A new project kicked off after a planning session and is under direct executive oversight. After a review, the project manager overhears an executive ask a team member for a dashboard showing overall project status. What should the project manager do?

The correct answer is to update the communications management plan. The executive's informal request for a dashboard indicates a communication need not currently addressed. The communications management plan should be a living document, updated to reflect actual project communication requirements and methods, including informal requests that impact project reporting. This ensures all stakeholders receive appropriate information. Asking the team member to create a dashboard without formalizing the request can lead to unmanaged work and potential scope creep. Telling the team member to route the request through the project manager, while good for control, doesn't address the underlying communication gap. Updating the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix is important for understanding stakeholder needs, but the immediate action needed is to formalize how such requests are handled and communicated.