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About this lesson

Understand the characteristics of the major categories of project communication.  Know the communication constraints typically encountered on project. 

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Quick reference

Project Communication Management

Project Communication Management is a very broad term that refers to all of the communication activities associated with the project.  This includes team communication, stakeholder communication, management communication, and archiving of project records. 

When to use

If there is more than one person on the project team or if there is a stakeholder then communication will need to happen and it needs to be managed.  A communication plan should be established during the project planning phase that identifies the timing and content of team communication, management/stakeholder communication, and project record keeping requirements.  This plan then needs to be followed.  When there is a major issue or crisis on the project, the communication plan is often modified to increase the frequency of communication until the issue is resolved.  Communication management continues throughout the project and at project closure, the communication management plan ensures that all appropriate project records are archived.  

Instructions

  1. At time of project initiation, the Project Leader should determine the need and desired medium of communication for all major stakeholders.
  2. As the project is being planned, the Project Leader should determine the preferred communication approach among the Core Team members.
  3. As the project is being planned, the Project Leader reviews organizational archiving requirements and organizational communication technologies available to the team.
  4. The Project Leader integrates these needs and requirements into a project communication plan that addresses the team, management/stakeholders, and project record keeping requirements.
  5. The Project Leader and team members follow the plan during project execution.
  6. The communications plan is reviewed at the beginning of each phase and changes or updates are made when necessary.

Hints & tips

  • Leverage existing communication channels and methods if they are working well.
  • Most people won’t tell you when they are in trouble.  If a team member “goes silent,” investigate to determine whether there is a project issue or another personal or organizational issue that could create a project problem.
  • Don’t forget the project records and archiving requirements.  Trying to recreate project records after-the-fact is often very difficult.
  • If you have a stakeholder who periodically interjects themselves into the project to “find out what is happening” and causes confusion and disruption, meet with that stakeholder and create a communication approach that satisfies their curiosity and reduces the project disruption.
  • There are numerous technologies for sharing documents and communications (both hardware and software).  These are rapidly changing.  If the technology is commonly used by your project team and stakeholders, use it.  If they don’t use the technology, imposing it on them may create more problems than benefits.
  • Communication Methods: “A systematic procedure, technique, or process used to transfer information among project stakeholders.” PMBOK® Guide
  • Communication Technology: “Specific tools, systems, computer programs, etc., used to transfer information among project stakeholders.” PMBOK® Guide

These definitions are taken from the Glossary of the Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017.

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  • 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:06 Let's talk about communication management on projects.
  • 00:10 >> The project management body of knowledge, the PMBOK Guide,
  • 00:14 defines communication technology as specific tools, systems, computer programs,
  • 00:19 etc. used to transfer information among project stakeholders.
  • 00:23 Well, that's one piece of the puzzle we wanna discuss.
  • 00:26 Now, for the next, the project manager body of knowledge,
  • 00:28 the PMBOK Guide defines the communication methods a systematic procedure,
  • 00:33 technique or process use to transfer information among project stakeholders.
  • 00:38 That sounds quite similar because it is.
  • 00:41 The technology is the tools and the method is the process.
  • 00:45 But both are intertwined.
  • 00:47 It may be hard to actually tell them apart of times.
  • 00:50 Either way, communication is at the heart of effective project management.
  • 00:53 Every project management activity has a communication component.
  • 00:58 Project leaders should be spending much of their time communicating
  • 01:01 in order to create and maintain alignment and focus on project goals.
  • 01:05 There are many different approaches to communication.
  • 01:08 The bottom line is that the project leader needs to use the approach that works best
  • 01:13 with their team and their stake holders.
  • 01:15 That means that the project leader should proactively plan communication,
  • 01:19 not just hope that it happens.
  • 01:22 One type of project communication is management communication.
  • 01:25 This is big picture communication, it focuses on the goals and
  • 01:28 the objectives of the project.
  • 01:30 This communication occurs when the managements and stakeholders want it.
  • 01:34 Usually on a weekly or monthly schedule.
  • 01:36 The format for
  • 01:37 management communication is normally a standard template used by all projects.
  • 01:41 This makes it easier for management to compare projects and
  • 01:44 digest the information.
  • 01:46 Team communication is much less formal and structured,
  • 01:50 it typically focuses on status and issues.
  • 01:53 Team communication occurs at the frequency of team meetings usually daily or weekly.
  • 01:58 And I like to do my team communication using mark ups of our project plan.
  • 02:02 This simplifies the preparation process.
  • 02:05 Of course, team members can communicate with each other whenever they want
  • 02:08 between meetings.
  • 02:10 The final type of communication is the project records.
  • 02:14 Project records are the way the team communicates to the future.
  • 02:17 People will be coming after them to work on the next revision of the product or
  • 02:21 service being developed, or to review what happened on the project.
  • 02:25 Records are the results of the project activities and the deliverables.
  • 02:29 I archive my records either at the end of the project on small projects, or
  • 02:33 at the end of each phase for large projects.
  • 02:36 And the records need to be stand-alone records, meaning that a person can pick
  • 02:40 them up and understand what happened at that point in time on the project.
  • 02:45 When communicating project information,
  • 02:48 you have to realize that your team members are often busy and distracted.
  • 02:52 So when you wanna send a message to them,
  • 02:54 you have to first determine the best way to send it.
  • 02:57 The sender encodes the message into the words or email, or some other document
  • 03:01 that gets send over to the receiver, but the receivers is distracted and
  • 03:05 there's noise on the line, and this can often lead to misunderstanding.
  • 03:09 So I establish with my team members the practice of sending a return message
  • 03:13 whenever the original message contains action items or decisions.
  • 03:17 This reduces misunderstandings significantly.
  • 03:20 Finally, some constraints with project communication.
  • 03:23 First, the number of people on your team affects how the communication
  • 03:26 process works.
  • 03:27 Let me illustrate what I mean.
  • 03:29 When there are only two people on your team,
  • 03:31 there's only one communication channel between them.
  • 03:34 Add a third person and now you have three possible communication channels.
  • 03:39 With four people there are now six possible communication channels.
  • 03:42 When the team grows to five people, there are ten possible ways for
  • 03:46 people to communicate with each other.
  • 03:48 Double the team to 10, and your communication channels have grown to 45.
  • 03:53 Add another 5 people, bringing the project team size up to 15, and
  • 03:58 there are 120 different communication channels.
  • 04:01 If you are not proactively managing communication, but
  • 04:05 just relying on team members to talk to each other to pass the word along,
  • 04:09 the rumor mill will run wild and no one will know what's really happening.
  • 04:13 Another constraint that you might have are contractual obligations.
  • 04:17 A customer or supplier's contract may require communication in a specific
  • 04:21 format, through a specific channel at specific times.
  • 04:26 Technology can be a help or a constraint
  • 04:28 depending upon what technologies are available to your team members.
  • 04:32 For example, do they have video conferencing capability?
  • 04:35 Are they able to send and receive texts?
  • 04:38 Finally, there may be other factors that limit the team's ability to communicate
  • 04:41 effectively such as extensive use of outside resources
  • 04:45 who may not be able to access information inside our system's firewall.
  • 04:49 A project that works with classified or
  • 04:51 confidential information, whose limits work can be shared between team members.
  • 04:55 And the team location, either co-located or distributed to
  • 04:58 multiple locations will affect how easy it is to have face to face meetings.
  • 05:05 >> As I mentioned, communication is a vital part of project management.
  • 05:09 Many project issues can be avoided, or
  • 05:11 at least easily contained, with pro-active communication.

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