Project Communications Management
Project Communications Management
Understand the importance of good communications in
projects.
Discuss the process of identifying stakeholders and how to
create a stakeholder register and stakeholder management
strategy.
Explain the elements of project communications planning and
how to create a communications management plan.
Describe various methods for distributing project information,
and calculate the number of communications channels in a
project.
Recognize the importance of managing stakeholder
expectations.
Understand how performance reporting helps stakeholders
stay informed about project resources.
List various methods for improving project communications,
such as managing conflicts, running effective meetings, using
e-mail and other technologies effectively, and using templates.
Many experts agree that the greatest threat to the success of
any project, especially IT projects, is a failure to communicate.
Research shows that IT professionals must be able to
communicate effectively to succeed in their positions.
Strong verbal skills are a key factor in career advancement for
IT professionals.
The goal of Project Communications management is to
ensure timely and appropriate generations, collection,
dissemination, storage, and disposition of project information.
1. Identifying stakeholders: identifying everyone involved in or
affected by the project and determining the best ways to manage
relationships with them.
2. Planning communications: determining the information and
communications needs of the stakeholders.
3. Distributing information: making needed information available
to project stakeholders in a timely manner.
4. Managing stakeholder expectations: managing communications
to satisfy the needs and expectations of project stakeholders and to
resolve issues.
5. Reporting performance: collecting and disseminating
performance information, including status reports, progress
measurement, and forecasting.
Recall that the ultimate goal of project management is to meet
or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project,
so you must first identify who are your particular project
stakeholders ?
Two key outputs of this process include:
◦ Stakeholder register: a public document that includes
details related to the identified project stakeholders. These
details include the stakeholder’s name, position, internal or
external, and contact information.
◦ Stakeholder management strategy: an approach to help
increase the support of stakeholders throughout the project;
often includes the basic and sensitive informations.
Every project should include some type of communications
management plan, a document that guides project
communications.
It is important to know what kinds of information will be
distributed to which stakeholders, by analyzing stakeholder
communications needs.
Getting the right information to the right people at the right
time and in a useful format is just as important as developing
the information in the first place.
The Stakeholder Communications Analysis serves as a good
starting point for information distribution.
The project managers and their teams must decide the best
way to distribute the information.
Effective distribution of information depends on project
managers and project team members having good
communication skills.
Important considerations for information distribution
include:
Using technology to enhance information distribution.
Formal and informal methods for distributing information.
Oral communication via meetings and informal talks helps bring
important information-positive or negative-out into the open.
Oral communication also helps build stronger relationship
among project personnel and project stakeholders.
Face-to-Face meetings are often more effective than electronic
communications, particularly for sensitive information.
Research says that in a face-to-face interaction:
58 percent of communication is through body language.
35 percent of communication is through how the words are
said.
7 percent of communication is through the content or words
that are spoken.
Pay attention to more than just the actual words someone is
saying.
A person’s tone of voice and body language say a lot about how
he or she really feels.
Short, frequent meetings are often very effective in IT
projects.
Stand-up meetings every week or every morning force people
to focus on what they really need to communicate.
To encourage face-to-face informal communications:
Some companies have policies preventing the use of e-mail
between certain hours or even entire days of the week.
Project managers must assess the needs of the organization, the
project, and individuals in determining which communication
medium to use, and when.
They must also be aware of new technologies that can enhance
communications and collaboration.
Some types of communication media: hard copy, phone calls,
voice mail, e-mail, meetings, and web sites
Geographic location and cultural background affect the
complexity of project communications.
◦ If project stakeholders are in different countries, it is difficult
or impossible to schedule times for two-way communication
during working hours.
◦ Language barriers can also cause communication problems.
◦ People from some cultures also prefer to communicate in
ways that may be uncomfortable to others.
The number of people involved in a project is an important aspect of
information distribution.
As the number of people involved increases, the complexity of
communications increases because there are more communications
channels or pathways through which people can communicate.
To calculate the number of communications channels use this simple
formula:
Number of communications channels = n ( n – 1 ) / 2
where n is the number of people involved.
For two people :
Number of communications channels = 2 ( 2 – 1 ) / 2 = 1 channel
For three people :
Number of communications channels = 3 (3– 1 ) / 2 = 3 channels
For four people :
Number of communications channels = 4 (4– 1 ) / 2 = 6 channels
For five people :
Number of communications channels = 5 (5– 1 ) / 2 = 10 channels
Good communicators consider many factors before deciding
how to distribute information, including:
The size of the group.
The type of information.
The appropriate communication medium.
Project managers must understand and work with various
stakeholders.
They should address how they can use various communications
methods as well as their interpersonal and management skills to
satisfy the needs and expectations of project stakeholders
Need to devise a way to identify and resolve issues.
Project sponsors can usually rank scope, time, and cost goals in
order of importance and provide guidelines on how to balance the
triple constraint.
This ranking is shown in an Expectations Management Matrix
which can help clarify expectations.
Expectations Management Matrix may includes a list of measures
of success, priorities, expectations, and a guidelines related to each
measure.
Performance reporting keeps stakeholders informed about how resources
are being used to achieve project objectives.
Tow key outputs of performance reporting are:
Performance report:
Status reports describe where the project stands at a specific point in
time.
Progress reports describe what the project team has accomplished
during a certain period of time.
Forecasts: predict future project status and progress based on past
information and trends.
There are some areas that all project managers and project
team members should consider in their quests to improve
project communications:
Using communication skills to manage conflicts.
Developing better communication skills.
Running effective meetings.
Using e-mail, instant messaging, and collaborative tools
effectively.
Using templates for project communications.
1. Confrontation: project manager directly face a conflict
using a problem-solving approach.
2. Compromise: project manager use a give-and-take approach
to resolving conflicts.
3. Smoothing: project manager de-emphasize or avoids areas
of difference and emphasize areas of agreement.
4. Forcing: the win-lose approach to conflict resolution.
5. Withdrawal: project manager retreat or withdraw from an
actual or potential disagreement.
6. Collaborating: decision makers incorporate different
viewpoints and insights to develop consensus and
commitment
Conflict often produces important results, such as new ideas,
better alternatives, and motivation to work harder and more
collaboratively.
Research suggests that task-related conflict often improves
team performance, but emotional conflict often depresses team
performance.
Many technical people are afraid to ask for help.
Providing examples and templates for project communications
saves time and money.
Organizations can develop their own templates, use some
provided by outside organizations, or use samples from
textbooks.
Recall that research shows that companies that excel in project
management make effective use of templates.
The project manager and project team members should each
prepare a lessons-learned report.
◦ A reflective statement that documents important things an
individual learned from working on the project .
The project manager often combines information from all of
the lessons-learned reports into a project summary report.
It is also important to organize and prepare project archives.
Project archives are a complete set of organized project
records that provide an accurate history of the project.
These archives can provide valuable information for future
projects as well.
Many project teams create a Project Web Site to store all or
part of their project information, including various templates
and lessons-learned reports.
Project Web Site provide a centralized way of delivering
project documents and other communications.
Project team can create the site using various types of
software, such as enterprise project management software.
The goal of project communications management is to ensure
timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination,
storage, and disposition of project information.
Main processes include:
◦ Identify stakeholders.
◦ Plan communications.
◦ Distribute information.
◦ Manage stakeholder expectations.
◦ Report performance.