EXECUTING STAGE (COMMUNICATIONS) : MANAGE COMMUNICATIONS

Manage communications is the process that involves creating, collecting, distributing, storing, retrieving and disposing of the project information according to what has been written in the Communications Management Plan. This process helps to have an effective and efficient communication flow between project stakeholders.

The process can be referred from the following inputs:

• Communications management plan that explains how communication has been planned and structured
• Work performance reports that help to facilitate discussions and therefore create communication
• Enterprise Environmental Factors like organizational culture and structure that show how all levels from the top to bottom are communicated and the mode of communication that is used by them. Another example is Information management system that shows how the project information is communicated to the organization.
• Organizational Process Assets that explain policies, guidelines and procedures regarding communications management as well as lessons learnt from the previous projects

This process can be done by:

• Using communication technology that suits all the stakeholders depending on the nature of the project itself, the urgency of the need, availability and ease use of the technology, as well as the sensitivity of the project information
• Using communication model that has no element of noises nor misinterpretations when exchanging the project information
• Using communication method that creates project information and sends to the receiver who can interpret it and provide feedback to the sender (please refer interactive, pull and push communications)
• Using information management system for managing and distributing the project information through hardcopies documents such as letters, reports and memos; electronic communications documents such as email, fax, telephone, voice mail, video conference, website; as well as software applications such as project management software, virtual office support software, antiviruses software etc
• Using performance reports such as progressive reports that provide the status of the project at that particular moment for the purpose of analyzing them versus the baseline in order to forecast the project results. The reports must be appropriate depending on the type of stakeholders involved.

The output of manage communications process is called project communications depending on the urgency, impact, confidentiality and method of its deliverance. Another outputs are updates from project management plan, project documents like issue log and organizational process assets like project reports, project presentations, feedback from stakeholders, project records, lessons learnt documents

References:

PMI (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide 5^th Ed.) USA, Project Management Institute

https://www.isis-papyrus.com/e15/pages/business-apps/adaptive-case-management/adaptive-content.html
https://projectforsuccess.blogspot.com/2017/11/planning-stage-communications-plan.html