Managing Communications

Abstract

Communication is a critical success factor for e-business projects. According to PMI, project managers spent about 90% of their time acquiring and communicating information [32]. In an e-business project you have to communicate throughout the day. You have to spend many hours in meetings with your team, the client, subcontractors (if any), and senior management, to name just a few. You have to inform the stakeholders on project status and progress. You have to send and respond to e-mails and written reports. You give and receive phone calls and you take part in conference calls. You might do a good job in all other management domains, such as motivating the team, delivering good results, making the schedule, but poor communication — especially to the outside stakeholders — can negate all the things you are doing right. If you are not able to convey the right information in a proper form to the right people at the correct point in time, you simply lose.