Communication: Management
Communication management is considered the process by which project information is collected,
distributed, stored, retrieved, and monitored. Projects benefit from this as it enables both effective
and efficient flow of information from amongst the team and the stakeholders.
Communication management utilizes several inputs to achieve effective and efficient communication
with respect to the project carried out by the team the following inputs were used:
Communications management plan
Resource management plan
Stakeholder engagement plan
Risk Report
Quality Report
Communication Methods and Skills
Main communication methods that were utilize by the team throughout this process can be found in
the communication management plan and were as follow:
Direct mails
Video Conference meetings
Phone calls
Proper management of communication involves the use of various communication techniques.
During this phase of the project two main techniques which were used were:
Communication competence
Feedback
communication competence can be described as the ways in which the sender is able to ensure that
the message to be sent purpose is clear and easily understood by the receiver, this was done with
the aid of the information found in the communication plan, specifically with regards to the
communication events deliverable which clearly outlines how the communications will be carried
out and what information would be shared for any communication event. This was further aided
with the use of the risk report, and resource management plan for formulating effective messages
for all the communication methods listed.
In the case of feedback, it was mainly used only in the progress reports which were sign off on by the
supervisor representing the company who would have hired the team. The signing off on the report
would provide feedback to the project manager that the team’s progress was satisfactory which the
project manager would have then receive as an email for record keeping.
Project Management Information Systems
Project management information system (PMIS) can describe as the systems used to ensure
stakeholders can easily receive information in timely manner.
Two PMIS were used which were:
Electronic project management tools
Electronic communications management
Project Management software tools were utilized for the creation of the communication schedule
which ensures major communication events were initiated in a timely order.
Regarding electronic communication management tools that were used as was discussed before
these were all used as our communication methods for the entire project. Video conferencing was
used for conduction of the initial meeting between the team and the external stakeholders. Emails
was used for sending the progress reports back to the project manager.
Interpersonal and Team Skills
Interpersonal and teams skills that were used in the project were active listening amongst the team
and between the team and stakeholder this would have been learnt previously by the project team
from workshops on team building conducted in the past. Additionally, a clear meeting management
approach was used by the project manager in the initial meeting where he would have given an
outline of the agenda for the meeting to all team members before it commenced had the creations
of clear points to be discuss on the conduction of the project to ensure that the meeting stayed on
topic but also finish at the expected time.
Communication: Monitoring
Communication monitoring is the process by which the project manager works to ensure the
information is delivered as was described in the communication management plan is achieved. In
the case of the project, communication was monitored by the project manager with the aid of
various inputs which provided key information on how information would be delivered throughout
the project amongst the team and the stakeholder.
In the case of the inputs that were used for this process this came from various documents such as:
Communications management plan
Stakeholder engagement plan
Resource management plan
Project communications
Tools and techniques
For the monitoring and control of the process not much tools and techniques were utilized for this
phase as the team was relatively small and communication with the team was mainly with one major
stakeholder. However, the project manager conversated with the team and the external
stakeholders daily to ensure there was no issue throughout the life of the project.
Outputs
For the monitoring process change request are typical outputs which can be the need for revisions
to the stakeholder communication requirements as well as new procedures for removing
bottlenecks in the execution phase. Additionally, updates to the project management plan to both
the communications management plan and the stakeholder engagement plan are other outputs due
to monitoring. However due to the rather simplicity of the project the stakeholder needs with
respect to obtaining required information was satisfactory with the initial communication plan.
Hence no updates were necessary for how communication was approach throughout the project.
Analysis of communication management and monitoring
As the cleaning of the lubrication oil was a simple procedure for the team the management and the
monitoring of communication had no need to be intricate. Therefore, the tools and techniques that
was utilize such as the communication methods, communication scheduling and the use of simple
interpersonal and team skill such as active listening and the structural approach use by the project
manager in the conduction of the initial meeting was all that was required to achieve a satisfactory
performance for communication in the project.
However, the team could benefit from more methods of feedback being integrated into the
communication plan. The team and stakeholders have no other method of feedback other than the
ABC oil and gas representative signing off on the daily progress reports. No other methods were
present to highlight issues that they may be having with regards to the communication of
information which leads to very little information for the project manager to effectively monitor the
performance of the communication process even though both the team and ABC oil and gas was
both satisfactory with the results the lack of any proper system for monitoring and control of
communication can lead to issues in larger projects that the team may be needed to complete in the
future.
Lessons learned
In conclusion improvements can be made to the monitoring of communication within the project by
the inclusion of performance surveys with respect to communication activities, this can provide vital
information to the project manager. Additionally, an assessment matrix can also be used to better
visualize the effectiveness of the communication in a process and thus allow the manger to then
compare the performance of the communications that was incorporated against those that were
planned. Thus, allowing the manager to make decisions to optimize the current communication
approach.
