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Poor communication is one of the most common reasons software projects fail. When business leaders are chasing one set of goals while the product team executes toward completely different objectives, the project is already in trouble. Research by the Project Management Institute found that 80% of projects met their goals at organizations with highly effective communication, compared to just 52% at organizations where communication was minimal. The fix isn't a better Slack channel. It starts and ends with people.
This post is part of our series on the human factors behind software project failures. You can read the series overview, explore how lack of empathy leads to failure, and look at how to plan better for your projects.
"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." -- George Bernard Shaw
Why Does Poor Communication Cause Software Projects to Fail?
One hand doesn't know what the other is doing. That's the short answer, and we've watched it sink more projects than we can count.
We're more spread out than ever, navigating a wilderness of new tools, getting comfortable chatting through boxes on our screens, and managing our Pavlovian response to the Slack notification sound. But all of that infrastructure only matters if the people on either end of it are actually connecting. When they're not, that's where the failure begins.
How Does Leadership Affect Project Communication?
Effective project communication starts at the top. As with most things, leadership plays a critical role in setting the rules of the game and establishing expectations for how the team will communicate and collaborate.
Executive leaders who are actively engaged with specific project teams can bridge the gap between strategy and execution, making sure everybody is on the same page from the leadership suite to the frontline customer service rep.
Project managers also play a key leadership role as the fulcrum point between executive business stakeholders and the project team. Honesty and transparency are essential in both directions. The business needs to know the harsh realities of budget overruns or scope creep. The project team needs consistent and honest updates about deadlines and progress.
With strong leaders communicating honestly and effectively, the problems that inevitably arise can be addressed more efficiently by a team working together with the same information.
Why Should You Keep Project Communication Human?
Automated tools remove people from the conversation, and that's where things go wrong.
We've seen too many project teams go out of their way to standardize communications with fancy software that promises to keep everybody connected through automated push notifications. The problem is that when you strip the people out of the communication, you lose context and retention along with them. You're far more likely to remember a Slack conversation with a real person than an automatic notification about an edit to a Google doc.
Never underestimate the importance of emotion, personal relationships, and context in how your team communicates. Sensitive topics are almost always better handled face-to-face, even if those faces are through digital video, because body language and facial expressions carry contextual cues that just can't be replicated through other mediums.
Keeping your communication as human as possible cuts down on the misunderstandings that can undercut even the best project plans.
How Do You Stay Disciplined in Project Communication?
You want a free-flowing exchange of ideas, but discipline is what keeps the project on track and in scope.
It's easy to lose precious time generating fun ideas that will never see the light of day, or brainstorming problems that are best handled by a small group of subject matter experts. Communication discipline increases how efficiently your team gets the core job done, so they can have more time for the fun projects on the side.
Here's what communication discipline actually looks like in practice:
Streamlined Meetings: Set a clear goal and agenda, invite the least number of people necessary for each meeting, and get out on time or plan to regroup later.
Thorough Documentation: Software projects kick out a lot of different types of work, from research findings to design templates to the actual code. Build a process to capture the most important information so new team members can get up to speed quickly when you inevitably have to swap people in and out of the project.
Consistent and Timely Updates: Whether you do it through regular meetings or written communications (or both), set a schedule and a method and stick to it so everybody on the project team knows where to go for the latest updates and when to expect them.
Establish Ground Rules: Every project team needs to collaborate on some level. Set ground rules upfront about how the team wants to give and receive feedback, the tools that will be used, and the etiquette around using those tools. The earlier and more comprehensively you set these ground rules, the less confusion and frustration you'll stumble across later.
Set Clear Escalation Paths: Nothing is more frustrating than needing to push a decision or problem up the ladder and getting blocked by an Out of Office message. Set a clear path for escalations and identify backups so there is always somebody available to help prevent things from getting stuck in a vortex.
Let's Start a Conversation
These are just some of the things we've learned in 20 years of working (and communicating) with project teams of all shapes and sizes.
If you're looking for more tips and tricks, we have some thoughts on how to do better remote work and how to develop what we believe is a core competency of UX design: collaborating and critiquing for growth.
If you're looking for more hands-on help, let's talk about how our team can help your team use communication to bring your software project to life.
FAQ
Why do software projects fail due to poor communication? Poor communication causes misalignment between business goals and project execution. When teams don't share the same information consistently, problems go unaddressed and projects veer off course.
What role does project leadership play in communication? Leaders set the tone and the rules. Executive leaders bridge strategy and execution. Project managers translate between stakeholders and the team. Both roles require consistent honesty in both directions.
How can a project team make communication more effective? Start with humans, not tools. Complement that with streamlined meetings, thorough documentation, regular updates, clear ground rules, and defined escalation paths.
Should project teams avoid communication tools like Slack or automated notifications? Not necessarily, but don't rely on them to do the work of human connection. Automated notifications are easy to ignore. Real conversations, even through a screen, carry context that tools alone can't replicate.
What is communication discipline in a software project? It's the practice of keeping communication purposeful and efficient. That means focused meetings, documented decisions, regular updates, and agreed-upon norms so the team isn't wasting time or missing critical information.
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