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.