Best Practices in Project Communications
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This document provides best practices for communicating on a complex international project team. It summarizes that the team consists of 28 people from four companies across three continents speaking three languages. It then provides recommendations for: assessing team members' communication preferences; establishing a calendar and weekly calls; creating a team communication charter; providing centralized access to documents; requiring documents be shared 24 hours before meetings; and pursuing one-on-one meetings to understand challenges. The document emphasizes that effective communication requires planning and constant interaction.
Best Practices in Project Communications
- 1. You’ve just been tasked to lead a project team made up of executives, engineers and operations staff from four companies based on three continents. Now what?
- 2. Best Practices in Project Communications Some background . . . Your German-based equipment company and its technology partner just won a big order in China. It requires custom engineering and manufacturing. To make an on-time delivery you’ll need support from your US engineering office, your Chinese field service provider and the customer’s staff. It’s not that complicated, is it? Alphecca Management Resources 2
- 3. Equipment Supplier 2 executives 3 engineers 2 factory managers 2 software engineers 1 process engineer 1 service engineer 1 account manager Best Practices in Project Communications Meet your project team. Locale Technology Provider 1 executive 2 engineers 1 account manager 2 software engineers 1 process engineer 1 process engineer 1 account manager Service Provider 1 executive 2 engineers 1 account manager 2 software engineers 1 process engineer 1 service manager 1 service engineer 1 process engineer Customer 1 executive 2 engineers 1 account manager 2 1 executive 1 engineering manager 2 executives 2 factory managers 2 process engineers Alphecca Management Resources 3
- 4. Equipment Supplier 2 executives 3 engineers 2 operations mgrs 2 software engs. 1 process engr. 1 field service engr. 1 account mgr. Best Practices in Project Communications Here’s a real-world, high profile project team – look familiar? Technology Provider 1 executive 2 engineers 1 account mgr. 2 1 process eng. Service Provider 1 executives engineers 1 account mgr. 2 1 service mgr. 1 service eng. 1 process eng. Customer 1 executives engineers 1 account mgr. 1 executive 1 eng. mgr 2 executives. 2 operations mgrs. 2 process engs. In summary, 28 people, consisting of executives, engineers, sales and manufacturing people from four companies located on three continents. They speak three official languages in their work locales, but there are also team members from France, the Philippines and Taiwan. Oh yes, and your boss has agreed that the customer will be an active participant in all project meetings. Alphecca Management Resources 4
- 5. Best Practices in Project Communications Think a weekly email will keep this team informed and on track? The executive sponsor gets 200 emails a day. The key software engineer in the US hates meetings. The factory manager wants a daily work breakdown. The customer’s executive sponsor never answers e-mail. The customer’s factory team doesn’t speak German. The field service provider won’t staff the project team for 12 weeks. The customer’s factory sponsor wants to meet with the project manager every month. The technology provider’s account manager can’t stop talking. The key process engineer is painfully shy. Alphecca Management Resources 5
- 6. Best Practices in Project Communications Differing personal communications styles. Differing requirements for project detail. Language differences. Cultural differences. A recent survey of unsuccessful projects1 cites poor communications as the primary reason for failure in 30% of cases. WHY? Personality differences. Team communications overload. No team communications plan. Alphecca Management Resources 6 1 See page 16.
