Microsoft Teams use case: Projects

Applicable to

Applies to UCT project managers or project administrators needing to set up a team to collaborate with project staff remotely and to provide a platform for facilitating the management of the UCT project.
May apply to project staff collaborating on a UCT project with each other and possibly with external consultants who would like to know how best to use Teams.

When to use

Use when you start a new project that ideally has a duration of at least a few weeks that will need a platform for planning and collaborating within the project and for managing project documentation.

Description

This covers the case in which staff collaborating on a project with each other and possibly with external consultants use Teams when working towards a common goal: facilitate communications, online meetings and activities for project staff in PASS and/or Academic departments/units/teams across campus (and possibly with external consultants) to enable them to carry out and monitor project activities remotely, effectively and efficiently.

Recommended tools and tabs

Recommended tools

Tool	Used for:
Planner	Planning and coordinating tasks within the PASS and/or Academic department/unit/group
OneNote	Taking informal/formal notes during or after meetings
Whiteboard	Brainstorming during discussions or workshops
Wiki	Documenting proceedings during or after meetings
OneDrive for Business	Managing standard meeting recordings Note: Permissions to meeting recordings should be managed to ensure that they are only made available to those authorised to access them.
SharePoint	Managing channel meeting recordings Note: Permissions to meeting recordings should be managed to ensure that they are only made available to those authorised to access them.
Glossary	Providing a standard set of terms/acronyms and definitions for use within the committee/group to ensure shared understanding
Polly	Quick informal polls during committee/group meetings Gauging member views quickly and providing a report within the meeting
Polls
Microsoft Forms	More comprehensive, formal and/or extended surveys/questionnaires to be sent to the committee/group outside of meetings
Website	See Tabs recommended section below Note: Only secure links (i.e. HTTPS) may be added.
To do	For individual task management which integrates with Microsoft Planner and Microsoft Outlook Note: This is available from the Microsoft Store (not from within Teams) but works well with Planner and Outlook for managing tasks.

Recommended tabs

Examples of tabs that might be useful or applicable to project teams indifferent departments or areas.

Note: Only secure links (i.e. HTTPS) may be added.

Title	Used for:
ServiceNow self-service portal	Requesting IT assistance, logging a request, incident, problem etc.
SAP/SAP Business Objects	Finance administration and reporting in SAP and/or SAP Business Objects on project budgets and funding
ICTS website	Referring to UCT IT support information and policies
Finance website	Referring to UCT Finance information and policies
<other links to project tools or websites>	Providing resources/information to support the activities of the project team outside of those provided by Microsoft Teams

Recommended channels

Examples of channels for project teams

Channels should be created based on the PASS and/or Academic staff group’s specific needs (such as by topic, discipline, or subject). However, examples of types of channels that could be created are:

General channel for general discussions, operations, miscellaneous items

Channel/s for each stream within the project, if applicable
Project management channel
Private channel for private collaboration or discussions between project managers and key stakeholders or project sponsors or selected project team members

Good practices for using channels

Selected good practices are listed below, but for a full list, please see the Channels section in the Good practices guide for Microsoft Teams.

Area	Practice/s
Naming of channels	Use a reliable and agreed naming convention for channels that will be sustainable in the long run within the team.
Permissions in channels	Meeting permissions in channels can be set to limit and manage access to meeting recordings to ensure that only those permitted to access recordings can do so.
Private channels	Private channels may be used in committees for private discussions between two or more members of the committee.