Skype and email

I'm in a software shop. We do GoToMeeting, Skype, email, landline, Facetime, cell, but most importantly, Jira. I can't stress enough the importance of a cohesive, reliable workflow tool.

In my previous role for an IT hardware behemoth, we used "tracking sheets" in Excel, MS Project, even Sharepoint. The problem with that approach is that it doesn't roll up -- whatever work you're doing will have to get manually translated and simplified for your managers, then their managers, and so on. People end up frustrated that their hard work gets taken for granted, their lazy work gets unnoticed, and their leadership remains viciously inconsistent and unreasonably demanding while fostering no accountability.

I no longer really feel the need to go travel. PMs break down even the most complicated of tasks into groups of small tasks (e.g. "Create BI Dashboard" gets turned into "Set up server", "Import users", "Copy Existing Template", "Modify Template Using Spec 123", etc). Each ticket is tracked via live personal dashboards accessible via any connected device. You post updates directly to tickets, which serve as history, a knowledge base, and a discussion forum. All tickets have work estimates, which roll up to larger leadership dashboards to help with long-term planning. People can ballpark their effectiveness in number of closed tickets adjusted for the level of their projects' complexity (e.g. Johnny's project is open-ended, few tickets closed; Jessie is in Support, many tickets closed).

It really changed the way I operate in the corporate word I used to hate so recently. If it's not on the sprint board, you're not working on it. It something is not going to get done, justify your reasons and slide it out of the sprint. The scope of work with all updates is right there in front of you, live, with notes and updates.