Module 4: Project

Communication Management

IT Project Management
School of Computing, Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

 Importance of Good Communications
 The greatest threat to many projects is a failure to
communicate
 Technical jargon can often complicate matters and
create confusion among IT professionals and managers
in the organization.
 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

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 Project Communications Management
Processes
 Planning communications management: determining the
information and communications needs of the
stakeholders.
 Managing communications: creating, distributing,
storing, retrieving, and disposing of project
communications based on the communications
management plan.
 Controlling communications: monitoring and controlling
project communications to ensure that stakeholder
communication needs are met.

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Project Communications Management
Summary

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 Communications Planning
• Every project should include some type of
communications management plan, a document that
guides project communications
• Creating a stakeholder analysis for project
communications helps in communications planning
 You can avoid wasting time or money on creating or
disseminating unnecessary information.

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 Communications Planning
• Communications Management Plan Contents:
1.Stakeholder communications requirements
2.Information to be communicated, including format, content,
and level of detail
3.Who will receive the information and who will produce it
4.Suggested methods or technologies for conveying the
information
5.Frequency of communication
6.Escalation procedures for resolving issues
7.Revision procedures for updating the communications
management plan
8.A glossary of common terminology
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 Sample Stakeholder Communication
Analysis

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 Managing Communications

• Getting project 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.

• Project managers must decide on the best way to

create and distribute the information.

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 Managing Communications
 Using technology to enhance information creation and
distribution
 Selecting the appropriate communication methods and
media
 Performance reporting
1. Progress reports describe what the project team has
accomplished during a certain period of time
2. Status reports describe where the project stands at a
specific point in time
3. Forecasts predict future project status and progress based
on past information and trends

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 Controlling Communication
• Controlling communications is to ensure the optimal
flow of information throughout the entire project life
cycle.
• The project managers and their team should use
their various reporting systems, expert judgment,
and meetings to assess how well communications
are working.
• A facilitator from outside the project team is often
beneficial to assess how well communications are
working.

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 Keys to Good Communications
• Focusing on group and individual communication
needs
• People are not interchangeable parts.
• As illustrated in Brooks’ book The Mythical Man-
Month, you cannot assume that a task originally
scheduled to take two months of one person’s
time can be done in one month by two people
• Nine women cannot produce a baby in one
month!

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 Keys to Good Communications
• Formal and informal methods for communicating
• Not enough to submit reports to project
managers and other stakeholders and assume
everyone who needs to know the information will
read the reports.
• Non-technical professionals prefer to have a two-
way conversation about a project rather than
reading detailed reports, e-mails, or web pages to
try to find pertinent information.

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 Keys to Good Communications
Distributing important 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

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 Keys to Good Communications
Setting the Stage for Communicating Bad News

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 Keys to Good Communications
Determining the number of communication 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

• where n is the number of people involved

• For example, two people have one communication
channel: 2(2-1)/2=1

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 The Impact of the Number of People on
Communications Channels

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 Suggestions for Improving Project
Communications
1. Developing better communication skills

2. Running effective meetings

3. Using e-mail, instant messaging, and collaborative tools

effectively

4. Using templates for project communications

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 Developing Better Communication
Skills
 Companies and formal degree programs for IT
professionals often neglect the importance of
speaking, writing, and listening skills

 As organizations become more global, they

realize they must invest in ways to improve
communication with people from different
countries and cultures

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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 the meeting
 Provide an agenda to participants before the
meeting
 Prepare handouts and visual aids, and make
logistical arrangements ahead of time
 Run the meeting professionally
 Build relationships

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 Using E-Mail, Instant Messaging, and
Collaborative Tools Effectively
 Make sure that e-mail, instant messaging, or
collaborative tools are an appropriate medium for what
you want to communicate

 Be sure to send information to the right people

 Use meaningful subject lines and limit the content of

emails to one main subject, and be as clear and concise
as possible

 Be sure to authorize the right people to share and edit

your collaborative documents

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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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 Sample Template for a Project
Description

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 Sample Template for a Monthly
Progress Report

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 Final Project
Documentation Items

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 Using Software to Assist in Project
Communications
 There are many software tools to aid in
project communications

 Today, many people telecommute or work

remotely at least part-time

 Project management software includes new

capabilities to enhance virtual
communications

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 Chapter Summary
 The goal of project communications management
is to ensure timely and appropriate generation,
collection, dissemination, storage, and disposition
of project information
 Main processes include:
 Communications planning
 Managing communications
 Controlling communications

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