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." Since the central connector is not always the formally go-to person it can be seen as the person most people talk to in the project might not be the project manager at all.

Boundary spanner

Boundary spanner is a person whom are connecting two different groups these groups can be direct departments within a company or the crane operators on a building site. The person or organization having such contact and being the only one with that direct contact is of vital importance for the project because without that person there is no direct contact and therefore often no trust bounds between the project and the individual group, department or company.

Information broker

The information broker is the one who connects a large number of individuals or organizations and often between the main group and sub groups. The difference from the central connector is that the information broker is not only defined by the number of contacts but also the importance of the contacts.

Peripheral specialist

Peripheral specialist is the outsider. The person or company that do not have as many contacts as everyone else but whom are often a specialist and is therefore important because of the know-how. The link between that organization or person and the main group is very important because without that the organization or group might not have access to the know-how provided by the peripheral specialist.

Communication

The way of communicating is an important aspect of how the project will be conceived by the once whom are supposed to listen. It is not regardless how the project manager communicates to up to the clients who set the assignment, out to the other internal or external stakeholders or down to the project group all of them various stakeholders. The classification of stakeholders and more on stakeholder management can be found on the Wiki page Stakeholder Management