon) and reminds you about this. It invites to contribute. Clicking on it will take you to the editor.

For now, this button is available only in Firefox 2 or 3 as a little extension. Over the time, it is expected that browsers will support this neat button directly, as they have done for RSS feeds. UEB is already supported by nearly 50 wiki providers. And the number keeps growing!

Install Firefox extension to see UEB in your browser