Hello I am Deanne McGinn (nee Munro). I began my long journey in the Information Technology (IT) field before it was known as IT. I completed a bachelor degree in computer science with a triple major from Griffith University and immediately began a Masters in Commerce (Information Systems) at the University of Queensland. While undertaking these degrees I worked in the IT field whenever possible whether it be, student vacation work at the Brisbane City Council or as a contract software engineer.
From there I moved through various incarnations until I reached my true passion, project management. As with most Project Managers it was by pure accident that I feel upon this rich and rewarding profession. In this particular role I have held various positions from Project Manager to Project Director to Senior Project Manager for Data#3 where I currently work today.
Data#3 has provided me with a rich array of projects involved with a wide range of organisations and industries. As a Senior Project Manager at Data#3 my main role is to take on the high risk, high exposure projects which while they can bare the greatest fruits they can also lead to certain failure if not correctly managed.
So once again on my continuing journey I have been placed in the role of Senior Project Manager for the Win7 Deployment Project to ensure all the rigor and governance we apply to our customers projects is applied to this very special and pioneering, internal project to Data#3.
Yours sincerely,
Deanne McGinn B.Inf, M.Com(IS)
Communication Management – The Forgotten Art
Data#3 prides itself of its professionalism and the competency of our technology specialists and once again these men and women raised the bar that little bit higher. The automated build process executed seamlessly during the closed pilot phase and is considered zero touch within our environment. With the technology well developed and posing little risk our focus then turned to our user community.
Project Managers tend to spend a lot of time concentrating on their schedules, budgets and scope. It has been found that the most successful Project Managers in the world have strength in these areas but add a strong commitment to communication throughout the life of the project. Not only with the key stakeholders but also with those who are directly or indirectly affected by the change brought about by the project.
During a Desktop SOE roll out clear communication is paramount to ensure a smooth transition for all involved. A full Communication Management Plan was developed where the simple principle was ‘let’s keep on message”.
All communications were sent to our pilot participants using a 5 day, 3 day and night before deployment communication approach. Each communication provided more and more detail as the day to roll out came closer. A variety of communication mediums were used ranging from e-mails, blogs, online web tutorials, SharePoint sites, LIVE Meeting to face-to-face workshops. We provided our pilot participants which ranged from highly skilled technical staff, to sales executives, to administrative functions with these diverse mediums to ensure whatever their individual preferences were in receiving information we had them covered.
If proved successful during the pilot this communication plan will form the basis for the full production communication.