Essay Example on Project Management: Effective Communication Strategies

The following report various disciplines under project management, which includes the Need for effective Communication between the project manager and team members, Theoretical perspectives, and examples of the communication process, Analysis, and critique methodologies.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Introduction

Communication is a critical factor in project management. Effective communication strategy to all members of a team must be implemented for a project to become successful. Projects face challenges to the extent of failure due to ineffective communication. Communication is vital when a manager needs that each person in the team is on the same page concerning the targeted outcomes and expectations. Effective communication ensures that all stakeholders for the project support and agree with its continuity as they become sure of frequent updates. Hence Communication involves the exchange of knowledge, feelings, skills, and expression of facts by primarily using words.

Effective Communication thus entails being in touch with each member in the team, having a clear understanding of the issues; hence perfect communication strategy must be implemented at the start of the project to facilitate the achievement of overall goals and objectives of the team.

We need effective structured Communication due to the following reasons.

Giving Information and Ideas

Effective Communication is critical concerning the roles and responsibilities of team members must be relayed by the project manager. Members need detailed information of the project and thus must be communicated by the project manager in time. It's the role of the manager to keep the event members well informed about what is expected from them, their actions and existing budget, and time constraints, and this can only be achieved through effective communication.

Receiving Information

For one to receive information, Communication must take place. Circumstances arise when stakeholders need information about the sports event, and thus effective communication between the project manager and the stakeholders must be ensured to avoid misunderstandings. To provide relevant information is relayed to relevant stakeholders, the manager must access adequate information about the event that entails the needs, plans, constraints involved, and the progress.

Diversity

Communication involves interaction hence goes beyond speaking and listening to people. Effective Communication must be enhanced due to the language gap that exists between the team members.

Discussion of Critical Problems

Various challenges accompany projects, and sometimes it needs effective Communication in the form of graphs and charts to pass information to the team members.

Flexibility in Changing Circumstances

Projects are risks, and the project manager needs to be adequately prepared to encounter the challenges. A communication plan is necessary to ensure that in the event of a threat, information is relayed efficiently to the team members (Wright, 2016, p 633). The manager must identify the person to communicate, a period of Communication, and the needs to be tackled; hence effective Communication is achieved.

Communication process structure can be well understood through theoretical perspectives which include

Five Level Communication Model

Lasswell developed the five-level useful communication model, and the levels include the source of Communication, the message to be communicated, the medium, the audience, and the desired result. The model was modified and referred to Five Ws, and it's significant as it tries to manage change.

Who Should Receive the Message? Every person who needs to receive messages in the project manager must be well informed. For instance, the project manager must ensure that every individual has received information about the project. Each person should be involved by widely sharing the information and ensuring that necessary barriers are curbed.

When Communication should take place? Time factor must be considered for effective Communication to take place between the team members. For instance, a set meeting may be conducted for the team members to avoid misunderstandings, and in case relevant stakeholders must be involved. Communication must be made to the team members to ensure the creation of awareness.

What message should the team members tell? A factual and clear message should be relayed concerning the project matter. The project manager must ensure that relevant information is provided to the team members.

Where should the message be communicated? The best medium should be chosen to ensure that each team member receives information in the appropriate time. This may include meetings as well as the press.

Who should be in charge of the Communication Process? Relevant people must be identified to present the information properly.

Use of language is very significant as it influences if people understood the message. For example, the project manager may decide to use intonation and clarity to express some messages for the team members. Also, the behavior element is crucial; for instance, when holding meetings, it important to use body signals like a smiling face and pointing fingers. Our project must be structured in the above way to ensure team working is achieved.

Project management methodology involves the systematic manner in which projects are controlled; thus, different projects apply different methodologies depending on the suitability factor. They include Agile, Waterfall and PRINCE2 methodologies (Wojciech Macek, 2016)

Agile Methodology

Agile is a manner in which project can be broken down into different stages with stakeholders involvement hence improvement is enhanced after every stage. Agile Methodology is accompanied by principles that must be complied with, like; changing the environment at any stage, collaboration with relevant stakeholders, face to face meetings, and simplicity. Agile Methodology ensures flexibility, transparency productivity due to the short stages and continuous improvement and collaboration (Rasnacis and Berzisa, 2015). As well, it cost-effective through the minimization of resources. Nevertheless, agile has a weakness in such a way that it requires team members to make clear decisions. It's relevant to the theory of effective Communication in such a way that during collaboration with relevant stakeholder's clear information must be provided to them at each stage of the project. Also, team members must ensure that they are clear in their decisions, and it's through effective Communication that they will portray that they have understood the entire message given to them.

PRINCE2 Methodology

Projects in a Controlled Environment entails division of a project into many stages and implementing plans on how to implement the project in each stage, and it seems time-consuming. It involves documentation in each stage to help in information tracking. PRINCE 2 methodologies are flexible and focus on output through improvement by identifying mistakes in the previous stage. It's costly as it requires a huge volume of documents to be maintained. Also, the Methodology tends to be inflexible due to compulsory requirements that must be done like documentation.

Waterfall Methodology

Refers to a process whereby steps are followed in project completion. Iteration is not allowed; hence once a mistake has been made, it cannot be improved; consequently do not accommodate frequent changes. Planning is a critical factor in this Methodology since a sequence of activities happens each at a time. The major weakness is that plan is challenging as one is not sure of the specific time required in some projects to come to completion, especially the software development project. The Methodology is advantageous in the sense that the members are aware in advance that they must work. Also, it's easy to understand as the project is divided into phases. Waterfall methodology does not create room for corrections; hence once an error is committed, then the project may come to a standstill. Based on the characteristics of the event project, Agile Methodology is the best to be implemented as compared to PRINCE2 and Waterfall methodologies. With agile Methodology, it will ensure flexibility in the event in case of unusual circumstances hence easy to adapt to change. Also, Agile does not require colossal documentation, and this means that it's efficient for the team members as they will focus on significant issues and exercises.

Conclusion

The effective communication process is critical in any project management case. It ensures that overall objectives and goals are met as per the requirements. Need for effective Communication is essential due to the discussion of critical issues of the project, changing circumstances of the project, receiving and giving information. Various methodologies are applied in project management like the Agile Methodology, Waterfall, and PRINCE2 Methodology. Nevertheless, Perfect Methodology must be identified in connection with the needs of the project to ensure the Methodology accommodates all the needs of the project. It should fit the needs and requirements of the project; thus, the project manager needs to be keen on the identification of the most suitable Methodology. The Methodology must make sense to the team members, the sponsor, and the project to accommodate all stakeholders.

References

Resnais, A. and Berzisa, S., 2015. Adaptation of Agile Project Management Methodology for Project Team. Information Technology and Management Science, 18(1).

Wojciech Macek, W., 2016. Methodologies of Project Management. Contemporary Economics, 4(4).

Wright, J., 2016. Effective Project Management. International Journal of Project Management, 20(8), p.633.