Project Communications Management

Several issues have arisen on the Global Treps Project. Ashok, your team member in India, broker his wrist playing tennis yesterday and cannot work on the project at all for three weeks. His work, which involves helping to edit the videos, starts in one week, so you need to reassign it to others.

Bobby suggests you use Kanban boards to list all of the tasks for editing the videos and to track where they are in the work flow. Bobby, a techie and not known for being a good communicator, is the only person who's ever used Kanban boards. You have not yet broken down the tasks into much detail and need more information from Angela, the contractor in charge of creating the videos.

Alfreda is having difficulties communicating with her main contact in Ethiopia, Dr. B. He is very busy all the time and does not use texting, Alfreda's preferred communications medium. He has also not communicated key information with students who could be candidates for their event, which is only a month away. Alfreda is not sure if he booked a room for the event yet.

1. Describe how you would communicated to Ashok and the rest of the team about Ashok's injury. What actions would you take? What communications medium would you use with different stakeholders?

2. Prepare a partial communications management plan to address some of the challenges mentioned in Part 7 of the case.

3. Research free, online tools for using Kanban boards and choose one to use. Prepare a list of at least ten tasks that would be done in editing the videos and enter them into your tool of choice. Prepare or find a short guide or video explaining how to use the Kanban boards.

4. Write a one-page paper describing options for communicating with Dr. B. and making sure students at his university get information about your event.