PMI RMP – PROJECT COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT part 1

1. INTRODUCTION

Hi and welcome back again to a new topic, to a new knowledge area the project communications management. For me and for the majority of the students preparing for the exam, the project communications management and the project stakeholder management are the easiest knowledge areas. Now for your practical life, project communications management is the most important one. At the end of the day, if you are working as a project manager or as a risk manager or even as a project team member, you will find out that more than 80 or 90% of your timing was spent performing communication. You were holding a meeting or you were preparing for a report, sending emails, doing phone calls, sending messages.

All these are forms of communication. Now it will include all the processes required to ensure that the information needs of the project and of the project stakeholders are met through development of artifact and implementation of activities designed to achieve effective information exchange. These are the processes of the project communications management. What is the communication? Simply, it’s the exchange of information intended or involuntary. The information exchanged can be in the form of ideas, instructions or emotions. The simplest definition of the communication is the exchange of information between two parties.

The project communication consists of two parts. The first part is developing a strategy to ensure communication is effective for all the project stakeholders. The second part will be carrying out the activities necessary to implement this communication strategy. Project communication management and the stakeholder Management these two knowledge areas are linked to each other. As I mentioned now, project communications management is concerned with making sure that the information needs of the project stakeholders are met. This is why the project communications management and the stakeholder management are linked together.

We have only three processes. Three simple processes plan communications management as a part of the planning process group manage communications as a part of the executing process group. Monitor communications as a part of the monitoring and controlling process group as shown here, communications management are within the planning, executing, monitoring and controlling. We have three processes only as taken from the PM book. The project management body of Knowledge 10. 1 Plan Communications management. 10. 2 managed Communications 10. 3 monitor communications.

2. KEY CONCEPTS IN COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT

Hi and welcome back again a few key concepts of the project communications management the mechanisms by which the information can be exchanged. First of all we have the written form. This is the first mechanism and the most commonly used. One written form either physical through email or sorry. Physical through a hard copy, memo or letter or electronic through email, spoken either face to face or remotely formal or informal using documents or using the social media through gestures like the tone of voice or facial expressions, through medialike pictures, actions or even just the choice of words. The choice of words mechanism there is often more than one word to express an idea.

Communications describes the possible means by which the information can be sent or received either through communication activities such as meetings and presentations or artifacts such as emails, social media and project reports. Communication activities may have dimensions which may include so what are the communication dimensions? It can be internal which focus on the stakeholders within the project and the organization internally within your project or within the organization running the project. It can be externally that focus on external stakeholders such as customers, vendors and other projects.

It can be formal like reports, formal meetings, meeting agendas and minutes of meeting and presentation. It can be informal like general communication activities using emails, websites and general ad hoc discussions, written and oral verbal, which is the voice and nonverbal like the body of language and the actions, websites and media releases. We have official annual reports, reports to regulators or governmental bodies. We have the unofficial dimension communications that focus on establishing and maintaining the profile and recognition of the project and building strong relationships between the stakeholders and the project team members.

We have the hierarchical focus. The position of the stakeholder or group with respect to the project team will influence the format and content of the message in the following ways. So if you are dealing with a hierarchical focus key dimension of the project communications we have three directions. Let’s say the first one is the upward direction with senior management stakeholders, the downward when you are communicating with the team and others who will contribute to the work of the project. And we have the horizontal peers of the project managers or the team. Now, the project communications are also supported by efforts to prevent misunderstanding and miscommunication and by careful selection of the methods, messengers and messages.

So as part of managing the project communications you will be concerned also with making sure there will be no misunderstandings and no miscommunication during the project communications and misunderstanding can usually be reduced through the application of the five C’s rule. The five C’s rule in the communication management is well known. The first C is the correct grammar and spelling. The second C is the concise expressions and eliminate any excess of words. The third C will be the clear purpose and expression directed to the needs of the reader, the coherent logical flow of ideas and controlling of flow of words and ideas. These are the five C’s that will support preventing the misunderstanding and the miscommunications.

