As published by a US-based IT Training and Certification provider 'Intense School' back in August 2013.

1. Being involved in a great number of projects in IT for around 14 years allows me this
opportunity to share my thoughts on project communication. Based on my experience and
observation, one can always heavily rely on the technical skill sets the team members bring,
as well as the managerial competence the project manager has. But project stakeholders
should also take communication as one of the major aspects that determines whether the
project would be successful or not.
Communication aspect is very crucial. Trust me. It highly defines and influences the success
or failure of a project. Cliché yet still very, very relevant until now.
Like what matters most in mainstream communication, let’s go back to basics. We can follow
the principle “it takes two to tango.” The person who communicates is the “communicator”,
and naturally will speak with their language. The ideal thing is they should be able to
communicate with the “receiver” in a language they would be able to understand.
Comprehensively. Period.
Tons of surveys out there state the way they communicate, or the “method”, is far more
important than the content itself. I could safely say the percentage is 80:20. Indeed, the
method is the winner! Do always remember: communication means “constant”. There are
always people that didn’t hear, or heard but didn’t listen, or listened but were not fully aware
afterwards, didn’t understand, didn’t follow or made the connection when they heard it the
first time.
As a start, to put it in a concrete way, we must have an idea how this person would want to
receive our information. Communication is always and foremost about the other person. Do
remember that “u” is ahead of “i” in the word “communicate”. The clue is pretty simple. If
we want our message to be received, the best thing we could possibly do is present it as the
listener wants to hear it. If you are clueless, then it’s time to be proactive. Ask the person on
how they would like to receive the message: call, email, SMS, chat, or voice mail?
Digging in deeper, what’s actually inside the method? Some of you might be aware of this.
Language, media, and frequency are the elements we need to put our attention to the most,
while vertically, accuracy, completeness, presentation and clarity are extremely important
touch points to consider.
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2. For local and national companies, they will have a local or national language in the countries
where they are based or headquartered at. Usually to communicate with another company –
principal, distributor, reseller, or partner – in particular, foreign businesses, the mutual
convention shall be agreed.
English as one of the top three most spoken languages is the preferred choice, but for specific
countries, it depends on the result they compromise on. Yet some companies with more
bargaining power prefer or even require their affiliations to be able to speak their languages.
At this extent, even though it only accounts for a small percentage of businesses, their partner
need to go extra miles, if there isn’t a workaround.
In a project, the Project Manager and the stakeholders at large need to have an agreed
language on how they will communicate with each other. More importantly they must have a
common view on terms because otherwise it will lead to confusion and misunderstanding
between the individuals, entities and firms involved. Pointing it out fast forward, failed
projects have failed simply because of this. One thing to take note is that all terms flying
within a project should be accommodated in the project plan and its subdomains too. In this
case, it’s the project communication plan.
Always pay attention to how people communicate to us. If we’ve already done it, take it more
seriously. In most circumstances, watch how people talk to you and respond the same way. If
our contractor texts us asking about their payment status then text them back. Or raise the
level of communication by replying through email. We might even want to do a phone call.
E-mail, phone call, SMS, chat, conference call, meeting, review, and audit are types of media
where we are concerned. Before the project starts, the Project Manager should prepare a
communication matrix. Literally, it’s a table of what kind of events the project will have, the
type of media suitable for each, and the persons involved in particular activities. Also
included is the frequency – once per week, bimonthly, semestral basis, upon project
completion and so on and so forth.
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3. Example of Communication Media
Mode
Working
Committee
Meetings
Steering
Committee
Meetings
Announcement/
Reminders
Minutes/
Email
Minutes/
Email
On-Site
News
Bulletin
Personal
Update
Verbal
Hard Copies/
Email
Distribution
Meeting Modes
Status
Reports
Hard Copies/
Email
Verbal/
Email
On-Site
This matrix should be circulated not only to team members, but to the steering committee and
executives as well. All of them should be aware of it, not only know, and committed to roll it
out. Attaining bold support from top-level Board of Directors and executive management are
another side of this coin.
