Project Management and Communications
Without clear and frequent communications, projects will fail. Strong project leaders communicate with a variety of individuals--their project team, project sponsors, stakeholders, management, clients and vendors. Project leaders use communications as a tool to manage their project. From meeting with the project team to relaying status to stakeholders to creating a project plan, communication is essential to project management.
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Communications with Project Team
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Project managers rely on a project team to accomplish tasks that complete a project. PMs must meet with their team initially to review the project goals, tasks, time line and budget. Ideally, the team should meet at least once a week to discuss project status and issues. This communication facilitates discussion between team members and is productive for the PM to gather updates needed to ensure the project is on track.
Communications with Project Sponsors, Stakeholders and Management
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Project sponsors, stakeholders and management have a stake in the success of a project. Often the project concept is one of their ideas and they want to see it brought to fruition. Throughout the project, project managers should provide updates to these individuals through meetings, reports and written summaries. The project sponsors, stakeholders and management will appreciate the updates and can share this information with other company managers and board members.
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Communications with Clients
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When a project involves a company's client, the project manager may be responsible for communication with the client. Project managers communicate project goals and time line to the client through meetings. She sets project expectations with the client so the client is clear what to expect upon implementation. Maintaining frequent communication with the client is good customer service and may contribute to the client returning as a customer. Over the course of the project, the PM should give the client the opportunity to ask any questions.
Written Communications
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Project plans are an effective tool for project managers. The written plan must include, at a minimum, project tasks, task due date, task completion date and name of individual responsible for each task. The PM should update the project plan after each team meeting and share a modified version of the plan with the team, sponsors, stakeholders, management and clients. The plan allows for an at-a-glance review of tasks' status and if targets have been met--or not.
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References
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