In my humble opinion, No, email is not the best project management tool.
The key ingredient is a well structured message which is readable on screen and means the same thing to all recipients. This takes brain power not tool power which simply packages the message.
I see email as being one of the necessary emails used to distribute information to members of clients who don't have access to collaborative shared areas or tools. Email also does not provide an audit trail so that when tangents are created and new participants join, you have a complete mess and need to summarise the conversations and then redistribute to all.
Other collaborative tools such as wikis, bulletin boards, Lotus Notes or Share Point, Documentum, etc provide better PM tools to be used alongside Project Management (Project) and diagramming tools (Visio) are better Project Management tools.
The one advantage email has is that virtually everyone, including my mother, can use it - maybe not with the same finesse, but they can master the basics of "compose, address, send". As I've said before, the hard part is in the compose step - (smiley face).
Alison Murray
posted 6 months ago
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