Communication and Project Team Distribution

There are times when our business does not have all the requisite talent within the walls of the organization. It is nearly impossible to be fully prepared for every opportunity available, and the business and time investment in expertise that is only transitory seldom passes muster. However, when we build this network of internal and external or numerous external sites, we must also consider the communications that will vary depending upon the scope of the project. Let’s consider a company is building the network that consist of three companies:

1. The development
2. Test and verification
3. Our organization (UAT)

Immediately after the articulation of the project scope, we need to identify the players and areas of responsibility. Our communications planning should account for the distribution of the work, and so too our schedule. We must account for the transitions between the organizations, who needs what information and what constitute good quality of information as well as good product during these exchanges.

Communication and Coordination

These three entities need will need to communicate and our project communications plan must understand what each entity within this project will need for information. The development group will need input from the customer organization (the same organization doing the UAT). The test organization, will need information and material from the development organization. The UAT in this instance, is scheduled to happen after the test and verification. Let us consider that this schedule, has these in the sequence of 1>2>3, or Development, Test and UAT. Let us also consider that the schedule is set up as a single pass, that is, the sequence 1>2>3, will only go through one time. Those things found in testing, will need to go back to the developers, and after testing, the UAT testing will begin, and the results of that UAT must also go back to the developers. All that feedback to the developers must be coordinated and directed. This is anticipated to be a single pass through the process. That means those things found in testing and UAT will need to be quickly corrected and another iteration of the product delivered. What do we think the probability of a single pass working out well?

When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you need to do is stop digging.