Project Communication Summary by Sachin Mehra

PROJECT

COMMUNICATION

MANAGEMENT

SUMMARIZED

Sachin Mehra, PMP

© Sachin Mehra

All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any

form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the

author.

[email protected]

http://www.linkedin.com/in/sachinmehra

To

My family, my forever love.

Contents at a Glance

Preface .................................................................................... ix

About the Author .................................................................... xi

Introduction ............................................................................ 1

Understanding communication .......................................... 3

Characteristics of communication ...................................... 5

Methods of communication ............................................... 5

Nonverbal Messages: .......................................................... 6

Para-verbal Messages: ........................................................ 6

Communication Model ....................................................... 7

Communication channels ................................................... 9

Barriers to Communications ............................................. 10

Project Communications Management ................................ 13

Communications Planning ................................................ 15

Communications Planning ................................................ 15

Inputs to communications planning ............................. 16

Tools and techniques for communications planning .... 16

Output of communications planning ............................ 17

Exam spotlight................................................................... 17

Content of communications management plan ........... 17

How a project manager can help in effective project

team communications .................................................. 18

Information Distribution ................................................... 19

Inputs to information distribution ................................ 19

Tools and techniques for information distribution ....... 19

Output of information distribution ............................... 19

Exam spotlight................................................................... 20

Active listening .................................................................. 20

Performance Reporting ..................................................... 21

Inputs to performance reporting .................................. 21

Tools and techniques for performance reporting......... 21

Output of performance reporting ................................. 22

Exam spotlight................................................................... 22

Variance analysis ........................................................... 22

Project war room .......................................................... 23

Manage Stakeholders ....................................................... 25

Inputs to manage stakeholders .................................... 25

Tools and techniques for manage stakeholders ........... 25

Output of manage stakeholders ................................... 25

Exam spotlight................................................................... 26

Preface

The genesis of this book dates back to 2003. While working

for a small startup, I was asked to help the executives create

and execute the organizational growth plans. The executives

wanted me to research tools and methodologies that would

help them manage project efficiently.

Seeing the problems faced by project managers, I felt that

software project management must be the toughest job on

the earth. And managing the communication with various

stakeholders like client, end-users, team, etc was toughest of

all the activities.

Over the past 6 years, I have realized that the situation is not

quite that hopeless. By using sound project communication

management processes, project managers can successfully

execute projects.

I have used my experience and knowledge of software

project management to cull out and describe in this book the

key project communication management practices that can

be used to successfully execute project after project.

The beauty of these practices is that despite being highly

effective, they are not complex; rather, they are grounded in

common sense and are supported by simple measurements

and analyses.

The book is written primarily for existing project managers so

that they can improve their communication skills. This book

is equally helpful for wannabe project managers, by using the

methods described in this book they can systematically

improve the communication management of their projects.

PMP aspirants can also use this book to understand the art of

project communication management in simplest way.

Many people helped to make this book a reality. I would like

to express my gratitude to my present and past employers,

where I earned my knowledge and experience to make this

book possible. My sincere thanks to all the people who

shared their experiences with me and inspired me to write

this book. My special thanks to Anand Rajan for his guidance,

insight, and common sense to project management.

Any comments about this book, or any inaccuracies that

might be present (which are entirely my responsibility), can

be sent to me at [email protected].

Sachin Mehra

About the Author

Sachin Mehra is a veteran engineering manager who is a

certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a

PGDBM (MBA equivalent). In over 12 years of software

development and management experience, Sachin has

worked for small start-up to established innovative

companies.

He has vast experience in Program/Project Management,

Consulting, Business Analysis, Service transition and

management, Onsite Coordination, Sales Support, Enterprise

architecture, Application Designing and Development,

Testing, Integration, and Implementation.

Post working hours, Sachin enjoys watching movies, reading,

writing, and spending time with his family.

Project Communication Management Summarized

1

Introduction

Understanding communication

Characteristics of communication

Methods of communication

Communication model

Barriers to Communications


2

If you just communicate you can get by. But if you skilfully

communicate, you can work miracles.

- Jim Rohn


3

Understanding communication

Communications management employs the processes

required to ensure timely and appropriate generation,

collection, distribution, storage, retrieval and ultimate

disposition of project information.

—A Guide to the PMBOK®

Projects are executed by humans. And humans must interact.

There is no doubt that communicating frequently and often

is necessary throughout the life of any project. Good

communication skills of the team ensure success for projects.

Communication is the most important skill for a Project

Manager. Project Managers spend 90% of their time

communicating.

Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve

me and I'll understand. - Author unknown

Note: The best way to communicate in the teams is to

involve team members in all activities. Project manager along

with team members is responsible for managing

communication on project.


