Information Systems Project Management

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(No Transcript)
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Information Systems Project Management

• Communications Management
• Part I

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Communications Management

• Over the next 2 classes well study the topic of
  Communications Management, closely linked to HR
  Management

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Communications Management

• The PMBOK defines Communications Management as
  the Knowledge Area that employs the processes
  required to ensure timely and appropriate
  generation, collection, storage retrieval and
  ultimate disposition of project information

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Communications Management

• The PMBOK goes on to say that this is where the
  critical link is established between the project
  team members and the information they need to be
  successful
• Your author notes that most experts would agree
  that failure to communicate is the greatest
  threat to project success
• In my experience, this area is why most good
  projects are good and where most bad ones go
  wrong
• Convergys Sunrise Expansion Story

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Communications Management

• Your author goes on to make some very good points
  re technology project communications
• As technology advances, the potential
  communication gap between users and developers
  increases
• Id add that as global dispersion of teams
  increases, so does that gap
• Technology education programs stress developing
  technical skills versus soft skills such as
  communication
• Yet studies have consistently shown an equal or
  greater need for the soft skills, and they
  generally have a much longer shelf life than
  technical skills

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Communications Management

• There is a large body of knowledge on the area of
  Communications
• Project Communications Management is often more
  difficult due to its temporary nature, especially
  with virtual teams that are scattered across
  cultures
• But it helps to start by looking at some general
  communications concepts

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Communications Management

• Communications Concepts
• Sender-Receiver Models EncodinggtMessagegtDecoding
  
• Media
• Oral vs Written
• Formal vs Informal
• Face-to-Face vs Remote (e-mail / v-mail)
• Noise / Barriers

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Communications Management

• Types of Noise / Barriers
• Lack of clear communication channels
• Physical distance between sender/receiver
• Temporal distance between sender/receiver
• Technical Language Difficulties
• Distractions
• Detrimental attitudes

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Communications Management

• The PMBOK breaks down Communications Management
  into
• Communications Planning
• Information Distribution
• Performance Reporting
• Manage Stakeholders

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Communications Management

• Communications Planning determines the
  information and communications needs of the
  stakeholders and a suitable means of meeting
  those needs
• It is tightly linked with enterprise
  environmental factors and organizational
  influences
• It relies heavily on lessons learned and
  historical information from past projects
• Can help head off wasted communication time later

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Communications Management

• Communications Planning Tools are
• A Communications Requirements Analysis
• Project resources expended on communicating only
  information needed for project success
• Communications Technology Factors
• Urgency of information need
• Availability of technology
• Make-up of project team
• Expected project length
• Project environment (virtual or co-located)

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Communications Management

• To determine communication requirements, you
  typically need
• Company project organization charts
• Resource types involved in the project
• Size location(s) of project team
• Stakeholder information / relationships
• Internal external communication needs

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Communications Management

• Author shared a good list for the communications
  management plan to address
• Stakeholder communication requirements
• Information to be communicated
• Who will produce and receive which information
• Methods/Technologies use to convey information
• Frequency
• Escalation procedures
• Plan revision procedures
• Glossary of common project terminology

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Communications Management

• One other thing to consider in gauging the
  complexity on planning for communication on a
  large project
• The formula for total number of communication
  channels is (n(n-1))/2, where n number of
  communicators

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Communications Management

• So who can tell me how many potential
  communication channels there would be on a
  project comprised of 100 staff?

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Communications Management

• The answer is
• (100(100-1))/2 9900/2 4950
• That doesnt mean all channels will be exercised,
  but it does mean they need to be considered in
  planning

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Communications Management

• To wrap up Project Communications Planning, the
  output is a plan including
• The Communication Item
• The items purpose
• Its frequency
• Its start and end dates
• The format medium
• Its owner

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Communications Management

• Once we have a plan, we turn our attention to
  Information Distribution, which involves making
  information available to project stakeholders in
  a timely manner
• An effective PM has to be able to communicate
  effectively with management, the team, other
  teams and the customer(s), using communication
  skills to nurture those relationships

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Communications Management

• Clearly important in Information Distribution are
  Communication Skills
• Sender responsible for making sure that what is
  sent is clear complete
• Receiver responsible for ensuring that what is
  received is complete and understood
• There is also use of past lessons learned to
  continually improve distribution methods

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Communications Management

• Communication Dimensions
• Written Oral
• Speaking Listening
• Internal to Project External
• Formal Informal
• Vertical Horizontal
• Different people respond differently to different
  dimensions
• Certain dimensions are inappropriate for specific
  types of communication (situational)
• One communication will usually have multiple
  dimensions to consider

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Communications Management

• What dimensions would a lunchtime conversation of
  two co-workers about the latest organization
  announcement cover?
• How about an annual performance appraisal?

