Bornasal, Reynalaine V.

III-AMA

1)

The Plan Communications Management is a project management process that is involved in the
development of the necessary approach for the project communication based on the needs and
requirements pertaining to information. It is also based on the available organizational asset of the
program.

This particular process is under the Project Communications Management. The benefit of this particular
project management process is that it helps to identify and document the plans, approaches or
strategies in communicating effectively with the stakeholders.

To create the Plan Communications Management, necessary inputs are needed such as the project
management plan, organizational process assets, and enterprise environmental factors. The project
manager also needs to get the stakeholder register to know who the stakeholders are.

It is important to take note that this project management process can be iterated as long as it is
triggered by the Control Communications process. This means that this process has a continuous nature
and can be triggered by the comparison of the actual and planned schedule, cost, and quality. Lastly, it is
crucial for the project manager to evaluate the information to ensure that the right message is delivered
to the stakeholders.
2)

Managing communications involves collecting, creating, distributing, storing, retrieving and managing

project information. Effective techniques, technologies, and methods need to be used. Stakeholder
expectations are important when managing communications. The process should also facilitate
stakeholders to respond with feedback, ask for additional information or clarification.

When managing communications, communication skills play an important role. Some important ones
are:

Communication competence – information clarity, sharing, demonstrating leadership and relationship

during communications

Feedback – this includes mentoring or responses during the negotiation

Nonverbal – body language and gestures, facial expressions and eye contact, voice characteristics,
advanced techniques like mirroring

Presentations – to a group of people

By performing project reporting, the work performance report of the project is communicated to
stakeholders in the customized manner they expect. Such tailored reports are known as project
communications.

Monitoring Communications

The project manager cannot control all of the information. The project manager needs to control the
flow of communication and the information shared in the communication. About 85-90% of the project
managers time is spent in communicating Meetings There are several rules for meetings. Some of them
are:

Meetings should have a time limit, and the project manager should keep to it.

Recurring meetings should be scheduled in advance Meeting with the team should be regular (however,
need not be often)

Each meeting should have a specific purpose and agenda

The agenda should be distributed to the meeting attendees before the meeting

The team should stick to the agenda during the meeting

Team members and meeting attendees should know their role in meetings beforehand (for example,
one member could be the minute taker and the other could be a time-keeper)

Meetings to include the right audience

Effective facilitation is required by the project manager to chair and rules are to be kept in view
For each action, the action owner and deliverable date to be assigned in the meeting Minutes to be
documented and published

Project Reporting

Collecting information related to work performance, analyzing it, creating reports and sending them to
respective stakeholders are involved in reporting the performance of the project. Report performance is
a part of communications management plan.

The reports should provide all the information needed by stakeholders to the level of detail required by
them. The need for the projects should be considered while designing the reports. The most appropriate
method is to be used to send the reports. The method used to send reports plays a crucial role in getting
the report read and acted upon. A project manager must not spend all the time only doing reporting
activities. The project management plan can be used to identify the performance measurement
baseline. This baseline can be used in the reports to measure the performance of the project. All reports
must give a clear, concise and true picture of the information that is being depicted. Reports should not
just include schedule, but also include cost, scope and quality performance as well. The appropriate
moment of recommending and implementing corrective actions is known by looking at the reports.
Report performance includes looking at the future.

Communication methods can be grouped into the following categories:

Interactive Communication:

In this method two or more people interact with each other. An individual provides information which is
received by the other person who then responds to the information given by the individual. Meetings,
conference calls, video conferences are examples of Interactive communication.

Push Communication:

Unlike interactive communication, this method involves sending the information to the recipient with no
expectation of receiving the feedback. This is one-way streaming of information. Status reports, mass-
mailers, project updates sent to a large population are examples of push communication.

Pull Communication:

In this method, the sender places the information at a central location (like a sharepoint or a share
drive) and the recipients responsible to use the information or need the information retrieve the details
from that location.

Communication Channels

Communication channels can be calculated using the formula: N (N 1) / 2 where N = the number of
people.
Communication Management Plan

A communication management plan documents how the project manager manages and controls
communication. All stakeholder needs must be addressed. Communication management plan becomes
a part of project management plan.

When we do a poor job communicating with our stakeholders or even with our project team, we have a
tremendous impact on the success of our project. Poor communications results in:

References:
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/a-guide-to/9781935589679/sub10.1.xhtml
https://project-management-knowledge.com/definitions/p/plan-communications-management/
https://www.greycampus.com/opencampus/project-management-professional/communication-
methods
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/managing-communications-effectively-efficiently-5916