Communication*

* denotes a required field.

A couple weeks ago, Dave wrote a blog about the importance of project planning, and I still agree that planning is an important part of the process, I now also know something equally as important: communication.

Without communication, all is lost. In fact planning isn't effectively possible without communication. For example, someone on the sales team could plan out a complete site for a client without talking to them, the designers, the devleopers, the project managers, or anyone. While they may come up with what seems to be a great idea that attempts to take everyone into consideration, ultimately details will be missed.

How do you know what the client wants?
Is this possible, is that possible?
Do we have the time and resources for this schedule?
Can the client come close to even affording any of this?
Are there any easier and better ways to do this?
Does this page need content?
Should this be dynamic or static?

A lack of communication undermines the process of planning. Does this make it more important? I originally thought yes, but you can communicate without having a plan and come in equally off base, so it seems not. They appear to be equally important.

There are many ways to increase communication within your team. Depending on the size of the team there are many solutions out there to help you. A lot of people recommend 37Signals' Basecamp for project management. I checked it out this weekend, and while I didn't actually use it with a project, it wasn't anything like I was expecting. I've always heard 37Signals refer to themselves as giving you nice and simple tools, but it wasn't that simple. (In fact, there was so much reading on each page that I quickly grew bored and gave up.) Decent attempt, poor implementation.

Here at iMarc we have a wiki that is great for sharing ideas, keeping a central location for our thoughts, to-do lists, schedules how-to's and plans. There are limitations, however, and while wikis are good because they are open, they're not really geared towards managing multiple projects.

Microsoft Project was a program we had to learn while in school. Again, while this seemed to manage things nicely, it was overly complicated.

I've yet to find a simple, straight-forward solution for this, but I digress.

A lack of communication causes the decay, deterioration or destruction of timelines, and can be considered the root of 90% of the problems one will find in any team project. The flow must be open and honest, with everyone being on the same page at all times. Frequent quick, regular meetings with your teammates are just one of the many ways to ensure that things are getting done on time and on budget (the two more important 'ons' of the business world).

Stay connected.
The success of your project depends on it.