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Podcast 4

Project Communications with Multiple Stakeholder Groups

Topic/Title: "Project Communications with Multiple Stakeholder Groups"

Description: The State of Missouri has undertaken an extensive project to modernize several of its criminal justice systems used by a broad range of both state and local agencies. Learn how project planning helped transition from concept to operation.

Participant: Cliff Gronauer, Chief Information Officer, Missouri State Highway Patrol

  Listen to Full Interview (duration time: 44:30:00)

Questions:
  1. Your project has a broad array of stakeholders within the State Highway Patrol, elsewhere in state government, and widely through criminal justice agencies statewide.
    1. Generally, how have you gone about communicating planned changes to services relied on by many and the potential impacts of those changes?
    2. What information have you considered important to communicate at different phases of the project?
    3. Did you use existing vehicles, such as newsletters, or create new ones?
  2. I understand that in addition to your state responsibilities, you chair a local 9-1-1 board.
    1. How has this affected your approach to project communications?
  3. You’ve led off the modernization project by first changing user applications of the State Highway Patrol, including computer-aided dispatch, record management, and mobile computer systems. Other state and local agencies have access to state contract pricing for these products and many are expected to take advantage of that to upgrade their user capabilities. Presumably, adopting these products will also help them prepare for future changes to backend state systems.
    1. How did you communicate upcoming changes in the user applications to agencies that you support directly?
    2. Did you approach this differently with others who have their own application support services?
    3. Have you addressed user agency administrators separately on the impacts and costs of upcoming technology changes?
    4. How did you communicate with them the availability of state contract pricing for “off-the-shelf” products?
  4. A lot of work and technology goes into state backend systems, like the message switch and computerized criminal history, which supply end-user systems, like CAD and RMS.
    1. Have you spent much time communicating fundamental, underlying changes to end-users?
    2. Do you use any additional means to communicate project schedules and technical changes to information technology support staff of other agencies?
  5. Some of the transition of backend systems from the current mainframe platform is, in part, a cost-savings measure.
    1. How are you communicating or presenting the long-term nature of savings to the state legislature and others responsible for the budget?
  6. In closing, what are your take-away messages for the success of others in communicating across all stakeholder groups during projects?

  Written transcript of interview