4

Communication may be done using symbols, signs,

behaviour, speech, writing, or signals, as well as through

project charters, project plan, project scope statement and

status reports. The list of ways a Project Manager

communicates is longer and you will get familiarize with it as

you read this book, for now, this small list is an indication of

the significance of communication to a Project Manager.

Note: Lack of communication is one of the primary reasons

why projects fail.

Projects fail when expectations are not aligned with results.

Timely and effective communication can bridge this gap to

avoid surprises at the end. Expectations, goals, and priorities

of the project stakeholders should be well documented and

communicated to the stakeholders.

Proactive Project Managers know that communication is an

ongoing process throughout the life of the project. They set

proper expectations for all the stakeholders by determining

the information and communications needs of each

stakeholder.


5

Communication by definition is the process of conveying

information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a

medium in which the communicated information is

understood the same way by both sender and receiver.

Characteristics of communication Communication is a process – it is continuous,

ongoing, and dynamic

Communication has information (message/content)

Communication requires a sender and a receiver

Communication requires a medium (symbols, signs,

behaviour, speech, writing, or signals)

Communication requires shared understanding – all

parties understanding the same things the same way

Communication is transactional and irreversible

Methods of communication 1. Formal written - Project Plan, Project charter,

Specifications, Reports, Metrics

2. Formal verbal - Presentation, speeches


6

3. Informal written - Memos, Email, Notes

4. Informal verbal - Meetings, Conversations

Note: Project Management Plan is the best type of

communication method to use when there are cultural

differences and distance between team members.

Nonverbal Messages: 1. Accounts for about 55% of what is perceived and

understood by others.

2. Are conveyed through our facial expressions as well as

our postures and gestures.

Para-verbal Messages: 1. Account for about 38% of what is perceived and

understood by others.

2. Include the tone, pitch, and pacing of our voice

It is not possible for Project Manager to control all the

communication in the project by stakeholders (management,

client, teams, etc), however he should try to control it to

minimize miscommunication. Project Manager must choose


7

the most effective method for communicating the

information.

Effective communication is a two-way process which involves

active listening and reflects the accountability of speaker and

listener. It utilizes feedback to confirm understanding which

makes it free of stress.

Communication Model In communication, there is always a sender and a receiver

(maybe more than one in some cases). Both parties have

their own experiences, their perceptions, their ideas, etc,

hence they may experience, perceive, and interpret things

differently. The same event will always be perceived a little

different by each party.

A simple communication model in Figure 1 shows how the

information travels from sender to receiver.

Figure 1


8

1. Sender – Is an information source, who wants to initiate

communication.

2. Encode – Information is encoded into a message.

Sender should make sure that he truly provides

understandable information to another project team

member. This means that sender must attempt to take

the perspective and knowledge of the receiver into

consideration and create and present a message that

he or she is likely to interpret in the way intended.

3. Medium – Messages may be sent using traditional mail,

email, phone call, face-to-face or using gestures alone.

Medium is the communication method used to transmit

the message.

4. Decode – Message is decoded to understand the

information sent by sender. Sender uses his knowledge

and understanding of the subject matter to decode this

message, hence extra caution is required to interpret

the message in right context (sender’s context).

5. Receiver – The person to who the information is sent

to.

6. Feedback – Receiver sends a feedback to sender to

acknowledge that the information is received and

understood. Sender may have to act further to ensure

that the receiver understood the message by eliciting


9

feedback that helps sender to assess whether receiver

interpreted the message as intended.

Sender may use symbols, signs, behavior, speech, writing, or

signals to transfer the information in the message. The

purpose is to ensure that both parties understand the

perspective.

Communication channels Communication will always involve more than one person. In

the figure below, we can see the number of communication

channels required to communicate with 5 team members in

a team of 6.


10

Figure 2

The formula to calculate the total number of communication

channels is: (n2- n)/2 or n (n-1)/2

n = total number of team members

Lets calculate the total number of communication channels

for the figure above,

n = 6

6 (6 – 1)/2

6 (5)/2

30/2

Hence, there shall be 15 communication channels on this

project of 6 people.

Barriers to Communications 1. Physical – noise, distance, time, environment, physical

medium

2. Cultural - ethnic, religious, and social differences

3. Perceptional - viewing what is said from your own

mindset


11

4. Words - we assign a meaning to a word often because

of culture, experience, etc reasons which results in

improper encoding of message

5. Experiential - lack of similar experience

6. Emotional - personal feelings at the moment or doing

other things besides listening

7. Linguistic - different languages or vocabulary

8. Non-verbal - non-word messages

9. Gestures - misunderstood gestures are a major barrier

10. Variations in language - accent, dialect

Note: The most likely outcome of communication blocker

and miscommunication are conflicts.

