Project Communications Management is a knowledge area that covers only 2 phases of the entire life cycle of the project. During each phase, certain processes pertaining to this knowledge area take place. the development of artifacts and implementation of activities designed to achieve effective information exchange by developing a strategy and plan for effective communication followed by carrying out the activities necessary to implement the communication strategy and to monitor the effect of the communication. Communication is the exchange of information, intended or involuntary , in the form of ideas, instructions, or emotions, as written form, spoken, formal (meetings) or informal (emails), through gestures or media, or choice of words, through activities (meetings and presentations), artifacts (email, social media, project reports, or project documentation).

Communication activities are: for internal stakeholders, external (customers, vendors, other projects, organizations, government, the public, environmental advocates) , formal ( reports, regular/ad-hoc meetings, meeting agendas and minutes, stakeholder briefings, and presentations), informal (emails, social media, websites, ad hoc discussions), hierarchical focus (senior management, team, peers), official ( annual reports, reports to regulators), unofficial (maintain the profile and recognition of the project and building relationships), verbal and nonverbal.

The 5 Cs of written communication: correct grammar, concise expression, clear purpose as needed, coherent flow of ideas, controlling flow of words and ideas.

The communication skills: active listening ( summarize), differences awareness (personal, cultural), stakeholders expectations management (negotiation), skill enhancing (persuading, motivating, encouraging, coaching, negotiating, resolving conflict).

Th attributes of communication activities: clarity on the  purpose of the communication, understanding the receiver (needs, preference) of the communication, measuring the effectiveness of the communications.

Trends for project communications management : inclusion of stakeholders in project (regular , timely) reviews and updates to manage changes in its membership and attitudes, inclusion of stakeholders in project meetings (daily standup meetings – achievements, issues, and plans), increased use of social computing ( infrastructure, social media services, personal devices), multifaceted approaches to communication.

The project team tailoring the way that project communications management processes are applied: stakeholders (internal or external), physical location (team), communications technology (available), language (multi groups), knowledge management (repository available).  Project environments streamline access to information, frequent team checkpoints, and colocating team members, posting transparently project artifacts, and holding regular stakeholders reviews.

Project Initiation

There are no processes taken place during this phase.

Project Planning

During this phase, there is 1 process taking place: Communications Planning.

Plan Communications Management

The process of developing an appropriate approach and plan for project activities based on the information needs of each stakeholder, available organizational assets, and the needs of the project. The communication management plan,  defines the collection, creation, dissemination, storage, retrieval, management,  tracking, and disposition of these communications artifacts. It is done early , during stakeholder identification and project management plan development.

Inputs

1. Project charter -key stakeholder list, roles, responsibilities.
2. Project management plan
   • Resource management plan – how team resources will be categorized, allocated, managed, released and their communication requirements.
   • Stakeholder engagement plan – the management strategies to effectively engage stakeholders.
3. Project documents
   • Requirements documentation – include project stakeholder communications.
   • Stakeholder register – used to plan communications activities with stakeholders.
4. Enterprise environmental factors – internal culture, political climate, governance framework, HR policies, Stakeholder risk thresholds, established communication channels/ tools/ systems, global/ regional local practices, resources locations.
5. Organizational process assets – internal procedures for social media, ethics, security, issues, risk, change, data management, communication requirements; standard for development, exchange, storage, retrieval of information; lessons learned; stakeholders and communication data and information from previous projects.

Tools & Techniques

1. Expert judgment in – internal power structure, culture, environment, change management practices, communications technologies, legal procedures, security procedures, all stakeholders and deliverables.
2. Communication requirements analysis – finds the needs of stakeholders (type, format per value) from: stakeholder register and engagement plan, one-on-one, one-to-many, many-to-many, organizational charts, project organization, stakeholder responsibilities and inter-dependencies, development approach, disciplines, departments, and specialties involved in project, logistics, internal needs, external (media, public, contractors) needs, legal requirements.
3. Communication technology to transfer information – conversation, meetings, written documents, databases, social media and websites chosen according to urgency, frequency, format of the need for information, availability, compatibility, and reliability of technology, and ease of use (training), project environment (culture, location, languages, methods), sensitivity and confidentiality (security measure, social media policies)
4. Communication models – sender-receiver (encode, transmit, decode; understanding is not included), sender-receiver-feedback (+acknowledge, response)
5. Communication methods – interactive (meetings, phone calls, instant messaging, videoconferencing); push communication (letters, memos, reports, emails, faxes, voice mails, blogs, press releases), pull (web portals, intranet, e-learning, lessons databases). As used in communication management plan : interpersonal (face-to-face), small (3-6) group, public (1-many), mass , networks (many-to-many). Artifacts: notice boards, newsletters, e-magazines, letters, press release, annual reports, emails, intranet, web portals, repositories, phone conversations, presentations, team briefing, groups meetings, focus group, informal meeting, staff forums, social media.
6. Interpersonal and team skills
   • Communication styles assessment – follows stakeholder engagement assessment to identify method, format, content
   • Political awareness – the recognition of power relationships and also the willingness to operate within these structures, develop an ability to communicate with them.
   • Cultural awareness – an understanding of the differences between individuals, groups, and organizations and adapting to their needs.
7. Data representation
   • Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix – gaps between current and desired engagement levels
8. Meetings – virtual or face-to-face meetings plus email and project website as the team needs to be updated and to respond to request for information.

