Chapter 23: Communications Management During Project Execution

Aim: To understand the following two Communication Management related processes
• Distribute information
• Manage stakeholder expectations

Communicating with the project team, and with any other stakeholders, is one of the project manager’s most important tasks. In fact, a project manager spends the majority of his time communicating. Some say as much as 90% of a project manager’s time is spent communicating. Exchanging information is the only way a project manager can know how the project is progressing. The distribute information process keeps stakeholders informed. This includes communication outlined in the communication plan as well as responding to ad-hoc requests. The communication must be both timely and accurate.

The table below shows the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs for the distribute information process.

Distribute Information
Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project management plan Performance reports Organizational process assets	Communication methods Information distribution tools	Organizational process assets updates

Communication management is a crucial topic due to both its importance to the smooth operation of the project team and its complexity.

Communication Channels

Based on the number of people in a team, the number of communication channels would vary. The total number of channels increases exponentially as the number of individuals in the team increases. The number of channels can be calculated as:

No. of Channels = N * (N – 1) / 2

Where N is the number of people in the team.

For ex:
For 3 people = 3 * (2) / 2 = 3
For 4 people = 4 * (3) / 2 = 6
For 5 people = 5 * (4) / 2 = 10
For 6 people = 6 * (5) / 2 = 15

As you can see, when the team doubled in size from 3 to 6, the number of channels went up 5 times from 3 to 15.

Exam Watch:

You must be able to calculate the number of communication channels given the number of team members. Don’t be in a hurry to use the formula. Sometimes, the question maybe like: “Team A had 3 members last week and 3 more people joined this week. How many new communication channels were created?”. If you use the formula in a hurry you will end up with 15 as the answer and unfortunately it will be a choice as well. But the question isnt about the total number of channels but the new channels. So, the answer will be 12 (the increased number). Be careful while answering such questions.

Tools and Techniques for Distributing Information

Did you see “Communication Methods” and “Information Distribution Tools” in the Tools & Techniques section of the previous table? If not, I suggest you go back and scan through the table before proceeding further.

Both Communication Method and Information distribution tools are used in the Distribute Information process.

Communication Methods

Communication methods are a part of general management skills. Communication is comprised of a sender, a receiver, and the communication channel. The sender is responsible for making the message clear and accurate. The receiver is responsible for understanding the message. Communication can include the following:

• Written and oral
• Listening and speaking
• Internal and external
• Formal and informal
• Vertical and horizontal

Issues can result if communications are not managed effectively on the project. For example, because email cannot easily convey emotions, an email could be sent with a comment meant to be sarcastic, but the receiver doesn’t understand that and is upset based on the content of the email. The project manager should plan out communications to avoid these types of issues, including the best method for delivering messages based on the audience and content.

Information Distribution Tools

The project manager must ensure that information is effectively collected and distributed to project stakeholders. There are a number of tools to accomplish this:

• Face-to-face project meetings
• Virtual meetings using conference bridges, web conferencing, or video conferencing
• Distribution and filing of printed documents
• Shared access to electronically filed documents and document repository tools
• Email and fax
• Telephone and voice mail
• Access to project scheduling and other project management tools

To know more about the Distribute Information process Click Here

Manage Stakeholder Expectations

A good project manager must do more than just send out timely status updates. In addition to keeping the team informed and ensuring all stakeholders have the necessary information, the project manager must also manage the impact of the information. It is important that the stakeholders remain committed to the project. One of the project manager’s jobs is to recognize and shift in stakeholder commitment and react in an effective manner. The manage stakeholder expectations process addresses exactly that.

The table below shows the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs for the manage stakeholder expectations process.

Manage Stakeholder Expectations
Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Stakeholder register Stakeholder management strategy Project management plan Issue log Change log Organizational process assets updates	Communication methods Interpersonal skills Management skills	Organizational process updates Change requests Project management plan updates Project document updates

Notice that the tools and techniques exclusively address the issues of interacting with other people. That’s what managing stakeholders is all about. It is the job of the project manager to ensure all of the stakeholders continue to contribute in a material manner to the success of the project.

