How do you handle stakeholder communication in Agile or Waterfall?

To me, the Agile way of communication is truly reflected in the Scrum framework. This is because Scrum emphasizes frequent communication and collaboration between stakeholders, as well as transparency and visibility into the project's progress. Scrum ceremonies are a great way to handle communications with stakeholders providing opportunities to share feedback, ask questions, and get involved in the project.

During a sprint retrospective, our project team identified that the daily stand-up meetings were becoming too lengthy and repetitive. We decided to implement a rule where each team member could only provide a brief update in just two sentences. This helped keep the meetings focused and efficient. In my experience, I’ve found that while Agile’s emphasis on collaboration is beneficial, it can sometimes lead to decision-making by consensus, which might not always result in the best outcomes. It’s important to strike a balance between collaboration and having clear leadership or direction.

In my experience, communication via user stories, stand up meetings or retrospectives are part of the method, but they are necessarily enough to maintain active and lasting communication. Osmotic communication has been my favorite, as well as free access to an information system that is continuously updated and direct communication channels such as messaging, mail and telephone for the solution of doubts, which commonly decrease, with good osmotic communication. and free access to a project information system.

In my experience, communication via user stories, standing meetings or retrospectives are part of the method, but they are necessarily enough to maintain active and lasting communication. Osmotic communication has been my favorite, as well as free access to an information system that is continuously updated and direct communication channels such as messaging, mail and telephone for the solution of doubts, which commonly decrease, with good osmotic communication. and free access to a project information system.

In the Waterfall approach, documentation undoubtedly played a more significant role. However, in my opinion and experience, the key to success is to be transparent, proactive, and confident in speaking to stakeholders, focusing on the project plan and product development rather than their position. This also had an impact on requirements gathering till product release as well in and multiple vendor coordination.

In my experience, the case of predictive or cascading projects, for effective management, theory has never been enough, since my first projects in 1982, under a traditional perspective, I always resorted to informal meetings tnt or with the client as with the work team, giving the opportunity, in a less informal environment, for people to have more frank communication, and discuss problems, solutions, alternatives, possibilities and compromises are generated.

Communication challenges are always present, regardless of the type of project or methodology being used. In my work experience, I have faced challenges in understanding the culture, language slang, personality type of the stakeholder, complex organizational hierarchies with no defined roles, etc. However, employing acceptable coaching and consulting techniques has helped me mitigate these challenges. I had mandated 'working agreements' for seamless communication, like: Availability and regular updates on RACI matrix and stakeholder mapping to ensure everyone are on the same page. No proxy PM/DM/PO, so there is a single point of contact for each stakeholder, which helped in reducing confusion and miscommunications.

In my experience, stakeholder mapping, prioritization, and persona have always played a vital role in understanding, handling conflicts, and being proactive. The feedback gathered through interviewing and surveys helped to reduce conflicts during meetings and gain consensus from participants.

When I started working remotely, I found that two tools offered secure and seamless communication without feeling distracted or cumbersome by team members: "Microsoft Teams" and "Atlassian's Trello". While Microsoft Teams is a familiar tool for many people, Trello offered a fresh feel and look to our team's communications.

It doesn't matter if your projects are managed under an agile or traditional model (predictive/waterfall), formal communication or by method, has never been enough. It is also necessary to maintain informal and honest communication that generates a lot of trust and loyalty among colleagues and in the client-supplier relationship, but always accompanied by formal communication that gives value to the project.