Guidelines For Communications And Networking

International project management is about global communications and networking. You need to be in touch with people in the various locations in which project work is being performed. These statements are obvious. Now look behind the lines at the fine print of requirements. Do you need extremely rapid communications? Sometimes. An example might be videoconferencing. But you don’t require it all of the time. So you don’t want to pay for capabilities that you will rarely use. It is better to rent or use someone else’s facilities.

Does the technology always have to be available? For some things such as defense or banking operations it does. For standard projects this is not necessary. Let’s consider an example. One of us managed a project using programmers in India. The location in India had very poor communications. Internet speeds were pathetic, but the Internet was available. How could the programmers be managed and the program code and programs reviewed? The solution was to sometimes use a delivery service for large files. At other times if someone was going to a city that had rapid Internet speeds, they took files with them and transmitted them. At other times for limited e-mail and other documents, the files could be compressed or zipped and then transmitted. The approach worked fine. This is an example of learning to live with what you have available. A basic guideline is:

The project cannot afford to invest in new technology for the project itself in most cases.

Not only is this guideline useful, but you have to consider the overall cost of the technology. Figure 6.3 gives a list of cost factors to consider. Note in this table the phrase “supporting technologies.” Most technologies do not come in alone. They require some technological infrastructure or related products. Vendors push this since they want to sell you a range of products.

Figure 6.3: Examples of Cost Factors in Using a Technology

How do you use communications and networks in project management? Consider creating a table such as that in Fig. 6.4.

Figure 6.4: Types of Communications in International Project Management

Here are some guidelines for communications and networking.

• In countries where there is a modern infrastructure, use what the people in the location are already working with. It is too difficult to teach old dogs new tricks.

• In locations where there is a lack of infrastructure and technology, then each place will have to be considered on a case-by-case basis.

• Instead of investing in more technology, try to think of ways to work smarter. Plan when to communicate. Develop outlines and forms to shorten the communications.

• Define how to communicate as an issue at the start of the international project and have team members explore in their locations the cheapest and easiest way to communicate with you and each other. In one case, the simplest and cheapest was to buy someone a coffee at an Internet café.

• Accept the fact that in a wide-ranging international project, there will have to be more than one standard communications solution