Effective Communication in Project Management Process

Communication is Formal and Informal. It can be Routine/specific. Communication is basically the transmission of the information.

For Effective communication system the encoding, channel of communication and feed back from the receiver are important.

Encoding can be verbal a written message, a meeting where the information is passed.

Channel of communication can be a memo, Email or a policy letter.

When the receiver receives the information and acts accordingly and reply the the feedback to the communication is provided. The Communication Circle comes to close.

In the execution of the project communication is done via Coordination meetings. Meeting can be with client, consultant and contractor.

Meetings with staff to review the progress every fortnight or weekly understand the problems and interact with the site staff.

Meetings with suppliers are once in month to ensure the regular flow of the materials and negotiations of the rates if any.

And finally meeting with head office to appraise the progress and problems; it can be daily weekly and periodically depending upon the protocol of the authority we are having meeting with.

As mentioned by Subhash, in the initial description of the discussion, many projects do follow all communication methods, yet the communication is not effective. If, only single reason is to be given for this, then it is weak communication strategy.

Weak communication stratgeies are those, which ignore the receipt and acknowledgement part of the communication from relevant reciepients, those which do not have startegy for risk of communication failure. Because of this there will be silo groups formation, conflicts, blame games and politics etc.

1. Project is so dynamic, it is natural to mis a few things reported due to time constraints - This happens because communication/documentation is not made part of the process that is followed to accomplish a task in the project, no matter how small and trivial taht task could be. Task deliverable should end with communication completion. So in building communication strategy, particular attention should be paid in looking at what are the risks or chances of communication failure at every mile stone and tasks. Usually small things are given less importance, so they are missed and one of those small things becomes a critical piece of information in later phases or mile stones of the project

2. There are so many work packages as a result work groups form and due to the individuals groups focus on their part, often the integrating parts between these groups are ignored. The most common thing that connects these groups is commnication and some times, part of the deliverables of the group. This gets further complicated if the completion of a particular task is a prerequisite for several other tasks. And if it is a large project and geographically dispersed, it is all the more chances of silo teams forming. So communication startegy should take care of validating the appropriate flow of communication to the relevant sources. One good method is not to initiate the next task until feedback is received from the intended receivers of the communique.

3. Important factor is politics. Here the communication failure is caused by, delibarate violation of communication plan or policy. So The communication strategy should consider, an automatic cross checking mechanism which automatically precipitates any violation of communication startegy.

So it is a good idea to continuously measure and monitor the effect of communication rather than looking for failure of communication. Appoint a project communicator, whose reponsibility is to make sure all relevant teams are connected appropriately before, during and after the task hand over and take over

Time and time again in post-project assessments, project teams list communication as one of the most needed areas for improvement. Many times on troubled projects, project team members feel that if the communication had been better, the project would have run smoother.Another challenge is that projects often include cross-functional or inter-organizational teams. Project teams are not normally natural teams and sometimes do not even reside in the same geographic location. Unique delivery methods and communication devices need to be utilized to overcome this challenge. so I think Project Communications Table will be the better Idea. means who will communicate whom at what time it is the basic funda of this, but I need some suggestions regarding and developing this project table.

I totally agree that Effective Communication is essential tool for any Project Management Process. I would add on that for any Projcet 3C are require for completing Project " COMMUNICATION, CORDINATION and COPERATION" 

Everyone of us communicates but if we are communicating 100% ,the other person can grab 50% only(scientifically proved).So we have to change the way of communicating.First its very important for a PM to be transparent in his communication with his project team.His communication should be easily understood with confidence level high.Clients as well as stake holders are the important ones to be communicated.Try to communicate softly with clear level of understanding,proper pronounciation,listening ability.