The need for open and constant communication forms an essential component of all the recommendations outlined here. However, communication is such a critical factor, it merits additional mention on its own.

Perhaps the most important and most often overlooked component of communication is listening. The XML Testbed project devoted a great deal of time and energy towards creating opportunities for individuals from different departments and organizations to listen to one another and to outside sources for help on improving processes and creating better products and services.

The message must be communicated in terms that the audience will understand and in ways that emphasize its benefits to them. Staff then need the confidence and tools to communicate their message through the rest of the organization so that the project succeeds. It cannot just be assumed that everyone will know what’s going on, why it’s important, and support it.

As one Testbed member summarized, “You really have to make those issues clear as to what it will do for the users on the other end, and then they’ll go along with you. I mean, as long as they know that it is a problem, they talk to the people and it’s confirmed, they’ll go along with this stuff. But you really need to explain to them what you’re doing for the users out there, and it makes it easier to get your point across and to get the projects raised in priority and get the manpower to do them.”