Project Management

Liaison

The project manager is a buffer between the technical staff and outside organizations. In this liaison role, the project manager communicates and negotiates with agents who are not part of the project team. A liaison is a person who provides communications between two departments. Examples of outside agents include the project sponsor (who mayor may not be the user), IS managers, vendors, operations managers, other project managers, and other departments such as quality assurance (for validation and testing), law (for contracts), and administration (for clerical and secretarial support). 

For each type of liaison, status reports are an important means of communication (see sample in Figure 3-6). Status reports document progress, identify problems and their resolution, and identify changes of plans to all interested parties. In addition, many other communications of different types are described for each type of liaison. The guidelines here are just that - guidelines. They are developed assuming that open communications between concerned parties is desired, but the guidelines require judgment and knowledge of the situation to separate a good action from a less good action.