PMI Knowledge Areas
COMMUNICATION
MANAGEMENT
IMPORTANCE OF GOOD COMMUNICATIONS
Communication Paths Between a Project’s Parties-
At-Interest
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PROJECT COMMUNICATIONS
MANAGEMENT PROCESSES
Planning Communications management
Managing communications
Controlling communications
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KEYS TO GOOD
COMMUNICATIONS
~80-90% of a PM’s time spent communicating
Focus on needs – both group and individual
Mix methods - formal and informal
Set the stage for communicating bad news
Distribute important information in an effective and
timely manner
Determine the number of communication channels
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COMMUNICATIONS
CHANNELS
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.
Number of communications channels = n(n-1)
2
where n is the number of people involved
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COMMUNICATIONS
MANAGEMENT PLAN CONTENTS
1. Stakeholder communications requirements
2. Suggested methods or technologies for conveying the
information
3. Escalation procedures for resolving issues
4. Revision procedures for updating the
communications management plan
5. A glossary of common terminology
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SAMPLE STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
FOR PROJECT COMMUNICATIONS
Information Technology Project Management, Seventh Edition 7
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
DETERMINATION
Factors contributing to determining the
communication technology to be used:
Availability
Project environment
Project Length
Urgency
Preparation Level
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IMPORTANCE OF FACE-TO-FACE
COMMUNICATION
Communication needs to be adjusted depending on the
channel
How should you approach communication
Short, frequent meetings are often very effective in IT
projects
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COMMUNICATION MODEL
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COMMUNICATION MODEL
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EXECUTING PROCESS GROUP:
MANAGING
COMMUNICATIONS
Managing communications is a large part of
a project manager’s job
Important considerations include:
Technology
Appropriate methods and media to use
Performance reporting
12
DISTRIBUTING INFORMATION
Distribution Methods
Distribution Tools
Distribution of Information
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CLASSIFICATIONS FOR
COMMUNICATION METHODS
Interactive
Push
Pull
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DISTRIBUTING INFORMATION IN AN
EFFECTIVE AND TIMELY MANNER
Don’t bury crucial information
Don’t be afraid to report bad information
Oral communication via meetings and informal talks
helps bring important information—good and bad—out
into the open
15
REPORTING PERFORMANCE
Performance reporting keeps stakeholders
informed about how resources are being used to
achieve project objectives
Status reports
Progress reports
Forecasts
16
MONITOR/CONTROL PROCESS
GROUP:
CONTROLLING
COMMUNICATIONS
The main goal of controlling communications is to ensure the
optimal flow of information throughout the entire project life
cycle
The project manager and project team should use their various
reporting systems, expert judgment, and meetings to assess how
well communications are working.
If problems exist, the project manager and team need to take action,
which often requires changes to the earlier processes of planning and
managing project communications
17
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING
PROJECT COMMUNICATIONS
Develop better communication skills
Run effective meetings
Use e-mail and other technologies effectively
Use templates for project communications
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DEVELOPING BETTER
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Most companies spend a lot of money on technical
training for their employees, even when employees
might benefit more from communications training
It takes leadership to improve communication
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RUNNING EFFECTIVE
MEETINGS
Determine if a meeting can be avoided
Define the purpose and intended outcome of the
meeting
Determine who should attend
Provide an agenda before meeting
Set the ground rules for the meeting
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USING E-MAIL, INSTANT MESSAGING, TEXTING,
AND COLLABORATIVE TOOLS EFFECTIVELY
Make sure that e-mail, instant messaging, texting, or
collaborative tools are an appropriate medium for
what you want to communicate
Be sure to authorize the right people to share and edit
your collaborative documents
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OTHER COMMUNICATION CONSIDERATIONS
Rarely does the receiver interpret a message exactly as
the sender intended
Geographic location and cultural background affect the
complexity of project communications
Different working hours
Language barriers
Different cultural norms
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USING TEMPLATES FOR PROJECT
COMMUNICATIONS
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
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LESSONS LEARNED REPORTS
& ARCHIVES
The project manager and project team members
should each prepare a lessons-learned report
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
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PROJECT WEB SITES
Many project teams create a project Web site to store important product
documents and other information
Microsoft’s Project
Web Application
Master Project
Summary Screen
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CHAPTER SUMMARY
Communication should run throughout the project.
This is why the communication plan is so important.
Goal: deliver the right information to the right people
at the right time
The work performance measures communicated can
have impacts throughout the knowledge areas
including scope, time, cost and quality
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