If you compare PMBOK 5th edition and 6th edition Project Communications management processes, you would notice that the erstwhile ‘Control Communications’ process has been renamed as ‘Monitor Communications’ in PMBOK 6th version.

Why would you think this happened?

Among other things (like bringing best practices of real world to PMBOK), PMI wants to make sure that the process names and practices are streamlined.

Considering the fact that a project manager spends over 90% of her efforts on communication, the reality is that Communication is not something that she can control.

Communication can be planned, monitored, managed, and to some extent even taught – but cannot be controlled. Hence the change of process name.

Let us first see what type of data is generated on the project –

• Project baseline figures – status reports on cost, schedule, scope and so on
• Quality related – metrics, measurements, test results
• Project progress related EVM numbers – Earned Value, Planned Value, Actual Cost, SPI, CPI, Schedule Variance, Cost Variance and so on from EVM method
• Forecasts – such as Estimate At Completion (EAC) and Estimate To Complete (ETC) numbers
• Actual data versus baseline data, and variances
• and so on..

All this data needs to be processed in the project context and converted into useful information. This information helps create intelligent reports that tell us the status of project, trends, forecasts and so on.

In this process though the focus of project manager would be to make sure that informational needs of all stakeholders are taken care of.

All this information has to be monitored and controlled throughout the life of the project. Monitor Communications process makes sure that every stakeholder gets the information she is supposed to get, at the time she is expecting it and using the method she is supposed to get it by (as defined in the communication plan and stakeholder management plan).

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In the 1930s, big corporations were thriving on the backs of their workers, and the workers had had enough.

Image: Sheldon Dick/Wikimedia Commons.

They tried to form unions but were essentially dismissed. The power lay in the hands of the corporations. So, inspired by the sit-down strikes taking place throughout Europe, the workers decided to do something about the problem.

On Dec. 30, 1936, workers walked into the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, sat down, and stopped working, shutting down the company and forcing its heads to take notice.

They remained there through mid-February. GM tried to force an evacuation and police attempted to cut off their food supply, but the workers prevailed. Finally, GM signed an agreement recognizing the union. Workers received 5% raises and were allowed to speak in the lunchroom.

They’d won.

(ref upworthy)

Stakeholders can bring your project to a grinding halt.

They can be that powerful.

Thus it becomes crucial that the project manger not just identifies all stakeholders, but classifies them properly, and puts in place right strategies to engage them based on powser-interest grid (or other forms of analysis).

Some customers take a lot of interest in the project and want to be involved at every step of the project, on a daily basis; and some customers will talk only at the beginning of the project and then won’t be available at all.

While having former type of customer is good, she can make your life difficult as you may end up losing lot of valuable time in providing every smallest of the information she needs. Latter type of customers may spring surprises when delivery is made, which is worse.

Customer is a key stakeholder in the project and it is important to analyze needs of every member on customer’s team during the project management activity to Plan Project Communications. Sometimes you discover that people on customer’s team do not share a great rapport amongst themselves and in such cases you need to be extra careful to ensure it does not impact project.

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Thank you!

A thousand times over.

PMExamSmartNotes.com now has over a thousand unique visitors around the globe. In just 69 days of the launch!

This has been possible only due to your support!

This milestone indicates people are finding value in the PMP® lessons on this blog. This is a good validation for any new site/product. And it actually makes me want to put in more efforts to make this blog the most comprehensive source of information for anyone studying for PMP® or CAPM® certification exams. Stay tuned for more quality content on the blog.

Here’re some statistics –

Few quick notes –

• On an average, a visitor spent about four and half minutes on the blog per visit. May be scanned through few lessons (web reading style is more of scanning than book reading).
• On an average a readers visited 8+ pages. Some people might have spent more time going in detail through the notes, while some people might have ‘tested waters’ going through various pages to decide whether this blog is worth coming back to study.
• Bounce rate is low 10%. This is a good thing for any site. This bounce rate indicates that only about 10% of people visited exited right from the page they landed on. Lesser the bounce rate better it is.
• About 73% of visits were new visitors. This is a good indication for a growing (young) site where more people are coming to the site every day. This is analogous to new product or technology adaptation in the market.

Again, this couldn’t have been possible without your support. Thank you once again.

Cheers,
Shiv

“Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success.”

– Paul J Meyer

Managing Communications is a project management activity that is all about telling stakeholders what is going on in the project.

It is about collecting specific pieces of information throughout project, analyzing and sending them to the appropriate people (everyone doesn’t need to know everything), at the right time (some information is time sensitive) and using the right methods as planned in the communication management plan. This is one of the important aspects of project manager’s day-to-day work.

Effective and efficient information distribution is really the key to project success.

One of the core challenges a product manager faces is information exchange. Information is not just sent out by the project manager alone, everyone on the team needs to pass information to others. While some people are great at verbal communication at the expense of written communication skills, exactly opposite is true with some people, some are great at all forms of communication. But proper way of communication can be learned.

The project manager has a challenge of distributing the information properly by herself and also by the people in the team. [continue reading…]

Earned value management (EVM) is a method to assess project performance. This is pretty simple once you get a hang of it. First, spend some time trying to understand the following terms.

It is okay if you do not get all of it right here. Just try to get a hang of them. As you go through the lesson, they will start making sense.

Note – Don’t miss the Earned Schedule video at the end of this post.

EVM develops and monitors the first three key dimensions (EV, AC and PV) for each work package and control account.

EVM terms to know

• EV – Earned Value. This is the actual value of work performed on any given activity (or WBS component) at any given point in time. This is expressed in terms of approved budget for that activity. Earned value is also referred to as Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP).

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