Project Communication Management

 

The Importance Of Communication In Project Management
If project staff do not know what their tasks are, or how to accomplish them, then the entire project will grind to a halt. If you do not know what the project staff are (not) doing then you will be unable to monitor project progress. And if you are uncertain of what the customer expects of you, then the project will not even get off the ground. Maintaining open, regular and accurate channels of communication with all levels of project staff and stakeholders is vital to ensuring the smooth flow of instructions from customer to factory floor and sufficient warning of risks and changes to enable early assessment and preparation.

 

How To Create A Project Communication Plan
A communication plan that will guide the messages to a project’s affected stakeholders is a critical part of any project. How well you communicate throughout the life cycle of your project can make the difference between success and failure.
During the planning phase of your project, you need to create a high level Communication Management Plan that defines the general communication requirements for your project. This plan should include:

1. The plan’s purpose and approach
2. Communication goals and objectives
3. Communication roles
4. Communication tools and methods, and
5. High level project communication messages 

How to manage communication
Properly communicating on a project is a critical success factor for managing the expectations of the sponsor and the stakeholders. If these people are not kept well informed of the project progress there is a much greater chance that you will face problems due to differing expectations and surprises. In fact, in many cases where conflicts arise, it is not because of an actual problem, but because the person was surprised. All projects should communicate status. This includes reporting from the project team to the project manager and reporting from the project manager to the sponsor and stakeholders. Two typical forums for communicating status are through a status meeting and Status Reports. Larger projects or any project that requires culture change need to be more sophisticated in how they communicate to various stakeholders. This more multi-faceted approach is defined in a Communications Plan.

 

How can software enhance communication

1. Introduce Extreme Programming practices, “Extreme Programming (XP) is about social change,” — writes Kent Beck in the 1st chapter of his book Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (2nd Edition). “Productivity and confidence are related to our human relationships in the workplace as well as to our coding or other work activities. You need both technique and good relationships to be successful. XP addresses both.” While XP is most commonly known as a set of practical tricks, its essence lies deeper. The main idea is shifting the paradigm through which we perceive the development process. Solitude programming — quite effective in the past — now starts getting in the way. Such practices as pair programming, scrum, and code review could never boost technical skills and release true potential of developers without the trust and genuine cooperation within a team. That’s their true goal along with producing excellent code and meeting deadlines. “If a newbie has recently joined the team, pair programming can reduce the adaptation period of the new team member.”
2. Allow IRC, chat or IM, Chatting might seem like a chronophage, but it’s actually really useful. Communicating through IM, Skype, or IRC is often easier than a face-to-face dialog. If, for example, a programmer doesn't know how to implement some tricky functionality and is too shy to ask colleagues out loud, he/she could just share this doubt in IRC and more likely than not, someone will suggest a solution. “Most departments within Azoft have some sort of group chat set-up for team members to exchange comments, ask questions, discuss non-work topics, etc. These chats aren’t at all required, but still, they’re always being used by team members, which is a good indicator that they are necessary.”
3. Make a good use of sketch boards, Let your team know what happens outside their project by using a simple whiteboard. Graphical representation of currents tasks and goals doesn’t just offer a clear working plan for developers in charge, but also gives teammates a chance to see what other people are doing and how much of a challenge their tasks are.“Our web development division consists of 10 people. Often, each developer is assigned 2-4 projects. It’s hard to keep everything in mind - due dates, priorities, etc. So we decided to use a board with sticky-notes: every team member has a section where we post start and finish dates for every project. The point is that everyone can see what each developer will be doing in the near future and what projects are coming up next.
4. Arrange the working space,To facilitate communication, organize the working environment so that developers sit next to each other and could see what fellow developers are working on. However, it’s important to still allow enough room so that developers don’t violate each other’s the personal space. It’s a good idea to start a tradition of changing work spaces once in awhile (i.e. 3-4 months) to refresh the view and faces around.
5. Assign more experienced developers to newbies, “If a newbie developer without much experience has joined the team, it’s important for him/her to know that someone is always ready to help and answer questions. Therefore, experienced developers should always be willing to point the novice in the right direction. This is the only way for the new guys to grow professionally and gain new experience. If the team consists mainly of ‘superstars’, all the newbie needs to do is ask and listen. And be diligent.”