One Page Summary From Each Group

As a Project Manager, I like to ask each group lead to provide me a one-page summary of their overall understanding of the project as far as their role is concerned. I do this for two reasons. One reason is that it provides me confirmation that the group understands what it is getting involved in and therefore won't be caught off guard by lack of resources.The other reason is that I can re-cycle that one-page summary by forwarding it to other groups. Now other interfacing managers can understand the scope and role of that team.

Here's my bonus move: I re-cycle that information again to get general status updates from the group leads as against their original summary expectations. It keeps everything nice and clear and keeps me from being snowed by the details.