And these five CS are usually supported with the critical communication skills. So what are the critical communication skills? First of all, listening actively by staying engaged with the speaker you cannot use your mobile, you cannot walk somewhere else. This is what I mean by active listening to be engaged with a person speaking, awareness of the cultural and personal differences, identifying, setting and managing the stakeholders expectations and the enhancement of team skills. Now what are the communication types? To communicate effectively you need to handle communications in a structured way and choose the best type of communication for each situation. The first one will be the formal written communication. The most commonly used one is the project management.

Like the project management plan, other formal documents, reports, it can be physical or electronic. Whenever you have a contractual letter you have something critical for the project schedule you will need to use the formal written communication. The second type will be the formal verbal plant meetings and stakeholder briefings can be face to face or remove the informal written email, handwritten notes, text messages, social media and websites. And the last one will be the informal verbal unscheduled meetings, conversations and other casual discussions. These are the four types of communications and these are the important key concepts of communications management. I will see you at the next slide.

3. TRENDS AND EMERGING PRACTICES IN COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT

Hi and welcome back again. So what are the trends and the emerging practices in the project communications management? Some of the emerging practices include first of all, inclusion of the stakeholders in the project reviews. An effective communication strategy requires regular and timely reviews of the stakeholder community and updates to manage changes in its membership and attitudes. The second one is almost the same, including the stakeholders in the project meetings. The project meetings should include stakeholders from outside the project and even the organization when appropriate.

Only increased use of social computing social computing in the form of infrastructure, social media services, personal devices has changed how organizations and their people communicate and do business. As I’m in the field of construction for the majority of the projects I’m working on now, you will find all the project team members have a common group on WhatsApp for example, and they are doing all the project communications through this group. This is a trend in the communications management. Multifaceted Approaches to Communications the standard communications strategy for project stakeholder communications embraces and selects from all technologies and respects the practical and personal preferences for language, media, content and delivery.

These are the trends of the project communications when it comes to the tailoring considerations when doing the communications, such considerations will be the stakeholders on the project. The physical locations all the project team members are located in one location or they are located in different locations. The communications technologies available on the project, the language used there’s, one language, two languages or three languages and the knowledge management. These are the trends and emerging practices in addition to the tail end considerations. We will talk about the agile considerations in the next lecture before we start the first process.

4. AGILE CONSIDERATIONS FOR COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT

Hi and welcome back again. So what are the considerations for agile environment? Agile projects have inherently need to communicate evolving and emerging. It aims more frequently and quickly than predictive or waterfall environment projects. In addition, posting project artifacts in a transparent fashion and holding regular stakeholders reviews are intended to promote communication with management and the project stakeholders. This is all for the agile environment when performing communication. In the next lecture we’ll talk about the first process the plant communications management.

5. PROCESS 1: PLAN COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT

Hi and we’ll come back again to the first process in the communications management knowledge area. Plan communications Management as a part of the planning processing group. As I mentioned earlier, we will have three processes only within this knowledge area one within the planning, one within the executing and one within the monitoring and control. It’s the process of developing an appropriate approach and a strategy and to plan for project communications activities based on the information needs for each stakeholder group, available organization assets and the needs of the project. So in this process we are going to develop the approach or the strategy we are going to use in order to make sure the information needs on the project are met.

The information needs of the project stakeholders. This is why there is a link between the stakeholder management knowledge area and the communications management knowledge area. The key benefit of this process is a documented approach to effectively and efficiently engage stakeholders by presenting relevant information in a timely manner. So in this process or as a result of this process, we would have a documented approach of how we are going to deal with the project communications management. This process is performed periodically throughout the project when needed and on most of the projects.

Communication planning is performed very early in the project lifecycle, usually with the stakeholder identification in the initiating processing group and the project management plan development. The first steps on your project is to develop the project charter and to identify the stakeholders. These are the only two processes within the initiating processing group. So once you are done with these processes, you should plan for the communications on your project. For an expected communication management plan development, it’s essential that you determine and analyze stakeholders communication requirements. So this is what we are going to do.

One of the primary tools used in the plan communications management process is to analyze the stakeholders needs regarding the communication. Now we have five inputs for this process. We have eight tools and techniques and we have three outputs. The primary output will be the communication management plan. So what we are going to need as an inputs for the plan communications management process first of all, the project chapter, it identifies the key stakeholders list on the project. The project management plan we will need, the subsidiary plans, the resources management plan that provides guidance on how team resources will be categorized, allocated, managed and released.

