Service Operation staff are often involved in projects. This may be to provide input to a new design, or to assist in verifying utilization or throughput rates, or to assist in conducting tests of new or changed services. In other cases the projects may affect existing OLAs and their feedback will be required. It must be recognized that this involvement will add to the level of communication that these individuals will be receiving and transmitting. This will require additional time and focus, which should be allowed for by managers assigning resources to projects on a part-time basis.
Purpose
Project communication as multiple purposes, including:
To gain support from project stakeholders – this communication will focus on the scope, cost and benefits of the project and will seek to demonstrate an overall return on the project’s investment
To ensure that all members of the project team understand and are aligned to the objectives of the project
To assign work to individuals or teams
To schedule activities and ensure that resources are ready to begin their stage of the project
To check on and report the progress of the project
To detect and escalate potential exceptions or delays in the project
To prepare project customers and audiences for the rollout of the solution being built
Frequency
The frequency, role players and content of communication will depend on the nature of the project and the type of Project Management methodology being used
Table B.6 Communication within projects
Formal project communication tends to follow the cycle of project meetings. For example:
Weekly or monthly project meetings will be held with the Project Manager and the individual team leaders
A monthly status update will be sent to the project’s Executive Sponsor and possibly other key stakeholders
Exceptions and the result of quality assurance checks are reported into Project Assurance teams, who in turn will communicate the need for corrective action as necessary.
Inside each team, communication will be more focused on completing their tasks and will generally be more frequent than the project-wide communication.
There is likely to be a high level of less formal communication inside each team and also between teams to ensure that tasks are completed on time and promised resources are available when and where they are supposed to be. Extensive communication is also required as part of the handover from one team to another as the project moves from one stage or phase to another. An important rule of thumb is to document any communication that could potentially affect the outcome or the cost of the project.
Role Players
Project Manager and project administrative and coordination staff
