The Three-Stage Process of Project Management in Organizations - Article Example

Project Communications Affiliation The process of project communication management comprises three stages. The first stage is the planning stage, which involves the creation of a suitable project communication plan based on the information needs of stakeholders and organizational assets. The second stage is the communications management stage, which consists of the creation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval and eventual disposition of project information as per the created plan. The final stage is the monitoring and controlling of throughout the project cycle to ensure that stakeholder information needs are met (Project Management Institute, 2013). The project team management and overall business management should possess strong communication skills which include active and effective listening, questioning to seek clarification, motivating team members, persuasion, conflict resolution, fact finding, and information summarization, among others. What inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs are required in each of the three stages of communication management in projects? The inputs necessary for a communication plan include the project management plan, organizational assets, and description of enterprise environmental factors and list of stakeholders. The process involves communication requirements analysis so as to discover stakeholder information needs. Managing communication requires the communication management plan, work performance reports, as well as environmental factors and organizational assets. Sources of information and communication channels should be determined. Communication technology, methods and models used should be the most effective to meet stakeholder needs in planning and managing communication. The communication plan should contain roles, resource allocation, among others. Managing communication should involve performance reporting, and provides updates on project communications, documents, plan and organizational process assets (Project Management Institute, 2013). Controlling and monitoring of communication requires information on the communication plan, issue log and performance data. Meetings and expert judgments are requires in evaluation of the effectiveness of the communication plan, so as to identify areas that require changes, report on performance and effect changes to project documents. Project Communication Process Project success is dependent on a number of factors, including proper planning of the project activities, acquiring support from the management, defining and controlling the project scope, reaching an agreement on project goals, and last but not least effective communication among all project team members (Verzuh, 2011). Projects communication is a primary tool for promoting coordination, participation, cooperation and an understanding of acceptance amongst all stakeholders. Every task of in a project by the project manager includes communication. The information that a project manager delivers to the stakeholders influences them and improves their productivity. The project manager also manages customer expectations, of which communication is a key requirement. In short, communication breakdown in a project can lead to the failure of a project (Verzuh, 2011). The communication management process consists of planning, monitoring and controlling. According to Verzuh (2011), a communication plan is required in order to succeed in delivering the right information to the right people. The first process that is involved in the communication process and the creation of an effective plan is identifying the stakeholders in the project. The stakeholders identified on the organization chart, the statement of work, as well as in the responsibility matrix are the audience for a greater percentage of project communication. Different stakeholders have different roles; hence each one of them has diverse requirements for information. The various levels of stakeholders who require information include sponsors, customers, functional management, the project team and the project manager as well. Information provided to stakeholders may be in form of authorizations or approvals, status changes (cost and schedule changes reports, problem logs) and coordination (roles and responsibilities for efficient working) information (Verzuh, 2011). The outputs process of identifying stakeholders are a stakeholder management strategy and a stakeholder register. The strategic management strategy refers to the technique applied in a bid to increase support while minimizing their resistance. An impact analysis should be conducted on the stakeholders identified. Among the various models used in stakeholder impact analysis on a project include the power/ interest grid and the influence/ impact grid. A salience models gives description of stakeholders based on their urgency, power and strategy. These stakeholders should be dealt with effectively based on their classification. Preparation of a project communication plan helps the project team in identifying and categorizing both external and internal associates and subsequently enhances communication among all members taking part in the project. The project development team, under the leadership of the project manager, prepares a project communication plan to make sure that an effective communication approach is built into the entire project delivery process (Verzuh, 2011). The communication plan is a framework. It is supposed to be a living, developing document that can be reviewed and amended when appropriate. A project communication plan is a part of the project management plan. The time at which communication is required by stakeholders should be identified, whether it is monthly, weekly, quarterly or as required. Additionally, it is essential to be aware of how the information will be distributed to the respective stakeholders, may it be meetings, through emails, presentations, and newsletters (Hill, 2013). The methods and technologies that are selected for communication are dependent on: the duration of the project, the urgency of the need for information, the project environment and the expected project staffing. Once the plan is in place, then information can be distributed to the stakeholders as indicated in the plan, a part of managing project communication process. Managing the communication process is actually the implementation of the Communications Management Plan, and responding to unanticipated requests for information. The project management plan is a reference in management process (Project Management Institute, 2013). Organizational process assets such as the policies and procedures of information distribution are a crucial input that ensures the success of the managing process. In addition, performance reports indicating status information, like earned value forecasts and project performance are also important inputs. The various information distribution tools that can be applied in this process include email, telephone, hard-copy documents, fax, press releases, websites, etc. A successful distribution of information to stakeholders should result in organization assets updates including: the project reports and presentations, documentation on lessons learnt, feedback from shareholders and stakeholder notifications (Project Management Institute, 2013). The control of communications occurs after managing the process. It is a continuous monitoring and controlling process that enables constant communication with stakeholders ensuring that they satisfy their wants and they are also attended to as they occur (Verzuh, 2011). The discovery and management of stakeholder expectations increase the chances of a project succeeding by ensuring that they fully understand the project risks, issues and benefits, and thus gaining their full support. The manager of the project is accountable for handling the expectations of stakeholders. For this process to be successful, the stakeholder register, stakeholder management strategy, the project plan, the organizational process assets, issues and change logs are required to obtain various forms of information. If the expectations management is successful, then the outcome of the control and monitoring process should consist of change requests, updates on the project plan as well as the communication management plan, organizational process updates, comprising of the various reasons for corrective actions taken, causes of issues and lessons learned, as well as changes and updates to documents such as the issue log, stakeholder management strategy and Reporting techniques and report systems or tools are quite common in control process(Project Management Institute, 2013). The reporting of performance involves collection and distribution of performance related information to stakeholders. Performance information includes forecasts, progress measurements and status reports. These reports should contain information on scope, quality, cost, and sometimes procurement and risk (Project Management Institute, 2013). Organizational process assets, work performance measurements and project management plan, are crucial in the implementation of the control process. Variance analysis and forecasting methods and techniques can also be utilized in the control process. The various indicators of a successful control and monitoring process include the presence of performance reports, changes to organizational process assets including the corrective actions taken and the causes of issues, and the processing of change requests which integrates change control process (Project Management Institute, 2013). The three stage process of Project management in organizations should guarantee project success if adhered to strictly. However, other factors affecting project success should be put into consideration and incorporated effectively in to the project. References Hill, G. M. (2013). The complete project management office handbook. CRC Press. Project Management Institute. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). Project Management Institute, Incorporated. Verzuh, E. (2011). The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley & Sons. Read More