Project Communication Management

 

Importance of Communication Management

- A project is a team work rather than individual assessment. So, for a successful completion of any project, there must be proper coordination between team members, project managers and top level managers.
- Communication management is the knowledge area that employ the processes to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval and disposition of project information.

- The importance of communication management are as follows:
1. It focuses on keeping communication relevant to the project.
2. It defines the mediums for participants to communicate.
3. It ensures all the people get the right information at right time.
4. It tracks the way for remote communication.
5. It keeps records of all the communication details for future purposes.
6. It ensures all the participants establish accountability towards the information they perceived.

---

Communication Planning; Communication Requirement Analysis

Communication Planning

- It is the process of determining the information and communication needs of the project stakeholders.

 

Input	Tools and techniques	Output
Project scope statement Project management plan Enterprise environmental factors Organizational process assets	Communication requirement analysis Communication technology	Communication management plan

 

---

Communication Requirements

- It defines which participants should require which information to move towards project success.

---

Communication Management Plan

- It is a document describing:
1. the stakeholder's communication requirements
2. which information has to be communicated with whom
3. frequency of communication
4. ways of communication
5. guidelines for meetings.

---

Conducting Effective Meeting

The guidelines for conducting effective meetings are as follows:
1. Identify purpose and desired outcomes of the meeting.
2. Identify and invite only the appropriate people.
3. Ensure presence of participants and their contributions.
4. Develop proper agenda to be discussed.
5. Establish the ground rules for meeting.
6. Proper time management in meeting.
7. Designate a note taker to prepare minutes.
8. Evaluation of the meeting process.
9. Follow up by providing readable minutes to all attendees.

---

Information Distribution Process

- It is the process of making information available to project stakeholders in a timely manner.
- It includes communication management plan and responds to unexpected information requests.

 

Input	Tools and techniques	Output
Communication management plan	Communication skills Information gathering and retrieval system Information distribution system	Updated organizational process assets Requested changes

 

---

Communication Skills

- It ensures that right person gets right information at right time.
- It emphasizes on sender to make information clear and complete so that the receiver can obtain the correct information.

---

Performance Reporting; Integrated Reporting System

Performance Reporting

- It is the process of collecting and distributing performance information like status, progress and so on.
- The report may be forecast report, progress report, status report or variance report.

 

Input	Tools and techniques	Output
Work performance information Performance measurements Forecasted completion Quality control measurement Project management plan	Information presentation tools Status review meetings Time reporting system Cost reporting system	Performance report Forecast Recommended corrective action

 

---

Integrated Reporting System

- Integrated report is a concise communication about how an organizational strategy, governance and performance lead to the creation of value over time.
- It provides greater context for performance data and helps in decision making to be long term.
- It helps to complete financial and sustainability reports.

---

Q) Differentiate horizontal and vertical communication.

- Horizontal communication occurs between people of same hierarchy level. Vertical communication occurs between people of different hierarchy level.
- Horizontal communication aims to coordinate activities of various divisions. Vertical communication aims to provide necessary directives and feedback.
- Horizontal communication enjoys greater degree of freedom. Vertical communication must be formal.