1. PM00. 6 Project Management Preparation for Success
PM00.6 Project Management Preparation for Success * Manage Communication *

2. The Importance of Communication
The ability to communicate heads the list of criteria for success….. Peter Drucker
“A high percentage of the frictions, frustrations and inefficiencies in our working relationships is traceable to poor communication. In almost every case, the miscommunication of a design drawing, a misunderstood change order, a missed delivery date or the failure to execute instructions is the result of a breakdown in communication.”
Richard W. Sievert, Jr., Project Management Journal
Samples of quotes having to do with the importance of communication

3. Group Exercise Review -
List the ways project managers communicate status at your company?
Is anyone doing anything unique?
Discuss for all organizations in each group.
Break the class into teams. Ask them to think about how people report status today. What are the specific methods?
The purpose of the discussion is to bring awareness to communication methods that people use to communicate status.
Could be one-on-one meetings, status reports, status meetings, committee meetings, phone statuses, etc.
If the group cannot think of any (or few), then you should ask whether this causes any problems today.

4. Manage Communication Proper communication is a critical success factor
Deliver the right information to the right audiences
Project team to project manager
Project manager to stakeholders
Minimum, report status on all projects
Status Reports
Status meetings
This slide sets the stage for the rest of the material. Communication is a given. It is a critical success factor. Your project may fail simply because of poor communication.
Communicating with stakeholders, using the term in the broad sense to include customers, sponsors, vendors, suppliers, etc.
Even if you do no other communications, you should do status reports and status meetings

5. Basic Status Reporting
Purpose
Report on project progress against the workplan
Report project management concerns
Schedule
Budget
Issues
Scope change
Risks
Manage expectations
When the project starts, there is a Project Definition and a project workplan. The purpose of status reports and status meetings is to report on progress against the workplan and project definition (objectives), report project management concerns (issues, scope, risk, etc.) and manage expectations

6. Basic Status Reporting
Synthesize
Project Progress
Change Requests
Issues Log
Other Relevant Info
Status
Report
The project manager takes all the information used to manage the project and synthesizes it into a format and length that can be understood by the stakeholder audience.

7. Basic Status Reporting
Communicate with the target audience in mind (not the sender)
Doesn’t have to be on paper
If you ask for information, use it
Make use of exception reporting
Additional information on these topics is in section six on the website.

8. Basic Status Reporting
Use standardized reports
Synthesize and summarize as you go higher in the organization
Green / yellow / red status indicators
Be clear on when communication is due
Additional information on these topics is in section six on the website.

9. Basic Status Reporting
Make sure your reporting periods are realistic
Short project – more frequent
Long project – less frequent
Be creative in how you share information
Voic
Paper
Web …
Additional information on these topics is in section six on the website.

10. Basic Status Reporting
Warning: Don’t depend on status reports alone to keep your customer / manager fully informed, especially if you are communicating bad news.
Status Reports are fine, but they provide the basic information in an an impersonal way.
If your status reports get routine, the customer and manager may not be diligent in reading them on routinely.
If you have bad news, talk to people live. Do not hide it in a Status Report. It may get missed, and cause much more trouble down the road.

11. Managing Expectations
In many (most?) cases where conflicts arise, it is not because of the actual problem, but because the customer / manager was surprised
Surprises are many times worse than the actual bad news. If you have bad news, you may be able to resolve it. If you do not share the information, then people get surprise and upset. If you wait the operations be much more limited,

12. Manage Communication How do you manage expectations effectively??
COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE
Ask participants:
How many of you have been on a project where you had to communicate with stakeholders outside of the immediate project team?
How many of you felt that your communication efforts were really successful?
For those that answer yes, ask them what factors contributed to this success
How many of you planned what you were going to communicate and when you were going to do it?
How many of you built these activities into your work plan and assigned resources to the work?
That approach is, in a nutshell, what we are going to talk about today.

13. Managing Expectations
Must have a common agreement to begin with
Communicate proactively to manage changes
Periodically assess performance and expectations
Deliver against the expectations
Reset expectations if necessary (once if possible)
Complete the agreement
Section on the website has more information on managing expectations.

14. Status Meeting Meeting Fundamentals Create agenda
Ask for participant preparation 
Invite only those people who are needed
Start on time (but allow for prior meetings) 
Explain the purpose and expected outcome
Follow the agenda, and watch the time
Document action items
Recap action items, who is responsible and due date
Recap any decisions
Additional information on these topics is in section six on the website.

