Communications Management
Effective communications management is critical in any distributed delivery engagement. In a distributed environment, communications issues range from production support calls to data security issues, and the people that need to be informed/involved run the gamut within the customer and vendor organizations.
Everything from how developers interface with end users to the frequency of executive steering committees (and everything in between) should be discussed and agreed upon prior to project inception. The issue of communications cannot be minimized.
Utilizing a single node for all communications such as SharePoint helps to streamline communications among all project stakeholders. Clients could log into SharePoint to check project status, request meetings, and log defects. Project managers and team members could communicate using meeting workspaces and threaded discussion boards as well. In addition, there is integration with Microsoft Outlook for e-mail alerts of task assignments from Microsoft Project Server. SharePoint facilitates resource centralization, document repository, and knowledge retention.
Conclusion
When it comes to IT projects, the implementation of a global delivery model is not an easy task. However, utilizing the right technology solutions and implementing them along side of project management methodologies can help deliver projects on time, under budget, and without incident. In the case of Data Inc., this technology system has become a way of life in the quest to streamline the development lifecycle and create a true 24-hour application development discipline.