Keeping up awareness
Projects tend to do a great job at the start by letting everyone know what's going on. Stakeholders are given demos, requirements are gathered and everyone is on the same page. Then things begin to drift. The project team may know what's going on, and updates may be sent out... But many are likely to lose track of what the project is for, and what the benefit is. Keeping all those moving pieces up to date and, and ensuring everyone is aware of the various changes can feel like an impossible task.
The folks working on the project are the most likely to know what's happening... After all, they're doing the world. That said, project teams can be big, and some individuals may not be as up to date as others. This is only amplified when multiple teams are involved as each one will have its own perspective on everything. When outside groups, like consultants, are brought in, this can only add to the challenge of keeping everyone updated.
The further any given person is from the project work, the less they'll likely follow up on it themselves. This raises a significant risk that stakeholders will forget what they're getting. At best this requires a realignment... At worst it kills a project.
There's a number of ways to counteract this knowledge drift:
Regular updates - emails and reports are the easiest, and should be sent out anyways. Ensuring they're easily understood is important, so asking for feedback is critical. Having the right audience is also important as different stakeholders will need different info. Your VP isn't as likely to care about minute bug details as your developers.
Recorded demos - recording updates and sharing with the team is one way to visually share updates. This doesn't have to be a long demo, just enough for folks to see what has been accomplished. One big advantage of this approach is being able to compare updates over time.
Live reviews - Agile's sprint reviews are a great tool to borrow for any project. These meetings are specifically to update stakeholders and to solicit feedback. These live calls also help build rapport between customers and the project team.