- 7. Best Practices in Project Communications Think you’re smart enough to make it up as you go along? Alphecca Management Resources Or do you want to make 100% certain that your project doesn’t become a statistic? 7
- 8. Alphecca Management Resources Assess the Audience Best Practices in Project Communications Establish a Calendar Weekly Calls Team Communication Charter Project Document Access Project Document Availability One‐on‐Face Time Talk one-on-one with project team contributors, stakeholders and sponsors about their communications preferences. (Executive sponsors and stakeholders may have specific requirements – such as phone calls or review meetings – that fall outside of normal team communications.) While everyone’s preferences can’t be completely satisfied, knowing them can help craft an effective communications effort. 8
- 9. Alphecca Management Resources Assess the Audience Best Practices in Project Communications Establish a Calendar Weekly Calls Team Communication Charter Project Document Access Project Document Availability One‐on‐Face Time As part of preliminary project planning, lay out a comprehensive schedule for meetings, conference calls, one-on-one phone calls, site visits & weekly progress reports. Incorporate this into the master project timeline. While subject to revision, this step embeds the project’s communication requirements into the teams’ personal schedules. 9
- 10. Best Practices in Project Communications Alphecca Management Resources Best Practices in Project Communications Weekly Calls Team Communication Charter Project Document Access Project Document Availability One‐on‐Face Time Weekly conference calls with primary contributors maintain urgency while limiting the need for face-to-face meetings. Use these calls to resolve items on the issues & change logs, update progress, and provide input for a weekly report. Schedule calls at a fixed time. Use video and webex as needed. If there are overseas team members, rotate the meeting time to “share the pain” of after-hours calls. 10 Assess the Audience Establish a Calendar
- 11. Best Practices in Project Communications Alphecca Management Resources Best Practices in Project Communications Team Communication Charter Project Document Access Project Document Availability One‐on‐Face Time Work with the team to establish a Team Communications Charter. Why? A project team that only communicates during team meetings and calls is certain to fail.. A communications charter encourages team members to interact outside of meetings, requires attendance at scheduled activities, sets a common language, and outlines how documents should be posted and communicated. Include measures to assure spoken communications are accurately translated. Reference the charter if member communications falter. 11 Weekly Calls Assess the Audience Establish a Calendar
- 12. Best Practices in Project Communications Alphecca Management Resources Best Practices in Project Communications Project Document Access Project Document Availability One‐on‐Face Time Ever been on a team where members can’t seem to keep track of important documents? Set up a central file for key project documents that can be accessed by all team members. Post the project charter, project plan, product specifications, communications charter, issue log, change log, progress reports, working papers, etc. A dedicated, secure Sharepoint Project site is one approach. 12 Team Communication Charter Weekly Calls Assess the Audience Establish a Calendar
- 13. Best Practices in Project Communications Alphecca Management Resources Best Practices in Project Communications Project Document Availability One‐on‐Face Time Here’s another characteristic of ineffective project teams: Meetings at which the key documents are delivered just before (or even during!) the meeting. The result is at best unproductive, and at worse ineffective. If a document or report needs to be reviewed during a meeting, require the authors to push it to team members 24 hours in advance via urgent email. “What do you mean no one’s read the preliminary specification? I just sent it! Check your in‐boxes!” 13 Project Document Access Team Communication Charter Weekly Calls Assess the Audience Establish a Calendar
- 14. Best Practices in Project Communications Alphecca Management Resources Best Practices in Project Communications One‐on‐One Face Time Pursue unstructured, one-on-one face time with contributors, stakeholders and sponsors. Ask for their views about the project plan, progress, and project management. Time spent with individuals is best way to understand the challenges facing the project and the path forward. Overseas meetings cost time and money, but the alternative is to be in the dark about issues critical to project success. 14 Project Document Availability Project Document Access Team Communication Charter Weekly Calls Assess the Audience Establish a Calendar
- 15. Best Practices in Project Communications Alphecca Management Resources Assess the Audience Best Practices in Project Communications Establish a Calendar Weekly Calls Team Communication Charter Project Document Access Project Document Availability One‐on‐One Face Time 15 Good project communications does not just happen. It’s the result of planning, discipline, and above all constant interactions with the contributors, stakeholders and sponsors that make up every project team. The outcomes – effective, productive teams that deliver on specification, on time, and on budget.
- 16. Best Practices in Project Communications Alphecca Management Resources Best Practices in Project Communications References and Resources Page 6 of this presentation references statistics on project success and failures from the Project Management Institutes’ 2015 Pulse of the Profession report: http://www.pmi.org/~/media/PDF/learning/pulse‐of‐the‐profession‐2015.ashx For information on how to set up a Sharepoint site for project management: http://www.slideshare.net/gzelfond/utilizing‐sharepoint‐for‐project‐management‐20042391 For more information on Alphecca Management resources, go to: www.aphecca‐management.com 16