Importance of Communication in Project Management!

The most important role of a project manager is to make sure that the projects under his administration are finished on time and within budget. Business analysis involves documenting user requirements, developing and testing systems. Big companies may allow business analyst to work together with project managers, but in medium and small businesses, business analyst may have to take on project management responsibilities.

Above are the few important aspects of business analysis. I will be focusing on communication aspect which acts as a lifeline of any project.

Communication

A project is nothing but a set of events carried out to achieve a single goal and in order to achieve that goal it requires people who can lead the project and people who can execute the necessary events. Generally project managers complain that most of project time goes in communication. As a project manager, one should never think that communication is a waste of efforts.

Communication is very crucial for the success of any project and it becomes a bit difficult when there is an involvement of lot of people in some way or the other in the project. There will be certain things which customers would need to know, certain things that the business users would require, and the list goes on.Let me explain the above statement through an example. A project team of 10 members will find it easy to share updates with one another but if the size of the team is 200, it becomes harder to maintain successful communication with one another.

Also if the communication with clients is not clear at the start of the project, then later all the efforts taken in the project might go in vain. At the start of the project the customer tells you what he needs and this generally happens over a call or email. The project manager along with his team analyses and documents the requirements.Getting the exact requirements solves a major hurdle in the entire process. Requirements if not communicated properly or project started with wrong specifications can result in the waste of time and efforts taken in the process.

Communication can generally be done in the form of reports, notes and follow-ups with customers, business users and others in the company but emails is one form which is mostly used for communication with clients or with people involved in the project. One can email or access to emails whenever and wherever required without any risk involved.

Clear communication helps in aligning the right expectations, impelling people to take correct actions, negotiating agreements favourable to both customers and organisation. It also helps in briefing and recognising the steps needed further in the project.

Communication process is a five step process:

1. Recognize Stakeholders

It is important to understand who the stakeholders are. A project might involve multiple suppliers, business heads and lot of other people directly or indirectly involved in the process.

2. Strategize Communications

You need to know who is required to be informed or referred but what finishes the series is the kind of communication a participant is supposed to know, and the occurrences. It would be a part of the project communication plan. For instance, a dealer might not be involved in knowing whattechnology the project team is using but might be keen to comprehend the business he acquires, which might be insignificant to a person who produces technical documents.

3. Communicate

Once done with the recognizing customers and people involved and having finalized the plan, the only thing left is executing the plan. Execution process can be carried out through emails, calls, meetings, and so on.

4. Achieve Customers expectations

Meeting stakeholders’ expectations successfully is something achieved by a very few people. The whole idea is not to document the requirementson paper and attain them at a later time but to set the expectations on whether a particular thing or a requirement can be achieved at the time and price estimated.

5. Evaluate Performance

How can a manager comprehend whether the project undertaken is succeeding or not? Whether the project is on right roadway and within financial plan? Reports give stakeholders the asset to appraise the performance of the project and make changes in the process if vital. Assessment procedure helps in understanding what is requisite and what is not. What can enhance value to your project and what cannot.

Communication is imperative to the successful completion of a business project and delivering it to the standards of customer’s requirements. It gives a clear picture of the roles and responsibilities to all stakeholders and channelizes the resources towards the goal and results in higher efficiency.

About Author:

Nisha Bhatt is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, she actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at: nisha.bhatt@spluspl.com