Outputs

1. Communications management plan -how communications are planned, structured, implemented, monitored – SH communication requirements, information to be communicated (language, format, content, level of detail), escalation process, reason for information distribution, time frame and frequency for the distribution and receipt or response, person responsible for communicating/authorizing release/ people to receive information (needs, requirements, expectations), methods used to convey the information( memos, email, press release, social media,), resources allocated for communication activities, including time and budget, method for updating and refining the communications management plan as the project progresses (SH changes), glossary of common terminology, flow charts of the information flow, workflows, list of reports, meeting plans, constraints from legislation, technology, organizational policies. Plus: guidelines and templates for project status/project team/emails/e- meetings,  as well as a project website and project management software.
2. Project management plan updates
   • Stakeholder engagement plan updated to reflect any processes, procedures, tools, that affect the engagement in decisions and executions.
3. Project documents updates
   • Project schedule – updated to reflect communication activities
   • Stakeholder register – updated to reflect communications planned

Project Execution

There is 1 process taken place during this phase: Information Distribution.

Manage Communications

The process of ensuring timely and appropriate collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information. it identifies all aspects of communication (technologies, methods, techniques). Techniques: incorporate feedback, decide on when to use formal vs informal or push and pull, best technology, active vs passive voice, sentence structure, word choice, meeting management (preparing an agenda, inviting essential participants, ensuring they attend, follow-up minutes), presentation impact (body language, visual aids), building consensus, overcoming difficult group dynamics, maintaining interest and enthusiasm, active listening (acknowledging, clarifying, confirming, understanding, removing barriers).

Inputs

1. Project management plan
   • Resource management plan – the communications needed for management of team or physical resources
   • Communications management plan – how communications will be planned, structured, monitored, controlled
   • Stakeholder engagement plan – how to engage strategies
2. Project documents
   • Change log – communicate to SH changes and approved, deferred, rejected change requests
   • Issue log – communicate to SH about issues
   • Lessons learned register – earlier in project
   • Quality report – communicate to SH about quality issues, project and product improvements, process improvements to take corrective actions
   • Risk report – communicate to risk owners about sources of overall project risk, together with summary information on identified individual project risks
   • Stakeholder register – identifies the individuals, groups, that need information
3. Work performance reports (status reports and progress reports) – include earned value graphs and information, trend lines and forecasts, reserve burndown charts, defect histograms, contract performance information, risk summaries, presented as dashboards, heat reports, stop light charts for creating awareness and generating decisions and actions.
4. Enterprise environmental factors – internal culture, political climate, governance framework, HR policies, Stakeholder risk thresholds, established communication channels/ tools/ systems, global/ regional local practices, resources locations.
5. Organizational process assets – internal procedures for social media, ethics, security, issues, risk, change, data management, communication requirements; standard for development, exchange, storage, retrieval of information; lessons learned.

