Project Planning Communication

• Business Management Articles
• Project Management Communication

Introduction

All projects need to be communicated; the people who will be helping you with the project and people that the project, may affect need to know about it. Think about the types of communication your project will benefit from and include them as tasks in your plan.

Communication Examples

• Project Review Meetings (internally with colleagues and externally with clients)
• Conference/Video calls (internally with colleagues and externally with clients)
• Presentations
• Training Sessions
• Emails/Letters/Faxes
• Reports e.g. reports for the board of directors, reports for your line manager, reports for clients
• Press/Media Releases

Some of the items above will need to be included in your plan whilst others such as e-mails will need to be completed as and when necessary. Regular communication will keep people up to date with your project's progress and any developments. It will also allow you to track task completion and motivate people; if people know that they will be asked about their progress on a certain date and at a certain time, they are more likely to complete their tasks especially if they are asked in a meeting where others are present.

Project “Kick Off” Meeting

A project kick off meeting is a good way to get your project going. The purpose of this meeting is to introduce the project (and the project team) to relevant people and stakeholders including:

• Senior managers or directors in your organisation
• Line managers of people that the project may affect
• Client representatives
• External consultants

Conclusion

As a project manager with lots of tasks to complete and tight deadlines, it can be relatively easy to neglect communication. This is dangerous; projects involve change management and change management requires lots of communication. Everyone needs to be supported through change; employees, managers, customers and even you the project manager. Effective support requires effective communication as everyone needs to know what is going on