15. Basic Status Reporting
Major Deliverables
Individual status report
Team members to project manager
Weekly / monthly project status report
Project manager to stakeholders
May have multiple formats for different audiences
Status meetings
Bring copies of these deliverables for the class to review. Discuss the major parts. You can pick deliverables from the TenStep template library, or use your own.

16. Manage Communication Answer: PLANNING
Q: How do you make sure you get the right information about your project to the right audiences, in the most effective manner?
Answer: PLANNING
Ask participants:
How many of you have been on a project where you had to communicate with stakeholders outside of the immediate project team?
How many of you felt that your communication efforts were really successful?
For those that answer yes, ask them what factors contributed to this success
How many of you planned what you were going to communicate and when you were going to do it?
How many of you built these activities into your work plan and assigned resources to the work?
That approach is basically the Communication Plan.

17. The Communication Plan
The Communication Plan provides for the ability to be more creative, more proactive and more sophisticated in your communication.
Status Reporting is fine for all projects. Small projects may not require anything else. Larger projects need more communication opportunities.

18. Communication Plan
Determine the project stakeholders and their communication needs
For each stakeholder, brainstorm how to fulfill the communication need
Prioritize the communication options
Implement any communications that are mandatory
Implement high value communication options
Add the resulting activities to the workplan
Additional information on these topics is in section six on the website.

19. Communication Plan Focus here first High Effort Low Effort High Impact
Low Impact
Focus here
first
Focus first on the communication ideas that are of the highest value and least effort (cost).

20. Communication Plan Compliance Information Marketing
Reporting, required data, status, “push”
Information
Education, “how to”, “pull”
Marketing
Sell, keep sold, “push”
These are explained further on the website on on subsequent slides in the class.

21. Communication Plan Compliance examples Project Status Reports
Regular voic updates (of status)
Status meetings
Meetings with Steering Committee
Regular conference calls and videoconferences with remote stakeholders
Government required reports and other information
Financial reporting such as budget status, headcount, run rate etc.
These are examples of communications you may have to do.
Projects in the public sector may have more compliance reporting.
Outsourced projects may have a defined set of compliance reports that are expected.

22. Communication Plan Information examples
Awareness building sessions (not training, build awareness.)
Project deliverables placed in a common repository, directory or library that people can access
Project information on a website
Information examples. The key here is that this information is available for people who want to see it. Since people must take action to receive the information, it is called “pull” - you pull it toward you.

23. Communication Plan Marketing examples
Project newsletters, with positive marketing spin
Contests with simple prizes to build excitement
Project acronyms and slogans to portray positive images
Project countdown till live date
Celebrations to bring visibility to the completion of major milestones
Project memorabilia - pins, pencils, cups, T-shirts, etc.
This is the place for creative communication to build goodwill and a positive image.
The communication is “pushed”, which means that it is sent to the stakeholder. They probably didn’t ask for it, but you sent it to them anyway.

24. Branding a Project More sophisticated form of marketing communication
Establish an identity that conjures up a positive image and goodwill.
Associate an image and a feeling when a person hears of your project
Section on the website has more information on branding a project. 52

25. Branding a Project
Proactively build your image, rather than have one branded on you
Examples include:
Establish a positive project name / acronym
Establish an image / logo
Trinkets, logo material - t-shirts, pencils, cups, etc.
Section on the website has more information on branding a project 52

26. Advanced Communications
Major Deliverable
Communication Plan
Bring copies of these deliverables for the class to review. Discuss the major parts. You can pick deliverables from the TenStep template library, or use your own.

27. Case Study #9 – Manage Communication
Building a Communication Plan
Review the class case study
Determine the communication needs of the major stakeholders
Sponsor (both)
Director
Project team
Vendor team
Determine method and frequency of delivering the communication and who will be responsible
USA Finance Managers
USA users
International managers
Other
See Case Study for this training section. 52

28. Manage the Project Manage workplan Manage issues Manage scope
Manage communication
Manage risk
Manage documentation
Manage quality
Manage metrics

29. Learning Objectives
By the end of class, each participant should be able to:
Understand the value of project management processes
Review the various aspects of defining a project
Build and maintain an appropriate project workplan
Identify and manage issues, scope and communication
Identify and manage project risks
Determine methods to manage project documentation
Identify and manage to the appropriate level of quality
Identify metrics to improve processes and declare success
These are the major areas that the class will focus on. As the class progresses, we will validate that these main areas are covered, including opportunities for hands-on exercises.

30. Questions??