Any of the above barriers to communications can create

interferences or disturbances and impact the effectiveness of

the communication. Project Manager should look for such

barriers and try to minimize (or better still, eliminate) the

source/cause.


12

Good communication does not mean that you have to speak

in perfectly formed sentences and paragraphs. It isn't about

slickness. Simple and clear go a long way.

- John Kotter


13

Project Communications Management

Communications Planning

Information Distribution

Performance Reporting

Manage Stakeholders


14


15

Communications Planning In order to successfully manage a project, the Project

Manager must have in place all processes required to ensure

timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination,

storage and ultimate disposition of project information.

Communication management plan, which is created by the

Project Manager, is an output of communication planning

process. It determines the type and format of information

and communication needs of all the stakeholders. It also

defines the frequency/time, creator and recipients of the

information.

As per A Guide to the PMBOK®, communications planning

process determines the information and communications

needs of the stakeholders; for example, who needs what

information, when they will need it, how it will be given to

them, and by whom. While all projects share the need to

communicate project information, the informational needs

and methods of distribution vary widely. Identifying the

informational needs of the stakeholders and determining a

suitable means of meeting those needs is an important factor

for project success.

Note: Organizational structure has the greatest effect on the

project's communication requirements.


16

Something that you planned for today might become

obsolete in the future. It is good to review the

communication plan periodically with the stakeholders.

Inputs to communications planning

1. Enterprise Environmental Factors

2. Organizational Process Assets

3. Project Scope Statement

4. Constraints and assumptions from the Project

Management Plan

Tools and techniques for communications

planning

1. Communications requirements analysis

2. Communications technology


17

Output of communications planning

1. Communications management plan (part of project

management plan)

Exam spotlight

Content of communications management plan

1. What information will be collected?

2. How the information will be collected

3. How and to whom the information will be distributed

4. When the information will be communicated

5. How to obtain information between regular

communications

6. How the Communications Plan will be updated

through the project


18

How a project manager can help in effective

project team communications

1. Be an effective communicator

2. Be a communications expeditor

3. Avoid communications blockers

4. Use a tight matrix

5. Have a project war room

6. Make meetings effective


19

Information Distribution Everything you do, you do for a reason, and communicating

should be no different. We need to share the project

information with the stakeholders in a timely manner to be

able to utilize the information. Information distribution is the

execution of communication management plan plus handling

ad-hoc information needs.

Inputs to information distribution


management plan)

Tools and techniques for information distribution

1. Communications skills

2. Information gathering and retrieval system

3. Information distribution methods

4. Lessons learned process

Output of information distribution

1. Organizational process assets (updates)

2. Requested changes


20

Exam spotlight

Active listening Listening in which the recipient is attentive and asks for

clarification of ambiguous messages. The idea is to be able to

get the messages correctly.


21

Performance Reporting The project may be doing great or maybe it is already

screwed-up, the only way to find out is by looking at the

baseline data of scope, efforts, cost, quality, etc and then

matching it with the actual to find out the progress made.

Stakeholders look for such information, hence it is project

managers duty to do performance reporting as per the

information needs documented in the communication plan.

Inputs to performance reporting

1. Work performance information

2. Performance measurements

3. Forecasted completion

4. Quality control measurements

5. Project management plan

6. Approved change request

7. Deliverables

Tools and techniques for performance reporting

1. Information presentation tool


22

2. Performance information gathering and compilation

3. Status review meetings

4. Time reporting system

5. Cost reporting system

Output of performance reporting

1. Performance reports

2. Forecasts

3. Requested changes

4. Recommended corrective action


Exam spotlight

Variance analysis

Comparing actual project results to planned or expected

results in terms of cost, schedule, scope, quality, and risk.


23

Project war room

A single location for the team to get together for any

purpose. It provides a repository for project artifacts,

records, and up-to-date schedules and status reports. It

gives an identity to the project team.


24


25

Manage Stakeholders A stakeholder is anyone whose interests may be positively or

negatively impacted by the project. Stakeholder

management is the process of controlling communications to

adjust as per the needs of the stakeholders.

Inputs to manage stakeholders


management plan)

2. Organizational process assets

Tools and techniques for manage stakeholders

1. Communications methods

2. Issue logs

Output of manage stakeholders

1. Resolved issues

2. Approved change request

3. Approved corrective action


26


5. Project management plan (updates)

Exam spotlight

Most important characteristic for a project manager

is ability to work well with others.

Major cause of conflict with functional managers is

schedules.

Most difficult conflict to deal with is personality

conflicts.

Face-to-face meetings are the most effective means

for communicating and resolving issues.


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Project Communication Summary by Sachin Mehra