Chapter 10: Introducing Project Communications Management

---

Overview

What’s the most important skill a project manager has? Communication. Project managers spend about ninety percent of their time communicating. Think about it: meetings, phone calls, memos, e-mails, reports, presentations, and the list goes on and on. Project managers spend the bulk of their day communicating news, ideas, and knowledge. A project manager is a communicator.

Project Communications Management centers on determining who needs what information and when—and then produces the plan to provide the needed information. Project Communications Management includes generating, collecting, disseminating, and storing communication. Successful projects require successful communication. Communication is the key link between people, ideas, and information.

Project Communications Management includes four processes, which may overlap each other and other knowledge areas. The four processes are:

• Communication planning The project manager will need to identify the stakeholders and their communication needs and determine how to fulfill their requirements.

• Information distribution The project manager will need to get the correct information on the correct schedule to the appropriate stakeholders.

• Performance reporting The project manager will rely on EVM and other performance measurement to create status reports, measure performance, and forecast project conditions.

• Administrative closure The project manager will need a routine of documentation, communication, and information distribution to close out a phase or project.

---