Chapter 4
Planning for Communications
Objectives of this Chapter:
Understanding the demand of communications
Building an effective communication management plan
Determining which stakeholders need communication
Defining the communications modality
1
The Importance of Communicating Effectively
In software project management you must be able to communicate
with the project team about many important things, including:
Changes in the technology
Nuances of the software being created
Demands being made by the customer
• You and the project team must have a clear understanding about
what the project is creating, the demands of the project
stakeholders, and your expectations about the project deliverables.
• If a communication breakdown occurs, it’ll compound issues, and
no one, especially you, will be happy.
2
Ensuring accurate communication
1. Document your conversations in e-mails, memos, or meeting minutes.
2. Sign where the line is dotted.
Here are some typical things you and the project sponsor or project
customer both need to sign:
• Scope statement
• Scope changes
• Budget
• Schedule
3. Document scope, time, or cost compromises
4. Take minutes
5. Set an agenda
3
How not to communicate
You can’t deny that poor communication includes poor writing.
Here’s what you can do:
Take time to proofread and edit your e-mails before sending
them out to the world.
If you’re not much of a writer, try to keep your missives short
and simple.
Only send e-mail when you absolutely have to or if no other
form of communication will work.
Never put into an e-mail what you wouldn’t say to someone’s
face. Performance evaluations — even compliments — should
always be communicated verbally.
4
How not to communicate
You can’t deny that poor communication includes poor writing.
Here’s what you can do:
Take time to proofread and edit your e-mails before sending
them out to the world.
If you’re not much of a writer, try to keep your missives short
and simple.
Only send e-mail when you absolutely have to or if no other
form of communication will work.
Never put into an e-mail what you wouldn’t say to someone’s
face. Performance evaluations — even compliments — should
always be communicated verbally.
5
Care and Feeding of Nerds
Here’s what you need to realize when it comes to
programmers:
They are smart people
They are creative
They can understand intangible things.
They often communicate in absolutes
They are proud of their work.
They’re often in demand
6
Facing the risks of communication meltdowns
The risk of a communication breakdown is that problems that
could have been easily solved haunt your project.
Here are some risks of miscommunication, in order of
severity, along with possible solutions:
•Problem: Wasted time
•Problem: Wasted money
•Problem: Frustration
•Problem: Lack of confidence
7
Managing communications across the enterprise
Here’s what you can do to avoid the problems we’ve dealt
with:
• Educate end users about the changing software and take
steps to ensure that they understand what’s coming to them
•Maintain proper communication levels
8
Fig 1: Communications typically dip during the project execution
Processes
9
Fig 2: Communications should reflect the project progressions
10
Calculating the Communication Channels
Here’s what you can do to avoid the problems we’ve dealt with:
• Present a professional image of the organization
• Enable photographers to search for filters for their cameras
• Enable customers to place and pay for orders
• Enable customers to upload digital images and to test the effects of the
various filters your client sells
• Enable photographers to create a free photo album displaying their work
• Offer a database of sample photographs for customers to search and
explore based on different conditions such as lighting, subject, and camera type
• Provide an ongoing series of articles about photography, which users can search
by topic
• Keep a database of users for repeat business
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Knowing the six things every communication plan needs
Here are six demands that your communication management
plan makes:
Communication explanation
Purpose
Frequency
Modality
Duration
Responsibility
12
Defining Who Needs What Information
Every organization is broken down into three distinct layers, as Figure 4-4
demonstrates.
Each layer has its own project objectives with various communication needs:
• Executive: Executives set the vision for the organization.
• Functional management: Managers determine the functions, tactics,
and strategies for the entities within the organization.
• Operations: The workers perform activities to support the endeavors of
the organization, satisfying the tactics set up by functional management,
and supporting the vision of the organization, set up by the executives.
13
Defining Who Needs What Information
14
What executives want to hear
Here are some general guidelines for talking with executives:
Keep it simple and quick.
Follow your plan
Be direct
Set up project summary reports as needed
15
What functional managers need to hear
Basically, managers want to know how your project affects
them.
Managers often have their employees on your project team.
They want to know:
When you’ll need their resources to work on your project
How their resources will contribute to your project
How their employees are performing on the project
Whether your project is performing to expectations
16
What your project team needs to hear
Here’s what programmers must hear from you:
What activities are pending
What activities are lagging
What risks are looming
What issues are being resolved
Recognition
17
What you need to hear
Progress
Issues
Risks
Some project team members may feel as if they’re letting you
down if they tell you about pending or new risks they’ve
identified.
Encourage them to share discovered risks so you and the team
can deal with them.
Change orders
Change orders
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Defining When Communication Is Needed
Creating a communication schedule
You will also want to schedule a few other odds and ends in your
calendar:
1. Team member performance reviews
2. Milestone reports
3. Meetings: Because so much of project management centers on
communication, you must schedule lots of meetings:
A. Planning sessions
B. Risk management meetings
C. Procurement management meetings
4. Cash flow forecasting
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Hosting team and stakeholder meetings
Meeting agendas should include the following:
•Purpose of the meeting
• Scheduled start and finish time, as well as the location of the
meeting
• Participants of the meeting
• Items to be discussed in the meeting
• Review of action items
20
Hosting a key stakeholder meeting
Stakeholder meetings usually come in one of five of the
following flavors:
Stakeholder analysis meetings
Scope management meetings
Training sessions
Status reporting
Scope verification meetings
21
Defining Communication Modalities
• Modality is just a fancy way of clarifying the form communication takes.
• Some communication should be paper-based, while other communication should be
electronic.
• On other occasions, a formal, face-to-face presentation is the necessary modality.
1. Modalities for formal communication
A. Presentations
B. Reports
C. Conference/phone calls
D. E-mail
2. Modalities for informal communication
E. E-mail
F. Ad-hoc meetings
G. Instant messaging and text messaging
H. Coffee talk
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THANKS
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