Communication Management: Trends are found by comparing current to a baseline.

A trend report shows areas needing attention based on the time analysis. If a PM is using trend report to communicate, it will help him examine project results over time. There are a total of six people on the project team. How many channels does the project have? The formula is [N x (N - 1)]/2. Therefore 6(5)/2 = 15. Communication management ensures timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination and disposal of project information. Having the stakeholders periodically review the list of project requirements helps with discovering errors and changes. It is the best way to involve the stakeholders on the project. You need to consider the needs of all your stakeholders. Find an effective way to gather the needs of all stakeholders, even if the number is in hundreds. A user of the project's product is always a stakeholder, while the others may or may not be. The WBS and the project charter do not identify stakeholders. If additional requirements are demanded by a group of stakeholders when they learnt that they would be affected by a change, as project nears completion and you havent included the time or cost in project management plan for these requirements. As a PM you need to pay more attention to stakeholder management in order to avoid such on future projects. The purpose of status meeting is to exchange information about the project. A trend report shows performance over time. A forecasting report looks only to the future. A status report is generally static (relating to a moment in time). If PM wants to report on actual results vs planned results, he should use a variance report. Administrative closure refers to the Close Project or Phase process. Performance reporting during closure is to show progress made on projects, not activities. Performance reporting during administrative closure communicates the teams success. Inputs to Plan Communications process include Communication requirements, Stakeholder Management strategy and Company Culture. Forecasts are an output of performance reporting. Project Managers spend 90 percent of their time communicating.

If you receive a report shortly before it is going to be discussed in a meeting, stop the meeting earlier because you did not have a chance to review the report for accuracy. The project manager must identify the stakeholders, document their needs, wants and expectations, then manage and influence expectations to ensure project success. The project status needs to be known by many people. Therefore, it is best to make this type of communication in writing so that it can be transmitted to many people. It is also formal in that it is an official report of the project. It is a form of Formal Written communication. Meetings by definition are communications tools. The project manager must use meetings to communicate effectively. A team meeting during project executing is the BEST format to communicate. The bar chart is the tool that shows the schedule at a detailed enough level for discussion with the team. It Is the BEST tool for showing team the project schedule status during project execution. Having more resources does not generally make it HARDER to use reward power. If a team is having difficulty communicating over long distances and more people are being added internationally. This is a concern for PM because communication channels are growing rapidly. The PM must identify stakeholders, determine their requirements and then manage and influence those requirements to ensure a successful project. To ensure clear, concise communications, the project manager must manage communications by deciding what form of communication is best. The communications management plan would hold the information on projects communication requirements and technology being used to aid in project communications. As a PM you must create and publish a meeting agenda, set rules for controlling the meeting. This would avoid everyone speaking at the same time, people not participating or discussing random topics. When we talk about contracts, everything that we do is more formal than in other project activities. Records are also important, thus the need for written communication. Communications under a contract should tend toward Formal Written communication style. Stakeholders can be project assets who perform project work, provide expert advice, and remove roadblocks. Because they are

involved in the project, you should consider their needs when creating a communications management plan. You need to communicate issues with the stakeholders. Stakeholders include Functional Managers, Project Team and Sponsor. When working with a large internationally scattered team, the PM must Plan Communications. It would have the GREATEST impact on the project by setting ground rules with the team and deal with cultural differences. A variance report looks at specific project items or activities compared to the plan. Feedback is a tool to improve communication, not a communication "blocker". Prejudices, Attitudes and Emotions, Personality and interests are all communication blockers. An inadequate communications management plan can lead to the team not reviewing project updates. As a PM, you should revise the communications management plan appropriately to meet the informational needs of the stakeholders. The overriding measurement of what information to accumulate and communicate on a project is whether that information contributes to the success of the project. If the required information would take time away from the project and not provide added value, the request for such report can be declined. The project manager's responsibility is to provide truthful project information. He or she should thereafter discuss the impacts of their actions with the team members. If that does not work, the next step is to report it to their functional managers. The major result of communication blockers and miscommunication as a whole is conflict. If a PM is having problem with a team members performance. The BEST form of communication for addressing this problem is Informal Verbal communication. A communications management plan can attempt to control communications, but the project manager needs to have open communications with everyone. This is the only way to inform the appropriate people of the project status and to adequately control the project. Names of those who are notified in emergency, methods used to collect and store info and names of stakeholders and instructions on sending project status are all part of communications management plan. Everything that the project managers do is more formal in a procurement environment than in other project activities.