To know more about the Manage Stakeholder Expectations process Click Here

Prev: Chapter 22

Next: Chapter 24

Chapter 7: Project Communications Management as part of Project Initiation

Aim: To understand the Processes those are part of Project Communications Management in the Project Initiation Phase. i.e., “Identify Stakeholders”

The only other process in the initiating process group is the identify stakeholders process. Although you might have a preliminary list of interested parties during the development of the project charter, the official identification of stakeholders does not occur until after the project charter is complete. You are only prepared to identify all of the parties affected by the project after reviewing a complete project charter.

Identifying stakeholders is a crucial part of any project. As a project manager, you spend much of your time in the project communicating with stakeholders. It is important that you include every necessary stakeholder to the list and no one else. The identify stakeholders process results in an effective list of stakeholders and a description of how each one is involved in your project.

The table below lists the inputs, the tools and techniques, and the output for the identify stakeholders process.

Develop Project Charter
Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project charter Procurement documents Enterprise environmental factors Organizational process assets	Expert Judgment Stakeholder Analysis	Stakeholder Register Stakeholder Management Strategy

The most noteworthy point for the identify stakeholders process is the stakeholder analysis. This process is far more than just writing down a list of names. In addition to creating a list of stakeholders, you also need to know how much each stakeholder is involved in the project and how much influence each stakeholder can, and will, assert on the project.

Exam Watch:
Do not underestimate the importance of the stakeholder analysis. The exam might have a question that asks you to decide on a course of action that requires knowledge of stakeholder interest and influence. That information comes directly from the identify stakeholder process.

A stakeholder who is very interested in the project and has a lot of influence is apt to demand substantial attention. A stakeholder with little interest or influence should not require as much of your time. Though all stakeholders would need to be informed of the project status and progress, some might require more details than the other. The end user may need to know when the project will be available for use. The same information will be required for your project sponsor but along with this he may ask for resource utilization, budget utilization etc. The point here is that, not all stakeholders may need the same kind of information, even though they are all part of the big family of stakeholders of the project.

Prev: Chapter 6

Next: Chapter 8

Points to Remember: Project Communication Management

90% of a project manager’s job is communication

Communications Management makes sure everybody gets the right message at the right time.

Stakeholder Analysis is a critical tool in Project Communication Management process. You need to interview all of the stakeholders you can find for your project and find out the value the project has for them. As you sit with stakeholders, you’ll identify more people to interview. During Stakeholder Analysis you can divide your stakeholders into groups based on their level of involvement and need for communication. When you understand what motivates all of your stakeholders, you can come up with a strategy to make sure that they’re told about the things that they find important, and that they’re not bored with extraneous details.

It’s not enough to know who your stakeholders are – you need to understand what motivates them, and what it will take it to make the project a success for each of them. That’s where the Stakeholder Management Strategy comes in.

Be careful about when you use different kinds of communication. Any time you need to get a message to a client or sponsor, you use formal communication. Meetings are always informal verbal, even if the meeting is to say something really important. And any project document—like a project management plan, a requirements specification, or especially a contract—is always formal written.

You do most of the project communication when you’re performing the Distribute Information process

It’s important to write down the good things you learned on the project, too. That way, you can be sure to repeat your successes next time. Another important aspect of this action is the fact that, other projects can learn about the best practicies from your experience and implement them.

There are only four communication types; formal written, informal written, formal verbal, and informal verbal. For the test, you need to be able to tell which is which.

Report Performance takes the outputs from the Executing process in Distribute Information and turns them into Performance Reports and Forecasts.

Performance reports and forecasts are a lot easier than they look—because you already know all about them! In the chapter on Project Cost Management, you learned how to use CPI and SPI to measure your project’s performance, and you used EAC and ETC to forecast when the project would be complete. Now you’re just taking that information and communicating it!

A kickoff meeting is a great way to get your project team and stakeholders on the same page.

You should add all of your performance reports to the Organizational Process Assets so that project managers on future projects can use them as historical information.


