Manage and Monitor Communications

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.