If the customer requests additional work not covered under contract, Formal Written correspondence with customer is required. If you have decided to terminate a contract because you no longer need the work from the seller, the BEST way to communicate this to the seller is to send the seller stop work order by overnight mail. Such communications must be in writing as they are changes to the contract. The Plan Communications process involves identifying communication requirements, including the identification of any communication preferences. Nonverbal communication carries 55 percent of the message you send. Use face-to-face meetings to gather further information about issues and use the issue log to track the issues to completion. Expectations are unspoken requirements and are often more critical to a project's stakeholders than the stated ones. Unless these expectations are identified and recorded, there is likely to be a high level of dissatisfaction with the project. Understanding the receiver's perspective allows you to direct the communication to meet his needs. Use of written communication is MOST likely to aid in solving complex problems. If two team members are arguing about what needs to be done to complete a work package. The PM should pay attention to the pitch and tone of the voices and what is being said. Written communication allows your words to be documented, and they will go to everyone in the same form. When there are complex problems, you want everyone to receive the same thing. Because of the differences in culture and the distance between team members on an international project, formal written communication is needed. Often forgotten in communications management plans, are the bosses of team members (functional management, since of course you remember that we are assuming a matrix organization). Including the bosses of team members in communications planning, requirements gathering, risk management, and other areas of project management helps make the project better. In addition, it helps the boss manage his own resources effectively. The work breakdown structure allows communication vertically and horizontally within the organization as well as outside the project. The status report is too detailed for a quick look. The forecast report only looks into the future.

The progress report will summarize project status quickly. Your communications management plan outlines the stakeholders' reporting needs and how you plan to meet those needs. If a stakeholder has missed published communication, review the communications management plan in order to prevent future problems and find any instances of similar problems. The communications management plan should cover all phases of the project communication, including the frequency and level of meetings as well as the format and type of information to be exchanged. This is defined during project planning. Stakeholders must be identified and involved at the beginning of the project, in order to determine their requirements and expectations. Remember that if this is not done early, the results may be expensive changes and/or dissatisfaction later in the project. Stakeholders have the MOST influence on a project all throughout the project. Performance reports should address all the needs of the project team members. A trend report addresses past performance. A status report is generally static (relating to a moment in time). A variance report looks at specific project items or activities. The only report that looks to the future is a forecasting report. A communications management plan includes a determination of what information needs to be collected and when. Changes are not bad! Changes normally come from lack of input at the beginning of the project. If we begin effective communication with a stakeholder early, we stand a much better chance of discovering his changes during the planning process, when they will have less of an impact on the project. If a stakeholder has a reputation and habit of making many changes on projects. The BEST approach for a PM is to get the stakeholder involved in the project as early as possible. Project coordination is enhanced through progress reporting, variance reporting and team meetings. These are forms of Communications management. Nonverbal communication carries 55 percent of the message you send. With this much at stake, nonverbal communication is of major importance. The communications management plan helps people understand what needs to be communicated, to whom, when, and by what methods of communication. Poor communications planning can lead to incorrect schedule performance reports being delivered to stakeholders.

If the number of changes being made on a project is rising, then the root cause could be that stakeholders were missed and therefore their requirements were not found. Those stakeholders are now causing changes to accommodate their needs. Change requests are an output of the Report Performance process, not an input. Inputs to Report Performance process include Completion forecasts, Details of work performance and Deliverable status. The process that links people and information is called communications management. If the customer is not ready to listen. After withdrawal, it would be best to review the change control system, because it is obvious something was missed in communicating changes and their effect on the customer. If the project has been having issues on how the work should be done on some issues, leading to disagreements due to a change that has not been adequately completed. PM should ask those doing the work to describe the change, then make sure they fully understood it. If after several meetings and discussions the project has finally been approved and works begun. All of the following are good preventive actions to implement; maintain an issue log, make sure change control process is not used as a vehicle to add back the requirements and keep a file of what requirements were not included in project. If one of your team member is speaking out about holding more regular meetings to make a project more successful. You should review the information distribution methods on the project. Stakeholders can be identified throughout the project management process groups. However, the earlier stakeholders are identified, the better for the project. If all of the stakeholders' needs and requirements are taken into account before plans are finalized and project work is begun, fewer changes will be needed later in the project, when they will be more costly. If stakeholders are unhappy with the impacts of the project on their own departments, the PM should arrange a meeting with concerned stakeholders to allow them to voice any concerns they may have. Working with people from different cultures, with different cultural values and beliefs necessitates an understanding both basic definitions and the areas of cultural impact. As project managers, we need to have good communication skills and a willingness to adapt to other cultures. Progress reports generally show problems after they have occurred. Reports help distribute information, not just report on progress.

If you want to let your team know that weekly project status report is now officially due by 4:00 pm on a certain week day. It would be best to use Informal Written communication. You want to document the change to be sure that everyone gets the message, but it does not require formal communication. Performance reporting is done during project monitoring & controlling and project closure. Feedback during communication is very important when you think your message is not being heard by the recipient. Your communication needs to be correct for the situation. Because situations vary, so must your communication methods. Use a combination of communication methods to control the project as a PM.