Points to Remember - Other Topics:

Introduction to Projects & Project Management
Relationship Between Knowledge Areas & Process Groups
Project Integration Management
Project Scope Management
Project Time Management
Project Cost Management
Project Quality Management
Human Resource Management
Project Risk Management
Project Procurement Management
Ethics & Professional Responsibility

Chapter 40: Planning Project Communication

In the previous chapter, we learnt how important project communication is. So as a responsible project manager, it is our responsibility now to plan for the project communication. This is what we are going to learn in this chapter.

So, lets get started!!!

Planning Project Communication

In a project environment, communication means communicating with the project stakeholders. Planning Communication is the process of determining the information needs of the project stakeholders and accordingly designing the communication approach.

To be specific, communication planning determines the following:
• The communication and information needs of the program stakeholders
• The four Ws: what information is needed, when it is needed, who needs it, and who will give it
• How the information will be delivered? say by e-mail, phone call, or presentation

Remember the chapter on Identifying Stakeholders? During the process of identifying stakeholders, you create the stakeholder register and develop the stakeholder management strategy. Both of these items are used in planning project communication.

Trivia:
Planning communication is the process of determining the information needs of the project stakeholders and accordingly the communication approach. Incorrect planning will produce undesired results, such as incorrect individuals getting sensitive information, necessary information not getting to the right stakeholders in time, wrong communication methods being used, and so on.

As expected, the planning of project communication activity is a process and as with all processes, it has some inputs, uses some tools and produces a certain output. Look at the image below:

Inputs to Plan Project Communication Process:

As expected, the stakeholder register and stakeholder management strategy developed during the Identify Stakeholders process will be the major input into the Plan Communication process. Also, because communication is the common thread running through the whole project and because it must be adapted to the whole project environment, all the enterprise environmental factors and all the organizational process assets should be considered as input. Historical information and lessons learned are particularly important because they can be used for wisely planning the communication based on past experience.

Tools and Techniques for Communication Planning

The tools and techniques used for Project Communication Planning are:

Communication Requirements Analysis

Communication requirements, needed for the communication planning process, must be analyzed. This analysis will generate the communication needs of the project stakeholders. For example, a communication requirement may specify the type of information and the format in which this information should be delivered. The analysis of this requirement will estimate the value of this communication requirement; for example, fulfillment of this requirement will significantly contribute to the success of the project, or the lack of it will result in the failure of the project or one of its components. So, one of the purposes of communication requirements analysis is to optimize the use of resources in communication.

Following are some examples of what types of information you will need to analyze the communication requirements for your project:

• Relationships - Organizational and stakeholder responsibility relationships. Organizational charts can be helpful to figure out some of this information.
• Groups - Different groups, disciplines, departments, and specialties involved in this project; for example, marketing, sales, and engineering as departments and software engineering and testing as groups in the engineering department.
• Logistics - How many individuals and groups will be involved in the project and where they are located? Obviously, this information is necessary to plan communication.
• Information needs - Communication is performed to deliver or exchange some kind of information. So to plan communication effectively, it’s important to know the following information needs:
      o Information needs of the stakeholders
      o Internal information needs; for example, communication across the performing organization and communication within the project team
      o External information needs; for example, communicating with contractors, media, and the public

You can appreciate the complexity of communication by realizing that there are n(n—1)/2 possible communication channels among n stakeholders. So, if there are 20 stakeholders, the possible number of communication channels is 20×19/2=190.

Based on communication needs, you can determine which communication technology will be appropriate to meet these needs.

Communication Technology Determination

Depending on the communication needs and the nature of the information, a communication technology may vary from a conversation in a hallway to a sophisticated information system. The following factors can contribute to determining the communication technology to be used for your project:

• Availability - If you are considering a number of options, obviously the technology that’s already in place is more likely to be chosen. (A conference call or a group email etc)
• Project environment - The project environment can also affect the choice of communication technology. For example, the communication technology requirements for a project team that meets face to face will be different from that of a virtual team.
• Project length - The length of the project affects communication technology requirements in the following ways:
      o Is it worth it to spend time on a technology for the given length of the project?
      o Will the technology under consideration change during the course of the project? If yes, that will mean extra cost for the new technology and for training the team members to use it.
• Urgency of the information need - How frequently the information needs to be updated will also play a role in determining the communication technology. For example, information that does not need to change frequently can be delivered in written reports, whereas information that can change very frequently can be delivered through spreadsheets or emails.
• Staffing preparation level - Another factor that can be considered in making the communication technology decision is the users’ or readers level of preparation for using a given technology. Are the users already fluent in this technology or will they need to be trained? Training and learning for the project staff could be the valid issues for consideration.

