Project Management

Chapter 16 : Project Communication Management

Project Communication Planning

Identifying Information Requirements
Choosing the Appropriate Communication Technology
Stakeholder Analysis
Communications Management Plan

Distribution of Information

Communication Skills
Information Distribution Systems

Performance Reporting

Administrative Closures

Chapter Summary

According to the PMBOK, project communications management includes all those processes that are required to ensure that the information pertaining to project is generated, collected, disseminated, stored and ultimately, disposed off, in a timely and appropriate manner. This chapter discussed project communication planning, distribution of information, performance reporting and administrative closure.

Communication planning identifies the information and communication requirements of various project stakeholders. Stakeholders are those individuals who are interested in the project deliverables, are affected by the project activities and associated with the project directly or indirectly. The different steps in communication planning are i) identifying information requirements ii) choosing the appropriate communication technology iii) stakeholder analysis, and iv) communication management plan.

Information distribution is about giving the project stakeholders access to the information they require. It involves implementation of communication management plan handles information requests. The effective implementation of the communication plan depends on the communication skills of the project manager and his team members and their ability to use the information retrieval and distribution systems to collect and store information and to distribute this information to various stakeholders.

Performance reporting is the process of gathering, organising and processing data into information and conveying this information to the stakeholders so as to keep them informed about the utilisation of resources and the achievement of project objectives.

Administrative closure involves gathering project records, analysing the reasons for the success and effectiveness of a project and storing information for future use. It involves documenting the project as a whole, archiving project records like progress and status reports and minutes of meetings and documenting the lessons learned.

Next Chapter>>