Collective Wisdom from the Experts 29
• Track the progress (use any tool) of each workstream separately, and tie
up the metrics at regular intervals to feel the pulse of the overall project.
• Document and share the risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies of
each workstream separately.
• Organize regular team meetings to share the status of each and every
workstream.
• Publish an overall project roadmap, including release plans from all dif-
ferent workstreams.
• Use online tools aggressively to share user requirements, milestone
updates, bug reports, report timelines, and risks.For example, imagine you are entrusted with building three versions of the
same website (North America, Asia-Pacific, and Mid-East). You decide it is
best to create three different workstreams, each with an independent delivery
contact person. Since all three sites are basically the same sites in a different
version (leading to medium customization), have a few key resources float
across all three workstreams. This way, they can ensure the overall integrity of
the sites and suggest reuse of implementation details.
Another example might be that you have multiple integration vendors for a sin-
gle project. It might be ideal to separate out each integration point (or a related
collection of them) into an individual workstream. This will allow simultaneous
channels of work and may shorten the delivery time. Involve the different teams
in daily meetings to coordinate the overall quality of the delivery.