Anyone who has ever experienced an unsuccessful information technology project can attribute at least part of the failure to poor communication. From a simple network upgrade to a complex software development effort, there are a few key things that need to be clear before beginning any such undertaking.

As with anything else, the five W’s are critical to answer. The two that are most critical to understand are “what” and “when,” but it all needs to start with “why.”

Make sure the goals of the project are clearly enunciated. These should be boiled down to, at most, three major goals. Understand why you are doing the project; for example, what is the problem you are trying to solve? If you are expecting certain specific outcomes, make sure these are somehow tied to the overall project goal, and communicate such expectations. Also, on the flip side, if there is an outcome that cannot be tied to the project goal, you should not expect it to be addressed.

On to “what.” What is the vendor (who could be your internal IT department) providing? There are easily definable, tangible components to many projects, such as hardware, off-the-shelf-software licenses, network drops and 100-megabit internet connection.

Other things are more difficult to define and can be addressed with the following questions: Will the vendor provide installation? Is custom configuration needed? Will the system be ready to use, or are there other tasks that need to take place before the project’s goals are achieved? If this is an upgrade from an old system, what functions will the new system provide, and how will these be different from the old system? What about the data in my old system?

Many folks often overlook what happens after implementation. What type of support will the vendor provide, and how much does it cost? How much will support cost next year and for the next three to five years?

Next, let’s talk about “when.” When does the project start? When will it end? Understand that the end date might have to be estimated, but if it changes, how far in advance will you tell me of the change?

Near and dear to everyone’s heart: When is payment required, and how much? For tangible components like those described above, it is not unusual to require payment upon delivery, and sometimes even a down payment at time of order.

For services, such as installation and configuration, ideally you want to pay upon demonstration that everything is working as planned. For projects that will go for more than a few weeks, payment can be tied to milestones that are defined before the project starts. If there are recurring services, such as cloud-based services, typically an initial payment is required upfront and then on a periodic basis, monthly or sometimes quarterly.

John Agsalud is an IT expert with more than 25 years of information technology experience. Reach him at jagsalud@live.com.