you will need to explicitly address the aHerb, Project Manager. You will be creating a communication plan, which will be shared with Ms$.$ Dana Foster, Director, Project Management Office. Your communication plan should be logically presented; demonstrate your mastery of the subject matter; and explicitly address the assignment expectations. The plan should be prepared as a Microsoft Word document. Since you$$re eager to strengthen communication within your project team, you have decided to solicit constructive feedback on your communication plan from a select group of colleagues. To this end, you will attach the $$draft$$ communication plan to

After carefully reading the Case Study: Communication Failure and performing a thorough review of relevant literature to include but not limited to the course texts, you will be assuming the persona of Herb, Project Manager. You$$re looking to strengthen communication within the project team, so Ms$.$ Dana Foster, Director, Project Management Office, suggested that you create a communication plan.

This communication plan should detail the methods and channels of communication to be used to ensure that all stakeholders are informed and updated on project progress, risks, and any changes in scope or requirements

Background

erb had been with the company for more than eight years and had worked on various R&D and product enhancement projects for external clients. He had a Ph$.$D$.$ in engineering and had developed a reputation as a subject matter expert. Because of his specialized skills, he worked by himself most of the time and interfaced with the various project teams only during project team meetings. All of that was about to change. Herb$$s company had just won a two$-$year contract from one of its best customers. The first year of the contract would be R&D and the second year would be manufacturing. The company made the decision that the best person qualified to be the project manager was Herb because of his knowledge of R&D and manufacturing. Unfortunately, Herb had never taken any courses in project management, and because of his limited involvement with previous project teams, there were risks in assigning him as the project manager. But management believed he could do the job.

Team Formed

Herb$$s team consisted of fourteen people, most of whom would be full$-$time for at least the first year of the project. The four people who Herb would be interfacing with on a daily basis were Alice, Bob, Betty, and Frank.

$$ Alice was a seasoned veteran who worked with Herb in R&D$.$ Alice had been with the company longer than Herb and would coordinate the efforts of the R&D personnel.

$$ Bob also had been with the company longer than Herb and had spent his career in engineering. Bob would coordinate the engineering efforts and drafting.

$$ Betty was relatively new to the company. She would be responsible for all reports, records management, and procurements.

$$ Frank, a five$-$year employee with the company, was a manufacturing engineer. Unlike Alice, Bob, and Betty, Frank would be part$-$time on the project until it was time to prepare the manufacturing plans.

For the first two months of the program, work seemed to be progressing as planned. Everyone understood their role on the project and there were no critical issues.

Friday the $13$th

Herb held weekly team meetings every Friday from $2$:$00$ to $3$:$00$ P$.$M$.$

Unfortunately, the next team meeting would fall on Friday the $13$th$,$ and that bothered Herb because he was somewhat superstitious. He was considering canceling the team meeting just for that week but decided against it$.$

At $9$:$00$ A$.$M$.$ on Friday the $13$th$,$ Herb met with his project sponsor as he always did in the past. Two days before, Herb casually talked to his sponsor in the hallway and the sponsor told Herb that on Friday the sponsor would like to discuss the cash flow projections for the next six months and have a discussion on ways to reduce some of the expenditures. The sponsor had seen some expenditures that bothered him. As soon as Herb entered the sponsor$$s office, the sponsor said:

It looks like you have no report with you. I specifically recall asking you for a report on the cash flow projections.

Herb was somewhat displeased over this. He specifically recalled that this was to be a discussion only and no report was requested. But Herb knew that $$rank has its privileges$$ and questioning the sponsor$$s communication skills would be wrong. Obviously, this was not a good start to Friday the $13$th$.$

At $10$:$00$ A$.$M$.,$ Alice came into Herb$$s office and he could see from the expression on her fa