We saw earlier that the project manager stands at a crossroads within the study team directing the flow of information. Thus communication is the name of the game, whether it be to inform, instruct, persuade or record. In recent years advances in computer, internet and telephone technologies have dramatically expanded our capacity to process large amounts of information, and deliver them to almost anywhere in the world in seconds. Nevertheless, there are a few basic principles which still hold true from Shakespeare’s day:

When starting to write, you should first consider the purpose of your message, and the level of detail that needs to be included. Then assemble all the data, reports or letters you will need to refer to. This seems to be stating the obvious, but it is pointless rushing into preparing a document if a key piece of information is not going to be available until next week. Your time today would be better spent completing another task.