How much communication is needed for projects?

Never underestimate the ability for any professional to make something appear more complicated than it is.  This is rarely more true than it is with Project Management.

I would like to suggest that managing a project from concept to completion is about answering the following questions at critical points in the journey. If you can answer and have agreement from all your stakeholders to all these questions then not only are you likely to have a successful project, but you will also have strong support and adoption.

CONCEPT

Is this worth doing?

PLANNING

How should be organise ourselves to do it?

What are the key steps and outcomes?

DESIGN

Will this deliver what we need?

TEST

How will we test and ensure it does what is expected?

DEPLOYMENT

How do we engage, support and train people to adapt and adopt the new product or approach?

HAND-OVER

Is everything OK and complete?

CLOSE AND REVIEW

Did we achieve the intended outcomes, and what have we learned?

What do you think?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tim Rogers is an experienced Management Consultant, Project and Change Leader. He is also Commonwealth Triathlete and World Championships Rower and a Tutor/Mentor on the Chartered Management Institute.