-Anonymous
Effective Communications in Project Management: What do I know? Who needs to know it? And Have I told them.
Prepared For: Research Paper: Communications Skills
Statement of the problem:
How do we insure effective communications in the project management environment?
Background: The purpose of this paper is to recommend that Project Management is a concept that focuses on the dynamic characteristics of a multi-facetted organization. In such a changing situation, effective communication is a characteristic that should be stressed and becomes the most important tool for the project manager and team members.
Discussion
In order to manage in an increasingly dynamic and changing society the business world has ever more turned towards project management, which has been recognized as a way to improve the management system. The Project Managers work through teams, which are dynamic and empowered. Performance is the necessary heart of the team. Managing the veins and arteries of information flow to and from the team as well as with-in the team 's environment becomes just as important. Martino, R.L (1964, p13) reinforces this in his book about project management and control finding the critical path. He describes project management as operating in a "vast sea of data." Throughout PMC 5040 and 5010 we have learned that successful project management must over come obstacles such as:
· Project complexity
· Customer 's special requirements and scope changes
· Organizational restructuring
· Project risks
· Changes in technology
· Forward planning and pricing
In his section on Communications in a project environment, Verma, V.K. (1996, pp15-53) terms these obstacles as, "overlapping responsibilities, frequent changes in scope and constraints, complex integration and interface requirements, decentralized decision-making processes and a potential for conflict all pose
Bibliography: 1. Martino, R.L., 1964, Project Management and Control, Finding the Critical Path Vol 1, New York, NY: American Management Association pp. 13. 2. Verma, V.K., 1996, The Human Aspect of Project Management Vol 2, Human Resource Skills For The Project Manager, Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute, pp 15-53 3. Tushman, M.L., 1979, Managing Communications Networks in R&D Laboratories, Sloan Management Review 20: pp 37-49 4. Massie, J.L., 1979, Essentials of Management, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, pp. 95-97 5. Kerzner, H., 2003, Project Management a Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall pp. 6,10, 227 6. House, C & Price, R, 1991, The Return Map: Tracking Product Teams, Harvard Business Review, Jan/Feb., pp. 92-100 7. Flaherty, J.E., 1999, Shaping the Managerial Mind, San Francisco, Jossey-bass pub, pg 338,343-345)