The most common way to communicate is over email. Don’t do any important thing unless
you receive an email saying so. Substitute words like “it”, “this”, “those”, or “that” with
complete words like “Purchase Order”, “quotation”, “report” or “launch date” to make sure
everyone is clear on what you are saying. Let the stakeholder know in advance, a week’s
notice at the very least, when a leave has been approved. Set your auto-responder on dates
that you won’t be available, and add whether you will have access to e-mail, the person-incharge during your leave, and when they could expect to hear back from you.
SMS is good for reminding someone on something they might forget. If it’s urgent, make a
phone call instead. Conversing over Skype or voice call at any other messaging platforms
such as Microsoft Office Communicator is today’s way people get connected to each other.
These days, who (really) needs a phone? As messaging apps are heating-up, SMS looks a bit
of “so yesterday”. Those living in rural areas, who often face difficulties in accessing the net,
might still need that.
Conference call is pretty common as time and expense of travel is no longer necessary. Listen
carefully to the dialogue taking place on intonation and clarity of the verbal message.
Nowadays there are quite a number of paid and free services that facilitate numbers to dial
into.
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4. Example of Communication Matrix
I am seeing more and more projects capitalizing on Wikis. Content uploaded into the
respective platform is editable by anyone with particular permissions. It’s useful for
collaboration perusal for documents and information on any specific topic the project benefits
from. A blog is worth trying as another media to keep our team informed about updates,
changes and decisions.
Needless to ask, in-person meeting is the best method to do coordination. Gestures, body
language, expression, handshake, eye contact are the crucial aspects to help understand what
someone is trying to say, or reacting on something. It’s irreplaceable, especially the eyes. As
far as I’ve experienced, they always tell the truth. Yes, they are natural-born lie detectors! It’s
the best way as we have both verbal and non-verbal cues that enhance communication and
help avoid misinterpretation.
Don’t forget to set a clear agenda when calling for a meeting. Slate a clear outcome and send
the minutes out upon completion. Speaking about meetings, lunch meeting, having coffee
after work, and other casual environments could be great for strengthening relationships,
getting feedback, ideas, and gaining support. Even so, sports like tennis, golf, etc., are
informal ways to explore initiatives, do brainstorming, improving communication skills,
build rapport, and gain more support from the stakeholders.
Being swamped in a mission-critical and time-critical IT project reminds me the importance
of having emergency and alternative communication methods. The first is, for instance, when
natural disaster takes place, in order to update project status and progress, the project
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5. members know who they should reach out to and which method they should use. Get used to
have another communication detail accessible for secret missions. Whenever there’s
something private and confidential, only person-to-person conversation is needed, and we all
know how to do it. Then just DO IT.
We also need to pay attention to the culture of our organization and the other parties involved
in our project. In some corporations, present time messaging has been flying around all days
for quite some time. But on the other hand, we are still witnessing numerous businesses
spreading their company information by voicemail, which the younger generation finds
ineffective. Always put in mind that information should be accurate, complete, clear, and
well-presented.
Good common sense tells us that any phase within the Project Life Cycle needs to have a
review. Starting from project initiation to implementation, we can continuously improve
processes, as well as do necessary actions, adjustments, and work-around to ensure it’s on the
right track.
Other things that correlate with communication are project template, documentation and
performance reporting. Keep all our project information in a central location and disseminate
where the location is to related stakeholders, as well as set-up its access (authorization and
authentication).
To manage information flow, it’s better for us to create a template for our status report so all
project members could easily use and take advantage of it. By having such standards, it will
also guarantee us the desired information we’d like to have and, even further, to bring it
forward by implementing document management systems for instance.
When communicating with stakeholders, what we could do first is to identify them for each
activity in the project by classifying them into two groups. Referring to RACI (Responsible,
Accountable, Consulted, and Informed), put the first group in those we need to consult with
and the latter as those who need to just be informed.
To make it more organized, don’t hesitate to create a distribution list of each category and
craft communication strategies if necessary. Please always be mindful in sending relevant
messages to relevant stakeholders. Don’t bother with Cc and Reply-All stuffs if we are eager
to streamline our communication over email.
You guessed it right! A plan will never be enough. For certain, it’s critical to understand what
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6. our stakeholders want, need and desire, both spoken and unspoken. Their expectations should
be carefully managed from beginning till the end. Pick up the most advantageous
communication media and frequency, and make sure it’s going on efficiently and effectively.
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