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PM Video Project Communication Management Plan
Like other organizations and business activities, communication is a very fundamental factor that determines the success or failure of a project. During all the stages of the project; from initiation to implementation, it is important to have effective communication plan before executing the project. Project communication is therefore the process of exchanging ideas, concepts, theories, and methods (popularly referred to as project-specific information) with the aim of creating proper understanding between the receiver and the sender of the information. In this respect, project communication entails sharing of information among the stakeholders of the planned project in order to create good understanding and avoid any form of miscommunication that may arise out of lack of proper planning.
For a project to succeed there must be proper communication planning and channels. The project team must be responsible for providing accurate and timely information to all the stakeholders of the project. The information to be disseminated must be prepared in such as way that it meets the demands of the project’s stakeholders. On the other hand, the project management team must receive feedback and responses from the project’s stakeholders. Project communication entails the general communication and sharing of ideas between the team members themselves and the process is more encompassing. Project communication utilizes WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) as the framework for communication. Moreover, this process is customer focused as they are the primary or direct beneficiaries of the planned project. Other than being customers focused, project communication should take the limited time possible and also focus on the product or services. The limited project communication time should be limited in order to ensure that the information reaches the intended audience within the shortest time possible to limit distortion.
Project communication management is therefore described as the knowledge area which uses the right processes that are required to ensure appropriate and timely generation, collection, storage, distribution, ultimate disposal, and retrieval of project information. The development of Project Communication Management Planning is done by the project manager, but the task is all-inclusive process with all the project staff having a role to play in developing these communication plans for the project. The project task manager is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the project’s customers are fully served and their needs are prioritized over the demands of other stakeholders. This is realized by ensuring effective project communication between the management and the customers of the planned project.
Communications Management Approach
The method of communication adopted by the project is as shown in the communication matrix at the end of this document. There are two main centers of communication in this project. The first is the overall project manager whose responsibility is to ensure that the project stays on course. The second center of communication is the technical leader whose role is to manage process at the technical level. The project will adopt both weekly and monthly reporting patterns to monitor the project progress. Weekly basis communication will mainly involve the technical department. The aim of the weekly reports to technical manager is to decide on the technical design that is most appropriate. The aim of monthly reporting is to monitor the overall progress of the project. The manager will coordinate with the instructor and relevant authorities on the matters pertaining to development of the DVD.
Stakeholder Requirements
Communication is vital in the coordination of a project because it helps drive various components of a project to work towards the goal of the project. The aim of this particular project is to compile a DVD that is to be used by an instructor to deliver lessons to trainees. There are three major stakeholders in this project namely the project team lead by the project manager, the instructor and the trainees. Each stakeholder has unique interest in this project. The interest of the project team is to complete the project that meets requirements in terms of relevance, regulatory requirements, material requirements, project period, quality requirements, and trainee requirements among others. The responsibility of the team therefore is to ensure the other stakeholders’ requirements are met. The requirement of the instructor is to have a DVD that is both easy to use in giving instruction, objective and informative. The need of the trainees is to be able to follow the instructor from the information on the DVD.
In order to ensure that all these needs are integrated into the project, communication is key in that it is a tool used to obtain the needs of the clients. Clients in this case are the trainees and the instructor. The learning characteristics of the trainees must be enquired and this requires effective communication. The method of training preferred by the instructor is also important in the compilation of the DVD otherwise the training process using the DVD may not be successful irrespective of how much insightful is the DVD content. The only means of tapping the needs of the clients of the project and integrating it into the DVD alongside the learning discipline is communication. In order to develop an effective communication approach toward this project, it is important to establish the number of people involved in this project, the duties and responsibilities of each stakeholder and objective of the project.
Communication Management Constraints
The primary objective of the project is to develop the DVD for training purposes. However, training will not be successful if implied objectives are not integrated. Implied objectives include concepts such as method of presentation, learning concept development, and the amount of information among other things. Therefore, communication approach developed must aim at fulfilling these objectives.
Apart from the goal of the project, the communication approach chosen is also influenced by the scale of the project, the area of expertise in which the project is based and the characteristics of the intended client. Additionally, the minimum level of communication technology that the stakeholders can understand, the interest of each stakeholder and the standard of communications for the particular field also influence communication approach. The nature of the project is to develop a comprehensive and visual learning material in the form of a DVD. This feature requires extensive search on the particular discipline to be covered in the DVD. It also requires careful planning of content to ensure learning objectives are integrated in the content development.
The production of the DVD requires various expertise including the planner of the content material, the composer of the content material, the computer graphics and special effects expertise and the narrator. It is the responsibility of the project manager to source for all these human resources among other requirements. Like all projects, this project must be done in phases carefully planned to ensure the content development remain objective. The first step is planning process by the project team on the stages of the project development.
Communication Methods and Technologies
All simple communication methods including written, verbal, visual, and audio will be involved alongside technical communication methods attributed to project management. The simple communication methods will be mainly used in coordinating the project requirements between stakeholders and project team as well as developing the DVD. Technical communication method that includes PERT and SharePoint among others will be used in project planning and adjustments.
Written communication is required for the narrator to relay the information. Verbal communication will also be used by the narrator to relay the DVD content. Visual and audio will be developed by the technical team to help realize the implied objective of the project, which is to make the DVD content insightful, objective and informative. PERT will be used mainly in project planning whereas SharePoint and similar web-based communication will be used to make contribution and adjustment to the project.
Project Flow Chart
Project flow chart represents the communication path that and information goes through to reach the project. The manager is the overall head of the project development. He is therefore charged with the vital decision making process in the project management planning.
Communication Standards
The project will adopt standard organizational formats used in the project management field. All project meetings will make use of standards of organizing minutes from the meeting so that the stakeholders are able to follow the progress of the reports. The technical design meetings and products will utilize industry standards for development of DVDs and its programs so that the project can be both formal and professional. The project status reports will take the form of technical report writing format of the reports.
Communication Escalation
Project management implies more than just management of resources and time to deliver the final project. It also involves managing individuals involved in the team. Such individuals have the potential to start a conflict that can pose adverse impacts of the project. Communication process is a means of escalating such conflicts. All the conflicts will be categorized into priorities depending on the interpreted nature of impact on the project progress. Conflicts that are regarded as immediate threat will be given preference in terms of solving the surrounding issues in the project planning and management.
