August 2024 SOCRA Source Journal - Journal - Page 66
TABLE 3
Project Communication: Communication Matrix
Communication Communication
Goal
Tool
Employee
Meetings
Status
Reports
Project
Updates
Purpose
Audience
From Whom
Frequency
In-person
Meeting
To keep
everyone upto-date to the
current status
of business
operations
All Employees
Leadership
Team
Monthly
Email
Provide status
updates of
all projects
ongoing
Steering Team
Sponsor
Management
Team
Project Team
Project
Manager
Monthly
Dashboard
Provides
summary of
ongoing
projects
All Employees
Key
Stakeholders
Project Team
Quarterly
Timelines, deliverables, and key
performance indicators cover
recruitment and enrollment, the
IRB, and milestones. The project
manager must develop a plan
to track that recruitment is on
target, with actions to be taken
if recruitment is lagging. For
example, the clinical research
site could add more resources to
facilitate recruitment or ask for
an extension of the recruitment
timeline.
Tracking this information will help
ensure that high quality data is
being obtained.
Communications
Communication can make or
break a project and is one of
the most important attributes
of a good project manager. The
project manager must openly
66
and transparently communicate
with stakeholders and research
team members at all times. It
is better to over-communicate
than to not communicate
enough. A communication
matrix or a communication plan
can be used (Table 3) to assist
with this.
For every project, a
communication plan should
be developed that includes
the sensitivity of the data,
who should have access to
which items, the frequency
of the communications,
information on meetings
and how information should
be communicated (email, in
person, etc.). The plan can and
should be adjusted throughout
the project lifespan. This plan
should include communications
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with study team members and
stakeholders. Stakeholders
could be study participants,
healthcare partners, community
members, or individuals and
organizations who are actively
involved in the project, or
whose interests may be
positively or negatively affected
as a result of project execution
or successful project completion
(PMI, 1996).
It is important that the
project manager has a good
understanding of who the
study stakeholders are, what
information they need, when
they need the information,
and how they want it
communicated. The project
manager needs to maintain a
contact list to be able to easily
contact stakeholders.