The Complete Software Project Manager

Chapter 9Communication; Project Communication Strategy; from Project Kickoff to Daily Meetings

There's a common thread among all successful software projects: They have good communication up, down, and across (Figure 9.1). Information flows from management down to the team members, from the team members up to management, and then across among all team members.

Figure 9.1

Informal communication goes on constantly. Still, it is not sufficient to rely on informal communications, as many technology teams do. Formal communication structures are necessary. The bigger the project, the more are needed. Even though most people would like to avoid that one extra meeting, if the meetings are purposeful and regular, they will be invaluable for catching mistakes, miscommunications, and gotchas as well as for keeping the project moving.

Approaching your regular weekly meeting, you may feel challenged. What are we going to talk about? What should be on the agenda? Just the act of putting an agenda together will be a healthy exercise for the project. In my experience, regular meetings help nudge a project along and keep teams from spinning off into their own solar systems. Here are ways to structure your meetings as well as agendas that are good to follow.

Project Kickoff

The kickoff is the communication piece most often left out. Everyone knows we're doing the project, right? Why don't ...