Launching the Project: An Exercise for Demonstrating the Impact of Team Communications on Project Success

Research amply demonstrates that communication is an important determinate of project team success. Teaching team communication skills can be difficult, however, as team assignments are typically completed outside the classroom. Team communication education generally focuses on team dynamics or the interpersonal communication among team members, leaving aside some of the most important elements of project management communication in the development of information systems: task definition and assignment, project documentation, and integration of new members into the ongoing communication process. A self-contained learning unit was designed to introduce a class of senior-level information systems students to these group communication issues and show their importance to the successful completion of a project