Project Communications Management
Project Communications Management includes processes that are required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval, and ultimate disposition of project information. Effective communication creates a bridge between the diverse stakeholders and project team members.
The processes involved in Project Communications Management are:
The processes involved in Project Communications Management are:
- Identify Stakeholders: The process used to identify all people who are impacted by the project and can influence the project too. Documenting relevant information regarding the interests of stakeholders, their involvement, and the impact they can have on project success is also a part of this process. For project success, it is critical that the stakeholders are identified early in the project, so their interests and expectations can be analyzed and a strategy can be developed to maximize positive influences and mitigate potential negative impacts. Stakeholders should be classified according to their interest, influence and involvement in the project which enables the PM to focus on the relationships necessary for project success.
- Plan Communications: This process determines the information needs of the project stakeholders and decides a communication approach. Improper communication planning can lead to problems such as delay in message delivery, sensitive information sent to the wrong audience, or lack of communication to some important stakeholders. Effective communication means that the required information is provided in the right format, at the right time, and with the right impact. The Plan Communications process is tightly linked with enterprise environmental factors, since the organization’s structure has a major effect on the project’s communications requirements.
Tools and techniques:
Communication Methods: The different communication methods can be classified into – Interactive Communication, Push communication and Pull Communication. Push communication is when information is sent to specific recipients who need to know the information. It ensures that information is distributed but does not acknowledge if it has actually reached or was understood by the audience. Pull Communication is used with a very large audience. It requires the recipients to assess the information at their own discretion.
- Distribute Information: This process makes relevant information available to project stakeholders as planned. Though, it takes place throughout the project life cycle, the focus is mainly in the execution process which includes implementing the communication management plan as well as responding to unexpected requests for information.
- Manage Stakeholder Expectations: Process of working and communicating with the stakeholders in order to meet their needs. This process involves communication with the stakeholders to influence their expectations, address concerns and resolve issues. By ensuring that the stakeholders understand project benefits and risks, the probability of project success increases and decreases the risk that the project will fail to meet its goals and objectives due to unresolved stakeholder issues.
- Report Performance: Process of collecting and distributing performance information. Performance information includes, performance and status reports and forecasts. It compares this data to the baseline to accurately measure project performance. A complete report also contains forecasted project completion data, and work to be done next besides having the record of the work already done and its performance status.
Tools and Techniques:
Forecasting Methods: Process of predicting future project performance based on the actual performance to date. These methods can be classified as Time series methods (Use historical data as the basis for estimating future outcomes), Causal/Econometric methods (Use the assumption that it is possible to identify the underlying factors that might influence the variable that is being forecasted), and Judgmental Methods (Incorporate intuitive judgements, opinions, and probability estimates).