What Are Project Communications?

The communications of a project include all means and manners that the project interacts with all its stakeholders. This not only includes the standard, formal communication items such as

Per PMI, project managers should spend 90% of their time communicating.

• Status reports
• Progress review meetings
• Kickoff meetings
• Executive reports
• Presentations
• Financial reports
• Government (or external agency) reports
• Issue logs
• Risk logs
• Change request logs
• Role-responsibility matrix
• Project organization chart
• Any project deliverable

but can also include organizational change management communications such as

• Project name/identity
• Project website
• Organizational change management plan
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) references
• Awareness campaigns
• Newsletters
• Public relation notices
• Roadshows
• One-on-one meetings with key stakeholders

While the nature of your individual project (number and type of stakeholders, location of stakeholders, and overall project risk level) will dictate how many of these elements are part of your project, the next set of project communications are included on every project, and are likely the most important part of project communications: the day-to-day, interpersonal communications that occur between the project team and the project stakeholders. These include interactions in the following forms, plus others:

• Face-to-face
• Telephone
• Email
• Voice mail
• Meetings

Later in this chapter, we will review simple but powerful tips to improve your interpersonal communication skills, and we will review important reminders to help you choose the best medium/tool for your desired message.