Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools

Chapter 3Evaluating Your Needs

“To do his work well a workman must first sharpen his tools.

— Chinese proverb

Before you can get the most out of tools like wikis and blogs, you need to understand what you are going to use them for. Just as it is a waste of money and time to purchase and train your team members on a complex system that they do not really need, it is also a waste to have your team working harder than necessary for the lack of the right tool. Once you have established your team (covered in Chapter 2), you can begin to choose the types of collaborative tools you need to accomplish your goals. This chapter steps through some of the questions you need to answer in order to choose the most appropriate tools for your project. These questions ...