¶ … Communication Strategy
Communication Plan
The communication plan is an important component of any project and can serve as the foundation for effective communication for the project team. The communication strategy must include the frequency of communications, who is responsible for organizing the communications, the recipients, and the mediums for communications. Most projects will use a blend of different mediums with meetings scheduled at key intervals.
This project will use group meetings that will occur in person at regular intervals and during key project milestones. In today's project environment, there are an unprecedented number of ways for team members to communicate, however the face-to-face meeting still provides a number of advantages over other mediums. The face-to-face meeting allows the group to give their full attention to the matters at hand as well as be exposed to non-verbal cues and body language use. Other forms of communication do not allow for the same depth of understanding that interpersonal communication in person can provide.
Beyond the group meetings, the rest of the communications for the project will consist of email and phone calls as well as weekly project status updates. Most of the non-critical information that does not influence the critical path can be transmitted digitally. For example, the team members can inform the project manager of task status and task completion information via email. The project manager should also send out a weekly status update to the project team so that everyone on the team is aware of the projects overall progress. It is not necessary to hold weekly...
When the issue that a group confronts is not overly complex, then it can often be handled in this manner. Since the project involves primarily technical solutions to obstacles, it is unlikely that the entire group will need to be present to help solve these problems. However, the group's cross-functional problem solving will definitely be an asset during the planning phase to define the project scope. It will also be prudent to hold group meetings before or after certain milestones so that the group can coordinate their activities and ensure that everyone is on the same page. For example, holding a group meeting before the build phase in this project will allow everyone to discuss the phase beforehand and build a collective understanding of the exact build requirements.
Involving the end-users in the project planning stage can also represent a critical success factor. The end-user group can provide many insights to the use requirements, which can help, define the scope of the project. If the user requirements are not identified in the planning phase, the project scope might not cover such requirements and the project could be unsuccessful or costly revisions might be necessary. It is also important to communicate with the external stakeholders at various points in the project to keep them updated in the project's development. The project manager should regularly meet with stakeholders to discuss the project after certain milestones are reached. This…