Communication Models and Methods

If you have some experience in IT or in the field of communication, be aware that when PMI refers to communication models and methods, it has very specific things in mind. Although it’s a very broad topic, we will confine our discussion to what PMI means by communication models and methods, for the purpose of the exam.

Communication models - PMI’s basic communication model is illustrated in the picture below:

• Sender - The individual that initiates the communication by sending the original message.
• Receiver - The individual that receives the original message sent by the sender.
• Encode - To convert thoughts into a format that can be sent as a message to the receiver.
• Message - Encoded piece of information that travels from one individual to another.
• Feedback message - The response sent by the receiver to the sender. It may be a simple acknowledgment or it may be a full message that may require a response.
• Decode - To convert the encoded message back into thoughts and ideas upon which one could act.
• Medium - The means of communication used to send and receive the message. E-mail, telephone, and face-to-face conversation are some examples of media.
• Noise - While the message travels through the medium, it can be interrupted and modified by some interfering entity called noise. Anything that interferes with the transmission and understanding of the message is called noise. Some examples are distance, lack of background information or context in which the message is composed, and unfamiliar technology being used. For example, e-mailing and texting have their own lingo, acronyms, and symbols that can become noise for people who are new to these technologies.

Note: In the picture, noise will be between the arrows from the sender/receiver and the communication medium. I did not want to write too much info in the picture text so excluded noise…

For the communication to work, both the senders and the receivers have some responsibilities. The responsibilities of the sender include ensuring that the message being sent conveys the complete information clearly and ensuring that the information is received correctly and understood properly by the receiver. The responsibilities of the receiver include ensuring that the information is received correctly and understood properly in its entirety and that it is acknowledged.

Communication methods - In its most basic form, communication is an exchange of information between two entities. Even communication among several entities is better handled by looking at it as a set of exchanges between two entities. For example, A communicating with B, C, and D is a set of exchanges between A and B, A and C, and A and D. In other words, exchange between two entities is the basic building block of communication. So we can always break down a communication as an exchange between a sender and a receiver.
From the perspective of how the sender and the receiver are involved with each other through the communication system, communication can be classified into the following two categories:
1. Interactive communication - In this type of communication, the receiver receives the message and sends a response to it. This way, the communicating entities keep switching the roles of sender and receiver. There are two kinds of interactive communication:
      o Asynchronous communication - A communication in which the two communicating entities do not have to be present on both ends of the communication line at the same time. E-mail is an example of asynchronous communication because when the sender of the e-mail pushes the send button, the intended recipient of the e-mail message does not have to be logged on to the e-mail server. The recipient can log on later, retrieve the message, and read it.
      o Synchronous communication - A communication in which the two communicating entities have to be present on both ends of the communication line at the same time. It’s a live, real-time communication; if you are not present when the sender is sending the message, you miss the message. Speaking with someone face to face and conversing with someone on the telephone are two examples of synchronous communication.
2. One-way communication - There are two kinds of one-way communication:
      o Pull communication - In this kind of communication, the receiver pulls the information from a pool of information. Downloading from websites is an example of this communication.
      o Push communication - In this kind of communication, the sender broadcasts the information to a set of entities without waiting for the request of information and without the need to confirm that the information reached its destination. Marketing e-mails and letters are examples of push communication.
The pull and push methods can also be used in conjunction with each other. For example, the sender can also push the information to a pool, and the receivers can pull it from there at their own convenience.

Communication types discussed here are called communication methods in the PMI Standard. Depending on the purpose, the project manager can decide which of these communication methods to use. Quite often a hybrid approach is used in the real world; i.e., a mix of more than one method.

