Paul Newman starred as an irrepressible inmate in a Southern prison in the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke. In one scene, Strother Martin, playing the captain of Road Prison 36, shakes his head at the recently captured, leg-ironed prisoner. The captain is baffled by Luke's inability to accept his brutal fate and says, "What we've got here is a failure to communicate."

This phrase has become synonymous with some of life's more frustrating moments--those times when you might wish you had the power of an autocratic prison captain who communicates through action rather than words.

IT types often hold the equally erroneous view that communication isn't necessary because end users won't understand what you tell them. Users call the help desk again no matter what you say.

Good project communication lies somewhere between the blunt-object and shrinking-violet approaches. And as we were to learn at my company, good marketing is something more.