Tools & Techniques

1. Communication technology – influenced by team location, confidentiality, resource available, internal culture
2. Communication methods – flexible
3. Communication skills
   • Communication competence – clarity of purpose in key messages, effective relationships, information sharing, leadership behaviors
   • Feedback – reactions to communications, a deliverable, situation (coaching, mentoring, negotiating)
   • Nonverbal – gestures, tone of voice, facial expressions, mirroring, eye contact
   • Presentations – formal delivery of information/documentation : progress reports, information updates, background information to support decision making, general information about the project and its objectives, for the purposes of raising the profile of the work of the project and the team, specific information aimed increasing understanding and support of the work and objectives.
4. Project management information systems – is managed and distributed through electronic tools (PM , office support , web interfaces, project portals and dashboards, collaborative work tools); electronic communications management (email, fax, voice mail, audio, video, web conferences, websites, web publishing); social media management (websites, web publishing, blogs, applications to form online communities)
5. Project reporting – collecting and distributing project information at appropriate level, format, detail level from simple to elaborate reports and presentations. while work performance reports are the output of the monitor and control project work process, this process develops ad hoc reports, project presentations, blogs, and other.
6. Interpersonal and team skills
   • Active listening – acknowledging, clarifying, confirming, understanding, removing barriers
   • Conflict management – see Manage Teams Interpersonal and Team Skills
   • Cultural awareness – see Plan Communications Management Interpersonal and Team Skills
   • Meeting management – steps: prepare and distribute the agenda stating the objectives of the meeting, ensure that the meetings start and finish at the published time, ensure the appropriate participants are invited and attend, stay on topic, manage expectations, issues, conflicts during the meeting, record all actions, team members responsible for completing the action.
   • Networking – provides with access to informal organizations to solve problems, influence actions of their stakeholders, and increase SH support for the work and outcomes of the project.
   • Political awareness – engaging SH to maintain their support
7. Meetings – to support actions

Outputs

1. Project communications – artifacts: performance reports, deliverable status, schedule progress, cost incurred, presentations.
2. Project management plan updates
   • Communications management plan – changes to communication approach
   • Stakeholder engagement plan – communication requirements and strategies updates
3. Project documents updates
   • Issue log – how any communications have been used to impact active issues
   • Lessons learned register – challenges encountered and their solutions
   • Project schedule – status of communication activities
   • Risk register – capture risks associated with managing communications
   • Stakeholder register – communication activities with project stakeholders
4. Organizational process assets updates – project records ( correspondence, memos, meeting minutes); planned and ad-hoc project reports and presentations.

Project Controlling

In this phase, 2 processes take place: Performance Reporting and Stakeholders Management.

Monitor Communications

The process of ensuring the information needs of the project and its stakeholders are met. To determine if the planned communications artifacts and activities have had the desired effect of increasing SH’s support for the project’s deliverables and expected outcomes. Methods: customer satisfaction survey, lessons learned collection, team observation, issue log review, SH engagement assessment matrix. It may lead to updates to plan communication management, manage communications processes plans.

Inputs

1. Project management plan
   • Resource management plan – the roles , responsibilities and organization charts
   • Communications management plan – the current plan for collecting, creating, distributing information timely by identifying team members, stakeholders, and the work involved in the communication process
   • Stakeholder engagement plan – the communication strategies to engage stakeholders
2. Project documents
   • Issue log – project’s history, list of SH  engagement issues and their solutions.
   • Lessons learned register – earlier in the project
   • Project communications – communications that have been distributed
3. Work performance data – types and quantities of communications that have been distributed
4. Enterprise environmental factors – internal culture, political climate, governance framework; established communication channels, tools, systems; global, regional, local trends, practices, location of facilities and resources
5. Organizational process assets – internal procedures for social media, ethics, security, issues, risk, change, data management, communication requirements; standard for development, exchange, storage, retrieval of information; lessons learned; stakeholders and communication data and information from previous projects.

Tools & Techniques

1. Expert judgment – in: communications with the public/ community/ media/ virtual groups
2. Project management information system – a set of standard tools to capture, store, distribute information to SH according to the communications plan. Monitored for validity and effectiveness
3. Data analysis –
   • Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix – current vs desired
4. Interpersonal and team skills
   • Observation/conversation – update and communicate project performance to respond for information, identify issues within the tam, conflicts between people, individual performance issues.
5. Meetings – face-to face or virtual meetings use for decision making, responding to SH requests, discussing with suppliers, vendors, etc.

Outputs

1. Work performance information – how project communication performs by comparing planned vs implemented communications , plus feedback on communications (effectiveness survey)
2. Change requests – update SH communication requirements (distribution, content, format, methods), new procedures to eliminate bottlenecks
3. Project management plan updates
   • Communications management plan – effectiveness updates
   • Stakeholder engagement plan – situation of stakeholders, their communication needs, their importance updates
4. Project documents updates
   • Issue log – new issues raised, their progress, resolution
   • Lessons learned register – causes of issues, reasons behind the corrective actions chosen,etc.
   • Stakeholder register – update requirements

Project Closure

There are no processes taken place during this phase.

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