Problem: You are the project manager for a small IT website portal project for an external customer. Your office is located in Boise, ID. You are working with three programmers (internal employees of your firm), one web designer (internal), one content manager (internal), two subject matter experts (both external from the same contractor and located in Boise, ID), one business analyst (internal), your sponsor (internal Senior VP of IT), one e-commerce specialist (internal but at an office in Seattle, WA), and two testers (one internal and one external with an IT management firm you have contracted with for QA located in Boise, ID).

• The customer admits that he rarely checks emails or phone messages, but he needs to be written documentation to show his bosses how things are going. 
• Your sponsor is extremely busy and prefers to have written documentation of project updates on a weekly basis, but he also wants to talk to you in person on a weekly basis. 
• Your programmers are also very, very busy and not only don't have time for long meetings, but probably wouldn't go anyway. They like quick bursts of information they can access from their cubes. 
• Your subject matter experts are consulted on an infrequent basis - - mostly as-needed, but when they are involved it takes a very thorough discussion. They really do not need to be keep abreast of status or progress, but just need to be updated just before they are brought in for their opinions.
• The content manager is an integral part of the project and needs weekly updates and communications. She prefers a quick face-to-face meeting, but is fine with emails. 
• The designer also needs to be involved on a frequent (weekly) basis and needs to be kept in the loop on status and progress. He does have some very technical information and specifications to track, so written communication is very important. 
• The business analyst is a key player on the project team and will be heavily involved with you - the project manager - on a daily basis, so daily updates and discussions are important.
• The e-commerce specialist needs to be involved early to help refine the requirements for conducing e-commerce for the customer.  Most likely he will also help periodically along the way as needed and assist with testing at the end, but he is not integrally involved on a frequent basis.
• The testers will not be involved until each phase is complete and there are three phases. They will be most utilized at the end before the portal goes live. They will approach their jobs from a user's perspective and look for any problems or glitches in functionality. They do like to know where the programming is at on a monthly basis or so. The external tester is working on ten projects simultaneously and generally cannot make it to your office for face-to-face meetings. The internal tester is five doors down from your office.
• Overall, your team likes to hear what everyone else is doing fairly frequently - - even the programmers who prefer to work independently in their cubes. You are considering a team meeting every so often, but you know everyone is busy so you don't want it to be a long drawn-out affair. 
• The CEO and the rest of the executive team at your firm like to see high level numbers and data (metrics) in a dashboard form every three months or so to stay on top of this important project for a very good customer.

Please note: think carefully about this assignment as it is VERY important in a project. In this assignment AND in the business world, take the necessary time to develop your project communication matrix (and the overall project communication plan) right. If you do this, you will help mitigate many of the communication issues that can easily derail a project.