US$135 million is at risk for every US$1 billion spent on a project. Further research on the importance of effective communications uncovers that a startling 56 percent (US$75 million of that US$135 million) is at risk due to ineffective communications. Despite this risk, many organizations admit that they are currently not placing adequate importance on effectively communicating critical project information, especially when explaining the business benefits of strategic initiatives to stakeholders at all levels of a project. [1]
Communication has been identified as a critical factor in the success or failure of a project or program in numerous cases. This is particularly true in systems engineering and similar environments, where there is a high degree of heterogeneity and non-routine tasks, different disciplines, stakeholders and viewpoints interacting, and therefore a lot of unexpected change due to the inherent uncertainty that characterises these types of environments.
Communication takes place at different levels of abstraction through different means. Consequently, a number of solutions have been developed to meet the communication needs of these levels. However, we hypothesise that a high-level view of communication, grounded on actual data, such as a map and the territory it represents, or the outline of a book and the contents of that book, would be necessary.
Since 2018, we have been engaged in research on communication (from social, computer and mathematical science and systems-of-systems perspectives) in systems engineering. We have also analysed the current solutions market. This leads us to conclude that our hypothesis is confirmed. The mission of the Timeinx platform is to respond to this hypothesis, which becomes the main challenge to be met.
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[1] PMI. (2013). The high cost of low performance: The essential role of communications. Project Management Institute
