05:46
Faizan
Project Managers are communicators first! They spend up to 90 percent of their time communicating with stakeholders and team members.
Project communications management is probably the most important portion of the project plan, yet many people don't fully plan for dealing with the number and complexity of communications throughout a project. As a consequence, communication issues are the most frequently reported problems on projects.
Plan and manage this component well, and you'll be ready to tackle any challenge a project throws at you! Don't plan it properly, and you won't hear the end of it from your higher management!
Even though project managers have a great responsibility in planning for communications on a project, it need not be overly complex. One critical aspect of planning is understanding how many different routes (channels) communications can take on a project, so let's make it easy to understand!
How Do We Communicate?
Let's first talk about ways in which we can communicate as a project manager. There are four types of communications that we use all the time. Here is a quick list with some examples of how we use them:
- Formal Written (Project Management Plans, Reports, Written Letters and Faxes)
- Formal Verbal (Presentations, Meetings)
- Informal Written (Emails, Notes, Memos)
- Informal Verbal (Conversations)
These types of communications are used both internally and externally to the project team, up chains of management, and among the team. Just think about the sheer number of emails alone that you receive, and that are sent between your team members!
Calculating Communication Channels On Your Project
Luckily, there is a simple formula for figuring out how many communication channels there are between a given number of people:
[N x (N-1)] / 2
where N is the number of stakeholders involved on the project.
Project communications management is probably the most important portion of the project plan, yet many people don't fully plan for dealing with the number and complexity of communications throughout a project. As a consequence, communication issues are the most frequently reported problems on projects.
Plan and manage this component well, and you'll be ready to tackle any challenge a project throws at you! Don't plan it properly, and you won't hear the end of it from your higher management!
Even though project managers have a great responsibility in planning for communications on a project, it need not be overly complex. One critical aspect of planning is understanding how many different routes (channels) communications can take on a project, so let's make it easy to understand!
How Do We Communicate?
Let's first talk about ways in which we can communicate as a project manager. There are four types of communications that we use all the time. Here is a quick list with some examples of how we use them:
- Formal Written (Project Management Plans, Reports, Written Letters and Faxes)
- Formal Verbal (Presentations, Meetings)
- Informal Written (Emails, Notes, Memos)
- Informal Verbal (Conversations)
These types of communications are used both internally and externally to the project team, up chains of management, and among the team. Just think about the sheer number of emails alone that you receive, and that are sent between your team members!
Calculating Communication Channels On Your Project
Luckily, there is a simple formula for figuring out how many communication channels there are between a given number of people:
[N x (N-1)] / 2
where N is the number of stakeholders involved on the project.
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