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Project Communication Management: From Today’s Context

Working Paper · January 2016

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.17245.10727

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Hettiarachchi H.A.H.
University of Kelaniya
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 Project Communication Management: From Today’s Context

H.A.H. Hettiarachchi
Lecturer, Department of Commerce & Financial Management, University of Kelaniya
harshaka@kln.ac.lk

It is evident that effective and efficient project communication has a direct impact on the success
of a project. In fact, industry studies concluded that the project communication inevitably
enhance the project quality (i.e. customer satisfaction) by meeting the project scope, time and
cost goals. Conversely, lack of proper communication increases the project risks leading to
failures. A good communication process keeps all the stakeholders engaged and project teams
motivated yet hardly seen due to fundamental difficulties. Below are such major shortcoming in
terms of project communication management and possible solutions for mitigation.

Proper Communication Planning

Most of the projects failed as a result of rushing through when compiling the project
communication plan presuming it doesn’t have a major impact over the project comparing to
focus on the scope, cost and time goals. Sadly, the core of achieving the project success is the
project communication. Therefore, at the very first of the project, it is essential to properly list
down the all the stakeholders who are engaged and impacted as a result of the project.
Thereafter, devising and articulating the communication responsibilities of every stakeholder in
the project communication plan is essential. In fact, project communication requires a proactive
planning avoiding firefighting. Moreover, multiple meetings (mostly recommended in a form of
face to face discussions) are required at initially in the project planning process in order to collect
all the details without leaving behind any stakeholder input for the project.

Continuous Communication Process

Though projects initially determines its communication mechanism, most don’t follow and
comply with the plan as to have a proper communication with its stakeholders. Besides, studies
reveal that there is a fundamental difficulty in communicating with the appropriate clarity and
detail between the project team and stakeholders. Consequently, discrepancies continue until
the end of the project, concluding the project as an unsuccessful project since it couldn’t able to
satisfy certain set of stakeholder needs. Starting from the initial business case development
followed by the project kick off meeting until the completion of the project, scheduled meetings
are essential to keep the project on the track. In fact, continuous communication is needed
throughout the project in order to shape the project and eliminate complains arising especially
from external stakeholders beyond the press release. But, the project manager has to strike a
balance on having meetings which would obviously may have a negative impact on time and cost
management of the project. Further, it is recommended the special communications that should
include all the project stakeholders have to be placed on the milestone activities of the project.

Everyone’s Commitment

As mentioned earlier, regular project communication from the project team help sponsors,
leaders and clients stay abreast of progress and also help identify any potential problems. Every
stakeholder has a responsibility to communicate with the project team and such responsibilities
are predetermined and articulated in the project communication plan. Moreover, two way
communication is the critical success factor where executives should clearly articulate how the
project aligns with ultimate organizational and stakeholder goals allowing the team no to make
any wrong assumptions. The project manager has the main responsibility of acting as a
communication mediator throughout the project. Therefore, the project manager should possess
and embrace unique skills such as effective communication, negotiation, teamwork and
relationship building in order to thrive the project. It is essential to track the progress through
continuous status reviews mainly conducted via a form of meeting (physical or online), reports,
emails or a combination. Even after the project is finished, team leaders and project sponsors are
still responsible for communicating with end users, business unit managers and executives about
what the team accomplished and the value the project brings to the organization and
stakeholders.

Benefit Approach

It is evident that initial project requirements are essential for the continuous success of the
project yet proper collection of such requirements from the stakeholders is becoming a
fundamental issue in the project communication management. The underlying reason is that the
stakeholders hesitate to communicate unless they see a real value of the project. In fact, project
team, including and project sponsor and project manager should emphasize the benefits of the
project to every stakeholder. The process starts with sharing the project vision and adjusting the
goals, according to the constructive feedback of the project stakeholders, not only the internal
but also the external stakeholders. Besides, project managers and their teams must learn to
speak in the language of business emphasizing the how the project will deliver results instead of
brief explanations of technically sound Work Breakdown Structures (WBS). Consequently,
convincing the stakeholders by initial benefit driven approach takes time, but avoid major risks
leading to savings through minimizing the scope, time and cost.

Formal Mechanism

Certain industry studies concluded, it’s the project executives who are unable to translate the
grand strategic vision into actual project objectives and scope. Hence, suggested, having a formal
communication plan essentially leads organizations and projects to achieve success. Creating a
formal communication mechanism/plan for the project requires the business owner and all
functional stakeholders to participate in a formal engagement at initial project stages.
Importantly, such a formal communication plan allows organizations to target efforts, thus the
right people get the right message in the right channel, define communication responsibilities
and foster explicit understanding of the project strategic benefits to all stakeholders at every
stage of the project. It is an industry best practice to use a pre developed a communication plan
template with required adjustments depending on the project for the similar projects. Important
considerations that may need to be taken into account include, but are not limited to: who needs
what information, and who is authorized to access that information; when they will need the
information; where the information should be stored; what format the information should be
stored in; how the information can be retrieved; and whether time zone, language barriers, and
cross-cultural considerations, etc.
 Distribution & Storage

To streamline the communication process, executives should work with project leaders and
stakeholders during the initial planning phase to define their preferred communication style,
frequency and the format. Many high performing organizations, rely on a variety of push and pull
communication methods to keep executives, sponsors and other stakeholders up-to-date on
project progress. The medium of the project communication must be strong as the message. Each
stakeholder prefers different ways of communications hence all of those preferences should be
considered when project communication plans are developed and executed. Further, effective
communication creates a bridge between diverse stakeholders who may have different cultures
and organizational backgrounds which impacts or have an influence upon project execution and
outcome. The methods used to transfer information among project stakeholders may vary
significantly. For example, a project team may use techniques from brief conversations to
extended meetings, or from simple written documents to extensive materials, which are
accessible online as methods of communication. Factors that can affect the choice of
communication technology includes: urgency of the need of information; availability of
technology; project environment; sensitivity and confidentiality of the information. Further,
incorporating the contingency communication plans is essential as to enable the continuous
communication flow mitigating disruption of the project success.

Heart of the communication process is a portal where all project documents are stored by and
accessible to anyone related to the project, allowing stakeholders to view depending on the
information in the format they prefer without compromising the confidentiality. In fact, such
portal is a mash up of all the project information in one cohesive place enabling access
information in multiple formats. It increases transparency and encourages more conversations
about what’s been accomplished and yet to be completed. Ultimately, to bridge the
communication gap, projects must help every stakeholders learn to say the right things to the
right people in the right channels.

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