Bad Communication is the Careless Culprit

Bad communication is most likely the most common cause of project failure. It is vital to the project and to your success to create a communication plan and stick to it throughout project planning, execution and closing. This checklist will help you determine different types of communication needed for your project and how to communicate without overburdening your stakeholders and project team members.

There are various Communication Types including internal/external, formal/informal, vertical/horizontal, official/unofficial, written/oral, and verbal (voice inflections) / non-verbal (body language). Communication Skills will also be important to consider.

• Create your Communications Management Plan
  • Inputs
    • Use your Project Charter, understand how your project will be executed, monitored, controlled and closed
    • Use the Stakeholder Register and Assessment
    • Enterprise Environmental Factors(EEFs), use all available, communications must be adapted to the project environment
    • Organizational Process Assets(OPAs), use all available, most important are lessons learned and historical information
  • Tools And Techniques
    • Limit potential communication channels by limiting who communicates with whom, who receives information, and limit the number of communication channels people use.
    • Communication Technology determines information transfer methods, consider:
      • Urgency as a factor,
      • Availability of technology and ease of use,
      • Project environment, and
      • Sensitivity and confidentiality of information.
    • Communication Models include encode, transmit, decode, acknowledge, and feedback/response.
    • Communication Methods and Responsibility includes:
      • Sender’s Responsibility includes the message transmission, that the information is clear and concise, and then confirming that the message is understood.
      • Receiver’s Responsibility includes confirming that the message has been received entirely, and that the message is acknowledged and a proper response if necessary.
  • Outputs
    • Communications Management Plan that includes communications requirements as to:
      • What needs to be communicated,
      • Why this needs to be communicated,
      • When/how often it needs to be communicated,
      • Who does the communicating,
      • Who authorizes release of confidential information, and
      • How everyone receives the communication.

Article publié pour la première fois le 01/10/2015