4. Communication Management

Communications Management
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* Project Communications Management includes the processes that are required to
ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection, creation,
distribution, storage, retrieval, management, control, monitoring and
the ultimate disposition of project information
90% of the Project Manager’s job is Communication
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Communication activities : Potential dimensions
• Internal ( within the project ) External ( customer, vendor, etc.)
• Formal ( reports, minutes, briefings) Informal ( email, memos, adhoc discussions)
• Vertical ( up and down the organization) Horizontal ( with peers)
• official ( News letters, annual report) unofficial ( off-the record communication)
• Written and oral and verbal ( voice inflections) , non verbal ( body language)
Project manager cannot control all communications but should try to control or prevent
miscommunication, unclear directions, and scope creeps
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FormalWritten
• Anytime you are signing a legal document or preparing formal documentation for your project,
blueprints, specifications
InformalWritten
• If you drop someone a quick email, leave them a memo or a sticky note
FormalVerbal
• If you have to give a presentation to update people on your project, speeches, prepared talks
InformalVerbal
• Just calling somebody up to chat about your project, meetings, hallway chats
Kinds of Communication
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• Listening actively and effectively
• Questioning and probing ideas and situations to ensure better understanding
• Educating to increase team’s knowledge so that they can be more effective
• Fact-finding to identify or confirm information
• Setting and managing expectations
• Persuading a person, a team or an organization to perform an action
• Motivating to provide encouragement or reassurance
• Coaching to improve performance and achieve desired results
• Negotiating to achieve mutually acceptable agreements between parties
• Resolving conflict to prevent disruptive impacts
• Summarizing, recapping and identifying the next steps
Common Communications Skills
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Project Communications Management
Start
Project /
Enter
Phase
Initiating Planning Executing Closing
End
Project /
Exit Phase
Monitoring and Control Process
Process Groups
Initiating Planning Executing Monitoring &
Control
Closing
Communication
Management
Plan Communications
Management
Manage
Communications
Control
Communicatio
ns
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Communications Management knowledgeArea
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10.1 Plan Communications Management
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• A key component is communication planning is to determine who will communicate with whom and
who will receive what information
• Project resources shall be expended only on communicating information that contributes to success,
or where a lack of information can lead to failure of the project
Communication RequirementsAnalysis -T &T
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Communication Complexity
• The project manager should consider the number of potential channels or paths as an indicator of
the complexity of a project’s communication
• Planning project’s actual communications is to determine and limit who will
communicate with whom and who will receive what information
No of Channels : n (n – 1)
2
n = Number of Resources
2 Resources
= 1 Channel 3 Resources = 3 Channel
4 Resources = 6 Channel
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Sources of information to identify and define project communication requirements :
 Organization charts
 Project organization and stakeholder responsibility relationships
 Disciplines, departments and specialties involved in the project
 Logistics of how many persons will be involved with the project and at which locations
 Internal information needs, when communicating within organizations
 External information needs, when communicating with the media, public or contractors
 Stakeholder information and communication requirements from within the stakeholder register

 Other Project
Managers
Customer, Sponsor, Functional managers, and Team Members
Other
Projects
Other
Stakeholders
The
Project
Inadequate communication
Planning leads to:
Delay in message
delivery
Communication of
information to wrong
audience
Insufficient
communication to
stakeholders
Misunderstanding or
misinterpretation of
message
communicated

The methods used to transfer information among project stakeholders may vary significantly such as -
 from brief conversations to extended meetings
 from simple written documents to extensive materials (e.g. schedules, databases and websites)
which are accessible online as methods of communication
• Factors that can affect the choice of communication technology include:
The urgency of the need for information
The availability :Technology, Resources
Easily Usable
Project Environment
Sensitivity and confidentiality of the information
CommunicationTechnology -T &T

Sender
Decode
Encode
Receiver
Encode
Decode
NoiseTransmit
Message
Medium
Feedback
Message
Noise
Sender-Receiver Model
Noise
Acknowledge
Message
Basic Communication Model -T &T

• Encode: Thoughts or ideas are translated into language by sender
• Transmit message: This information is then send by sender using communication channel
• Decode : To translate message back into meaningful thoughts or ideas
• Acknowledge: Upon receipt of the message, receiver may signal receipt of the message
• Message and feedback message : The output of encoding
• Feedback/response: When the received message has been decoded and understood the receiver
encodes thoughts and ideas into a message and transmit this message to the original sender.
• Medium : The method used to convey the message
• Noise : Anything that interfaces with the transmission and understanding of message (Distance,
unfamiliar technologies, etc.)
Basic Communication Model Sequence

• Interactive communication - Between two or more parties in
multidirectional (Phone calls, meetings, interviews), most effective way
• Push communication - Sent a specific information to specific recipients.
Examples are letters, memos, emails, faxes etc.This ensures that message is
sent but will not certify that it is actually received or understood (Push the
message to recipient)
• Pull communication – Used for large volume of information and large
audiences. Examples are internet sites, company data bases, e-learning, etc.
Recipients has to access the communication content (Pull out information) at
their own discretion
Communication Methods -T &T

The Communications Management Plan is a subsidiary plan of the project management plan, and
it details how the project communications will be planned, structured, monitored and controlled.
It contains :
• Stakeholder communication requirements
• Information to be communicated
• Time frame and frequency for the distribution of required information
• Person responsible for communication the information
• Person responsible for authorizing the release of confidential information
• Person or groups who will receive the information
• Methods or technologies used to convey information
• Resources allocated for communication
• Escalation process identifying timeframes and the management chain
• Method for updating and refining communication management plan
• Glossary of common terminology
Plan Communication - Output

10.2 Manage Communications-> Process flow

Information Management Systems
Information is managed and distributed through the use of a variety of tools given project demands and
available technology -
• Hard copies- letters, memos, press releases
• Electronic communications management – e-mail, fax, video and web conferencing, websites etc.
• Electronic project management tools – web interfaces to scheduling and project management
software, meeting and virtual office support software, portals etc.
Manage Communications –T &T

Performance Reporting :
The process of collecting and distributing performance information, including status reports, progress
measurements and forecasts:
Report may include :
• Analysis of past performance
• Analysis of project forecast
• Current status of risk and issues
• Work completed during the period
• Work to be completed in the next period
• Summary of changes approved in the period
Manage Communications –T &T

10.3 Control Communications->Process flow

10.3 Control Communications->Process flow
“Wise men talk because
They have something
To say;
Fools, because they have
To say something.”
-Platon

Thank you
Saraca Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

4. Communication Management

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4. Communication Management