Project managers spend a staggering 90% of their time on project communications

Considering this figure alone it’s easy to see why many project managers say that communication is a Project Manager’s most import tool, whereas the project’s most important tool is the Work Breakdown Structure WBS. So it stands to reason that you need a very comprehensive plan in place to manage communications

The plan is tailored to suit the type of organisation; the simplest plan is for a functional organization ranging to the complexities of a matrix organization (as planning must be in place to communicate with the functional managers of the project team members as well).

•         Effective Communication – Correctly formatted and timely information.

•         Efficient Communication – just the information that is required and nothing more

The Project Manager is responsible for most of the communications, but cannot control all communication in a project; you should get a question on that. But the Project Manager should try to control all (and spend 90% of project time trying to).

Often one or two questions are on what can block communications. These include: negative comments, poor body language and so on.

In the exam you will get at least one question on the number of communication channels – this is a giveaway!

A channel permits information to flow between people. For example when people are talking, information (in this case spoken words, facial expressions, body language) are channeled between them.

As you can see from the following diagrams, when you exceed three people/stakeholders, the number of channels (and hence the complexities of communication, and the chances for misinformation) rise sharply.

In the exam you could draw these diagrams if you get really stuck, but it’s much easier to just learn the simple formula:

N(N-1)/2 (where N is number of stakeholders, including the Project Manager)

And make sure you can use it.

E.g. if the project has 10 stakeholders the formula becomes:

10(9)/2 = 45 channels.

Typically, exam questions will require you to perform the calculation twice as the number of stakeholders changes:

For example

If a team of 4 adds another person, how many more communication channels are there?

Method:

Originally 4(3)/2 = 6  Now  5(4)/2 = 10

So the answer = 4 more channels – how easy is that!

But note the question did not ask “how many channels” – it asked how many more channels. Watch out for these little twists.

Twist #2

Sometimes the question will sound very simple, e.g. if you have a team of six people, how many communication channels are there?

The answer is 7 x 6 / 2 (not 6 x 5 /2), because if you “have” a team of six, then you have to add yourself (the PM).

Message transmission

The basic communication model consists of:

·        A sender,

·        A message,

·        An encoder,

·        A medium,

·        A decoder, and

·        A receiver.

If two people are talking, then the speaker is both the sender and the encoder, the message is what is said; the medium is air (it caries the sound waves), and the listener is the decoder and receiver.

Suppose you think of some information that you want to send to someone (a message). There is no way for you to take thoughts straight from your mind and put them into someone else’s mind (unless you are a mad scientist, but then the other brain usually goes mad, swells up and explodes. If this happens in a project it can hinder communication). So you (the sender) have to encode your thoughts into words, so that they can be sent through a medium (air, in this case). These words arrive at the receiver (the other person) and then that person has to decode the words back into thoughts.

But as the message is transmitted it may be subjected to noise. Noise is not necessarily a sound; it is anything that distracts from, detracts from or interferes with the message (e.g. counting the ceiling tiles while the boss is talking, or a difference in language skills, poor hand\writing etc) that causes the message received to be different from the original.

Problems with transmission can be greatly reduced by the receiver providing feedback to the sender (e.g. paraphrasing what was heard). So the decoder is a 2-way process.

And indeed, the sender can request feedback (“Did I explain that clearly enough?” Jim’s note – I’m not asking the reader this question – this is a question asked by the sender. Do you understand that?)

There are many ways to communicate. For example, when sending a fax, then the fax machine is the encoder at one end and the decoder at the other. The message is the pages that are to be faxed, the medium is a phone cable (or whatever medium phones use nowadays), noise can be a dirty scanning glass or electrical interference and the feedback (and request for feedback) are signals built into the “smarts” of the fax machines.

The sender is responsible for choosing the medium, and for ensuring that the message is transmitted clearly. The receiver is responsible for receiving and understanding the message and ensuring its accuracy.

PMI believe that face to face communications are the, as they also include valuable body language that account for over half of the total message.

When I am managing virtual teams, I try to bring them together occasionally as I have found that after “putting a face to the name”, remote communications seem to improve for a period of time afterwards.

Remember the following terms, they often appear in questions:

Memorise this table – I would expect to see 2 (or more) questions on this

Example question:

Of the following, which one is NOT an example of formal communications?

A.     Presentations to groups

B.     Ad hoc conversations

C.    Contractual agreements

D.    Presentations to management

The answer is B, Ad hoc conversations (see table above). NB note the question asked “which one is NOT” It’s important to read each question carefully, but words such as “NOT” and “LEAST” and so on are usually capitalized.

Administrative Closure happens at the end of each phase and at the end of the project and includes archiving the performance and metrics recorded throughout the project and well as the formal (signed) acceptance of the project. This information is also channeled through the communications management process.

N.B. A project phase is NOT a phase in the lifecycle, it is like a mini-project and it is part of a larger project. For example, the project might be to produce a new car. This could be divided into four phases:

1.      Design and build car body

2.      Design and build car electrics, computes and navigations system.

3.      Design and build engine and transmission

4.      Design and build suspension.

Each phase would have its own scope and WBS, etc, and all the usual processes.

You may be able to perform the phases simultaneously as they probably involve different teams of experts. Or you may decide that you could only do phase 1, as you haven’t worked out how to do the other phases yet, in fact you may not be able to work out how to do the later phases until the earlier phases are complete. Managing a project so that the phases are NOT performed in parallel is called “rolling wave”.

Performance reporting means, measuring performance against the project’s baselines, and reporting on the variance.

The team’s performance and the project’s status are accessed during meetings called, “Performance Reviews”. Note, these are team-wide and project-wide reviews; they are not a review or an assessment of individuals.  They should emphasize the positive aspects of the performance (but deal with the negative).

Variance Analysis compares actual performance (cost, schedule, scope, resource, quality, risk, etc) with the baselines (estimates), and attempts to explain the differences.

Trend Analysis reports results over time, and tries to predict the future, so that action can be taken proactively if a negative trend is identified.

The performance measuring will also have to take into account authorized Requested Changes. These requested changes are usually for improvements to the product and are usually initiated by the customer or sponsor. They must be authorized through the integrated change management system, otherwise they become the dreaded “gold plating” so abhorred by any right-minded (i.e. PMBOK minded) PM.

For example if your project is to build the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the customer may request that you add a clock to the tower – because what good is the inclination if you don’t have the time?

Note that Requested Changes are NOT to correct faults, mistakes, or negative trends; these are the domain of Requested Corrective Actions

Information Distribution tools and techniques include Communication skills and information retrieval/distribution systems

N.B. Some project managers may have different viewpoints or opinions to those expressed here – but PMI are marking your exam, so the PMBOK is *always* right and if I say anything that appears to contradict the PMBOK, then believe the PMBOK.

PS I’ve made every effort to get this right to help you in your exam – but if I’ve missed something please let me know.