Managing communication through Network mapping

Communication and networks are two essential parts of projects that often can be neglected for project planning and project managing. Managing people issues in projects using Network Diagram is a good way of keeping track of whom are the right people to manage in a project. Since a project always concerns different stakeholders and different people who needs to interact with each other it is always important to keep track of whom are linked to whom. This can be done by using a Network Diagram indicating whom are connected to whom and what power does that relationship indicate as well as what power does the individual hold towards the project. And when combining that with the use of the right way of communicating as well as the right communication strategy the likelihood of a successful implementation of a project is way higher than if the communication and the network is not at part of the project plan.

Introduction to Network mapping

The network diagram is a way of indicating the connection between people, organizations or other groups or things that might be indicated in a network. The network contains in the basic of nodes and edges. Nodes representing the people, organizations or groups. Edges is then indicating the connection between the people, organizations or groups.

What can then be added as indicators is the size of the node, showing what ever attributes connected to the node. Examples could be turnover of a company, number of employees in a company or age of a person. Then the size of the edge between two nodes can be used to indicate the connection between the two. Examples of that could be the emails between the two, the deals between to companies or the amount of projects they have worked together.

When the network is then drafted there are different roles that can be found in network each of them having a special indication of the importance and abilities of that node.

Central connector

The central connector is the type that everyone is talking to, the person or organization that communicates with the most of the others within the project. It would often be the project leader but often it is not the case as recognized by Rob Cross and Laurence Prusak "In most cases, the central connectors are not the formally designated go-to people in the unit."