This will help define communications requirements of the team. The stakeholder engagement plan is an important input to this process as well as it identifies management strategies required to effectively engage stakeholders. The project documents the requirements documentation as it includes the project stakeholders communication requirement and the stakeholder register used to plan communication activities with stakeholders. The stakeholder register for me is the most important input for this process. We are planning for the communications on the project, managing them, monitoring them for one purpose to meet the stakeholders needs regarding the information exchange.

This is why the stakeholder register is an important input to this process. We will need also the enterprise environmental factors and the organizational process assets. Now, what we are going to use as tools and techniques for this process, first of all, the expert judgment judgment provided upon expertise as an application area. The application area here is the communication management planning knowledge area of discipline as appropriate for the activity being performed. We will need also the communication requirements analysis techniques. It determines the information needs of the project stakeholders. They are defined by combining the type and format of information needed with an analysis of the value of that information.

So in the communication requirements analysis we are going to analyze to determine the information needs of the project stakeholders regarding the communication. So what we are going to analyze and what’s the sources of information? First of all, the stakeholder information and communication requirements, number of potential communication channels, organizational charts, development approach, legal requirements, internal and external information needs, all these are sources of information that could be useful for the communications requirement analysis. Communication channels is very important as a source of information for this analysis.

What is the communication channels? Number of communication channels can increase rapidly with each added stakeholder. The number of communication channels on your project is directly linked to the number of stakeholders on your project. It can be found out and calculated using this simple formula. It’s n by n minus one divided by two, where n indicates the number, the total number of stakeholders on your project. Let’s take an example. With four stakeholders I’m representing each stakeholder with a box. So how many communication channels we have in between these four stakeholders? First of all, this is 12345 and six. So between these four stakeholders, these four boxes, we have six communication lines, communication channels.

By applying the formula we have four stakeholders to four by three equals twelve divided by two, it’s six. So this is the simple formula of the communication channels. It’s very important, you would have one or two questions in the exam asking you to determine the number of communication channels. Now as an example, as a project manager you had four stakeholders to communicate with, a new stakeholder has been added with whom you need to communicate. How many communication channels do you have right now? So we have four stakeholders to communicate with me as a project manager and a new stakeholder will be added. So total we have six stakeholders, one the project manager plus four the stakeholders plus one the additional stakeholder.

So it’s six by six minus one, it’s 30 divided by two, it’s 15. So we have 15 communication lines in this example. Now, important notes. First of all, you need to read the question carefully to understand if you, the project manager is included in the number of stakeholders given in the question or you need to add one as I just did in this example. I added one as the project manager was excluded. The second note that some questions will ask you how many channels added. After adding two stakeholders, you should calculate the original and the new number and do the subtraction between them. So you should give attention to the wording of the question asking about the communication chat.

The third technique will be the communication technologies for the plan communications management the methods used to transfer information between the stakeholders. Common communication methods used for information exchange include first of all the conversation, the meetings, the written documents, the databases, the social media and the websites and the factors that might affect communication technology used. First of all, the urgency of the need for information availability and reliability of the technology being used to transfer the information the ease of use for this technology and the project environment where you are transferring this information.

Sensitivity and confidentiality of the information being transferred. These are the five factors that might affect the communication or the selection of the communication technology used in your project. Number four would be the communication models. It can represent the communication process in its most basic linear form sender and receiver, as shown in front of you. Now this is the communication model in a more interactive form that encompasses the additional element of feedback. Then we will have the sender, receiver and feedback. So the basic linear model will be the sender and receiver. The more interactive model will be the sender, receiver and feedback.

Or in a more complex model that incorporates the human elements of the sender or receiver and attempts to show the complexity of the communications. We have the sender here. He’s sending the message. Transferring what’s in the sender mind into words or a message is the encoding and whatever there is noise affecting or disturbing the transfer of the signal or the message. It’s considered as a noise for the communication model and translating the message into the mind of the receiver is called decoding and sometimes the receiver will send a feedback to the sender. So this is the communication model. A sample basic sender receiver communication model.