Output of Communication Planning

The major output of communication planning is the communication management plan. It also results in updates to certain project documents.

Communication Management Plan

This is the document that describes the communication expectations, needs, and plans for the project. It specifies what information will be communicated, when and how it will be communicated, and who will communicate it and to whom. It includes:

• Communication requirements of the project stakeholders
• Information to be communicated: content, format, and level of detail
• Who will communicate the information, who will receive it, and why
• The person responsible for authorizing the release of confidential information
• Methods of communication that will be used, such as e-mail, presentation etc
• The frequency of communication, such as daily or weekly or monthly
• The method and procedure for escalating the issues that cannot be resolved at a lower staff level, such as project level
• A glossary of common communication terminology
• Methods and procedures for updating and refining the communication management plan if needed as the program progresses
• Communication constraints

The communication management plan may also include the technology requirements plan. With all the available technical advancements, it is important that you plan for the communication technology requirements. This planning has two components: the tools that are needed and the usage of those tools. To determine which tools are needed, ask questions such as the following:

• How frequently do you need to update the information?
• Will the team hold face-to-face or virtual meetings?

For the information that does not change often, the written reports will be sufficient, whereas the information that needs to be updated frequently and on a moment’s notice needs web communication tools. To plan effective usage of the tools, ask the following questions:

• Are the tools (communication systems) already in place and ready to be used?
• Will the available communication tools change before the program ends?
• Are the team members familiar with the tools or do they need training to use them?

Updates to Project Documents

During communication planning, you might realize that you need to make some changes in the project schedule, stakeholder register, and stakeholder management strategy. Accordingly, you will need to change these documents.

Trivia:
While planning for communication (or doing anything, for that matter), pay attention to details, ask questions, and probe the situation to come to a better understanding. A well understood problem is already half solved. Be an active and effective listener.

Prev: Project Communication

Next: Summary

Chapter 39: Project Communication

Now that the project schedule is ready, the next step is to manage project communication. Every stakeholder of the project needs to be aware of what is happening in the project on a regular basis. As the project manager, it is our responsibility to do that. This is exactly what we are going to learn in this chapter.

So, lets get started!!!

Project Communication:

There is a common thread that runs through almost all activities and processes in project management, and that is communication. The project and its activities will fail without effective communication. Communication is an exchange of information among persons and groups by using an effectively common system of signs, symbols, and behavior. I used the term “effectively common” to take into account the fact that even if two communicating entities are using two different systems, the “translators” between the communicating entities produce the results as if the two entities were using a common system. For example, I might be using a Windows computer and you might be using a Macintosh, but we can exchange e-mails without having to deal with the differences between the two machines.

Trivia:
Communication is a common thread that runs through almost all activities and processes in project management. At no stage in the project life cycle should we stop communicating.

The importance of communication in project management cannot be overemphasized. Even a well-scheduled and well-funded project can fail in the hands of a hardworking team of experts due to the lack of proper communication. As a project manager, you may be dealing with a wide functional variety of individuals, ranging from executives, to marketing personnel, to sales folks, to technologists. You should be able to wear different communication hats depending upon who you are communicating with. For example, you will not be talking in terms of technical jargon with executives or marketing folks, and you will not speak marketing lingo to software developers. You will be speaking to different stakeholders in their language, while filling the language gap between different functional groups and eliminating misunderstandings due to miscommunication. (Remember the term Translator in the previous paragraph? You will be the Translator for the project)

The key point is that you put on the appropriate communication hat depending on which individual you are communicating with. Be able to switch communication hats quickly and avoid technical jargon and acronyms that are not understood by the person or the group you are communicating with. The goal is the clarity of the language to convey the message accurately.

In a project, you will be communicating with project stakeholders. The different components of project communication management are shown below in the image:

The major goal of communication management is to deliver the right information to the right stakeholders at the right time by using the right communication means to produce the desired impact. You, the project manager are responsible for doing that. You are in the middle of all the activities taken up by your project and you must ensure that everyone knows what he/she needs to know about the project.

Prev: Developing the Project Schedule

Next: Planning Project Communication