2.4 Tasks
2.4.3 Determine Communication Needs of Stakeholders
Guide to Business Data Analytics
Determining the communication needs of stakeholders enables customization of communications to individual stakeholders or stakeholder groups so the message is clearly understood.
Understanding the characteristics of stakeholders, an output from stakeholder analysis, provides guidance when planning and determining a communication approach. Stakeholder communication requirements may include stakeholder preferences regarding:
Each stage of the analytics process is communicated in a variety of ways, particularly with regards to the analytics research and experiments that can be quite formal and academic. For example, drug discovery and medical studies impose regulatory formats and structure. Analysts use their understanding of stakeholders to determine how best to communicate.
Descriptive and diagnostic analytics results may generate friction when gaps are identified in the business process between stakeholders. Likewise, predictive and prescriptive analytics may suggest a completely new way of decision-making, prompting stakeholders to resist the changes. Analysts find approaches to make the analytics more accessible through compelling ways of representing analytics results.
When planning stakeholder communication, analysts use a variety of elicitation techniques to identify the communication needs of stakeholders and to define the best approach to share the results from analytics.
Retrospectives or lessons learned identify what methods of communication worked well and what methods could be improved upon. Facilitation and communication skills, along with business acumen, enable the development of a well thought out communication approach.
Understanding the characteristics of stakeholders, an output from stakeholder analysis, provides guidance when planning and determining a communication approach. Stakeholder communication requirements may include stakeholder preferences regarding:
- what information is most relevant to them,
- how they wish to receive information,
- how often they wish to be updated,
- who the decision-makers in the stakeholder groups are,
- what biases they carry, and
- what factors can potentially weaken the analysis (such as contradictory results, analytics approach, data anomalies, stakeholders' impact and influence).
Each stage of the analytics process is communicated in a variety of ways, particularly with regards to the analytics research and experiments that can be quite formal and academic. For example, drug discovery and medical studies impose regulatory formats and structure. Analysts use their understanding of stakeholders to determine how best to communicate.
Descriptive and diagnostic analytics results may generate friction when gaps are identified in the business process between stakeholders. Likewise, predictive and prescriptive analytics may suggest a completely new way of decision-making, prompting stakeholders to resist the changes. Analysts find approaches to make the analytics more accessible through compelling ways of representing analytics results.
When planning stakeholder communication, analysts use a variety of elicitation techniques to identify the communication needs of stakeholders and to define the best approach to share the results from analytics.
Retrospectives or lessons learned identify what methods of communication worked well and what methods could be improved upon. Facilitation and communication skills, along with business acumen, enable the development of a well thought out communication approach.