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Communications Management

• The lunchtime conversation of two co-workers
  would be oral, involve both speaking listening,
  likely internal and horizontal, and certainly
  informal
• The annual performance appraisal would be both
  oral written, involve both speaking
  listening, internal and vertical, and certainly
  formal in nature

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Communications Management

• Some additional solid tips from your author
• People are the backbone of projects, and they
  generally like interacting to get a feeling of
  how the project is going
• IT professionals typically have different
  personality traits than the general population,
  which can result in miscommunication if not dealt
  with appropriately
• Geographic location and cultural background is
  beginning to take on more importance as a
  communications management challenge due to growth
  of global work teams

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Communications Management

• The next process area within Communications
  Management is Performance Reporting, which
  involves the collection of all baseline data and
  distribution of performance information to
  stakeholders
• Provides data on scope, schedule, cost quality

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Communications Management

• Performance Reporting
• Compares work results (project performance
  deliverables status) with project baselines as
  set out in the project management plan
• Provides data in the form of performance reports
  on scope, schedule, cost quality
• The results of the earned value calculations we
  did a few classes ago are a good example of such
  performance reporting
• Author suggests use of status review meetings to
• Highlight important information from project
  documents
• Empower people to be accountable for their work
• Have face-to-face discussions about critical
  project issues

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Communications Management

• The last Communications process area is Manage
  Stakeholders, which refers to meeting project
  stakeholder communication needs
• Managing stakeholders increases the likelihood
  that the project will not veer off track due to
  unresolved stakeholders issues, enhances the
  ability of persons to operate synergistically,
  and limits disruptions during the project
• The project manager is responsible for this

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Communications Management

• To build effective team communications, the PM
  has to be an effective role model
• Must be an effective communicator
• Must be an information expeditor
• Megaphone example
• Must break down communication barriers
• Convergys Bristol example
• Author suggests use of
• Expectations Management Matrix to prioritize
  scope, time, cost and other goals of the project
• Issues Log to document/monitor issue resolution
• But dont allow yourself to get mired in trivial
  detail

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Communications Management

• To build effective team communications, the PM
  should properly set up the turf
• Should have a War Room that is the sole
  jurisdiction of the project
• Is acknowledged repository for all team
  communications
• Helps create project identity and esprit-de-corps
• May be actual room if co-located, or may be
  electronic if dispersed

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Communications Management

• To build effective team communications, the PM
  has to establish a meeting policy
• First, determine if the meeting is needed at all
• Determine who should attend (no casts of
  thousands)
• Allow enough lead time and schedule for a
  date/time everyone can attend (even more critical
  for virtual global teams)
• Provide a focused agenda before the meeting (even
  more critical for virtual global teams to sharpen
  focus)

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Communications Management

• To build effective team communications, the PM
  has to establish a meeting policy (continued)
• Run the meeting professionally
• Follow the agenda (appoint a facilitator)
• Clarify decisions and action items
• Encourage participation (need more focus on this
  with virtual global teams use of technology
  such as NetMeeting would help)
• Use the meeting to build important project team
  relationships
• Take and issue minutes
• Follow up on action items

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Communications Management

• Meeting Policy (cont)
• Meetings can fail for many reasons, a few of
  which are
• Improper meeting planning
• Ineffective meeting facilitation
• Improper conduct of participants
• Ineffective meetings are a big time-waster at
  most companies proper control of this can
  restore a lot of precious time to a schedule

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Communications Management

• Management Styles a PM might use
• Authoritative Combative
• Conciliatory Disruptive
• Ethical Facilitating
• Intimidating Judicial
• Promotional Secretive
• Can you see why some of these styles might not be
  optimal in certain situations?

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Communications Management

• Conflict Management Styles a PM might use
• Confrontation (Problem-Solving favored by PMs)
• Compromise (Second favorite of PMs)
• Smoothing (Stressing areas of agreement)
• Forcing (Win-Lose)
• Withdrawal (Least desirable)
• Project managers need to work with teams to
  develop norms for various conflict resolution
  types
• Conflict resolution is a core PM competency!

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Communications Management

• General Management Skills a PM might use
• Leading
• Communicating
• Negotiating
• Problem Solving
• Influencing
• Can you see why all of these skills would be
  required for a good project manager?

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Communications Management

• Some good additional PM tips from your author
• Put guidelines in place for e-mail use
• Provide templates for common documents
• Use new technologies available (such as IM, cell
  phones)
• Because they can increase productivity
• Because youll need to in order to satisfy
  changing customer and workforce expectations
• Make sure to put communication infrastructure in
  place to handle virtual team members, including
  telecommuters
• Recognize that improving an organizations
  ability to communicate often requires cultural
  changes that are difficult and time-consuming
• The PMs role is that of facilitator

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Summary

• Any Questions?
• Well pick this up in our next class
• No new assignment
• See you then!