This model describes communication as a process and consists of two parties defined as the sender and receiver. This model is insured with the message being delivered rather than understood. The sequence of steps in a basic communication model are three steps. The first one will be to encode where the message is coded into symbols such as text or audio. The second step will be to transmit the message where the message is sent by a communication channel. Noise and other factors may present and contribute to loss of information in transmission and or reception of the message. The code where the data received is translated by the receiver back into a form useful to the receiver.

These are the three steps of this basic model. The second model will be the sample interactive communication model, same as the previous model but recognize the need to ensure that the message has been understood. Noise includes any interference or barriers that might compromise the understanding of the message, such as the extraction of the receiver. Now, the difference between the sample interactive and the sample basic models are additional two steps applied in this model to acknowledge where upon receipt of a message, the receiver may signal the receipt of this message and the response or the feedback.

When the received message has been decoded and understood, the receiver encodes tools and ideas into a message and then transmits the message to the original sender. So these two steps are the difference between the interactive and the basic model. In a communication process, the sender is responsible for transmitting the message, ensuring the information being communicated is clear and complete, and confirming the message is correctly interpreted. The receiver is responsible for ensuring that the information is received in its entirety and acknowledged or responded to appropriately. So this is the responsibility of the sender and this is the responsibility of the receiver.

Number five we have the communication methods. There are several communication methods to share communication among stakeholders. Such methods are, first of all the interactive communications when it happens between two or more parties performing a multidirectional exchange of information in real time such as meetings, phone calls and video calls. If I’m meeting my manager and we are both communicating and we are both transferring or exchanging information. This is called an interactive communication. The second method is the Posh communication that involves a one way stream of communication.

The sender provides information to the people who need but does not expect a feedback from the recipient such as status reports and company memos where the CEO, for example, will send a memo to everybody in the company and he is not expecting any feedback. This is Aposh communication, the tall communications where in this method the sender places the information in a central location. This method is useful for large, complex information sets to many people. Examples include web portals and listens learn data bases like the shared folders in the companies, on the database or on the computers. These are the communication methods, the interpersonal and team skills used for the client communication management.

First of all, the communication styles assessment technique used to assess communication styles and identify the preferred communication method format and content for class communication activities. The second skill will be the political awareness that helps the project manager to plan for project communications based on the project environment as well as the organization’s political environment, the cultural awareness and understanding of the differences between individuals, groups and organizations and adapting the project communications strategy in the context of these differences. Number seven we have the data representation techniques.

Mainly we are going to use the Stakeholder Engagement assessment matrix which I’m going to explain in detail in the Stakeholder management knowledge area. So what’s the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix? It can be further analyzed in this process to define additional communication requirements of the project stakeholders. Here’s an example of the Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix showing the five levels of engagement of the stakeholders. First of all, unaware. The second one is the resistant, the third is the neutral. The fourth is the supportive and the fifth is the leading. For example, let’s take stakeholder number one where C represents the current level and D represents the desired level.

The desired level is written and decided within the planning process group, while that current level will be decided within the Monitoring and Controlling Process group to check and investigate if there is any difference between the current and the desired levels. So for this example shown in front of you, there will be a problem with stakeholder one attitude. The desired was to be supported while the current is unaware. This is the Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix. The last tool will be using the meetings in order to plan the communications management. Now, what are the outputs once the planned communications management process is completed? First of all, the communications management plan.

It’s a subsidiary or a component of the project management plan that describes how the project communications will be planned, structured, implemented and monitored for effectiveness. What’s inside this subsidiary plan? First of all, the stakeholders communication requirements, the information to be communicated including language, format, content and level of detail the Escalation process, time frame and frequency of information distribution and the roles and responsibilities in addition to the methods and technologies used, the flow charts of the information flow on the project. These are all the sections of the communications management plan.

Few project management plan components might be updated like the Stakeholder Engagement Plan. It might be updated to reflect any processes, procedures, tools or techniques that affect the engagement of stakeholders and project decisions and execution. We will have the project documents updates. The project schedule may be updated to reflect communication activities. The Stakeholder Register might be updated to reflect the communications plan. This is all for this process. It’s a long process. You need to understand deeply all the tools and techniques used for this process for the exam. Thank you so much. I will see you at the next lecture.