10.2 Manage Communications

Description: It is the process of ensuring timely and appropriate collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information. Ensures that the information being communicated to project stakeholders has been appropriately generated and formatted, and received by the intended audience. It also provides opportunities for stakeholders to make requests for further information, clarification, and discussion. Techniques and considerations:

• Sender-receiver models.
• Choice of media.
• Writing style.
• Meeting management.
• Presentations.
• Facilitation.
• Active listening.

Key benefit: enables an efficient and effective information flow between the project team and the stakeholders.

Frequency: throughout the project.

Process/ Asset Group	Input	The process	Output	Process / Asset Group
Project Management Plan	Resource Management Plan	10.2 Manage Communications	Project Communications	Project Documents
	Communications Management Plan		Issue Log
	Stakeholder engagement plan		Lesson learned register
Project Documents	Change log		Project Schedule
	Issue log		Risk register
	Lesson learned register		Stakeholder register
	Quality report		Communications management plan	Project Management Plan
	Risk report		Stakeholder engagement plan
	Stakeholder register		Organizational processes assets updates	Enterprise / Organization
4.5 Monitor and Control Project Work	Work performance reports
Enterprise / Organization	Enterprise environment factors
	Organizational process assets

10.2.1 Inputs

10.2.1.1 Project Management Plan

• Resource management plan. Describes the communications that are needed for management of team or physical resources.
• Communications management plan. Describes how project communications will be planned, structured, monitored, and controlled.
• Stakeholder engagement plan. Describes how stakeholders will be engaged through appropriate communication strategies.

10.2.1.2 Project Documents

• Change log. To communicate changes and approved, deferred, and rejected change requests to the impacted stakeholders.
• Issue log.
• Lessons learned register.
• Quality report. Quality issues, project and product improvements, and process improvements.
• Risk report. Presents information on sources of overall project risk, together with summary information on identified individual project risks.
• Stakeholder register. Identifies the individuals, groups, or organizations that will need various types of information.

10.2.1.3 Work Performance Reports

Status reports and progress reports.

10.2.1.4 Enterprise Environmental Factors

• Organizational culture, political climate, and governance framework;
• Personnel administration policies;
• Stakeholder risk thresholds;
• Established communication channels, tools, and systems;
• Global, regional, or local trends and practices or habits; and
• Geographic distribution of facilities and resources.

10.2.1.5 Organizational Process Assets

• Corporate policies and procedures for social media, ethics, and security;
• Corporate policies and procedures for issue, risk, change, and data management;
• Organizational communication requirements;
• Standardized guidelines for development, exchange, storage, and retrieval of information; and
• Historical information from previous projects, including the lessons learned repository.

10.2.2 Tools and Techniques

10.2.2.1 Communication Technology

• Whether the team is colocated,
• The confidentiality of any information that needs to be shared,
• Resources available to the team members, and
• How the organization's culture influences the way in which meetings and discussions are normally conducted.

10.2.2.2 Communication Methods

Flexibility in the event that the membership of the stakeholder community changes or their needs and expectations change.

10.2.2.3 Communication Skills

• Communication competence. A combination of tailored communication skills that considers factors such as clarity of purpose in key messages, effective relationships and information sharing, and leadership behaviors.
• Feedback. Information about reactions to communications, a deliverable, or a situation.
• Nonverbal. Appropriate body language to transmit meaning through gestures, tone of voice, and facial expressions.
• Presentations. The formal delivery of information and/or documentation. Presentations will be successful when the content and delivery take the following into account:
  • The audience, their expectations, and needs; and
  • The needs and objectives of the project and project team.

10.2.2.4 Project Management Information System (PMIS)

Ensures that stakeholders can easily retrieve the information they need in a timely way.

10.2.2.5 Project Reporting

Collecting and distributing project information. Project information is distributed to many groups of stakeholders and should be adapted to provide information at an appropriate level, format, and detail for each type of stakeholder.

10.2.2.6 Interpersonal and Team Skills

• Active listening. Involve acknowledging, clarifying and confirming, understanding, and removing barriers that adversely affect comprehension.
• Conflict management.
• Cultural awareness.
• Meeting management. Meeting management is taking steps to ensure meetings meet their intended objectives effectively and efficiently. The following steps should be used for meeting planning:
  • 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, and conflicts during the meeting.
  • Record all actions and those who have been allocated the responsibility for completing the action.
• Networking.
• Political awareness.

10.2.2.7 Meetings

10.2.3 Outputs

10.2.3.1 Project Communications

• Performance reports,
• Deliverable status,
• Schedule progress,
• Cost incurred,
• Presentations, and
• Other information required by stakeholders.

10.2.3.2 Project Management Plan Updates

Changes are going through the organization's change control process via a change request.

Updated components:

• Communications management plan. Changes to the project communications approach.
• Stakeholder engagement plan. Updated stakeholder communication requirements and agreed-upon communications strategies.

10.2.3.3 Project Documents Updates

• Issue log. Any communication issues on the project.
• Lessons learned register. Information on challenges encountered and how they could have been avoided as well as approaches that worked well and what did not work well.
• Project schedule.
• Risk register.
• Stakeholder register.

10.2.3.4 Organizational Process Assets Updates

• Project records such as correspondence, memos, meeting minutes and other documents used on the project;
• Planned and ad-hoc project reports and presentations.