Best Practices in Project Communications

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?

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

EquipmentSupplier

2 executives3 engineers

2 factory managers

2 software engineers1 process engineer

1 service engineer1 account manager


Meet your project team.

LocaleTechnology

Provider

1 executive2 engineers

1 account manager


1 process engineer1 account manager

ServiceProvider


1 account manager


1 service manager1 service engineer1 process engineer

Customer


1 account manager

2 1 executive1 engineering

manager

2 executives2 factory managers2 process engineers


3

EquipmentSupplier

2 executives3 engineers

2 operations mgrs

2 software engs.1 process engr.

1 field service engr.1 account mgr.


Here’s a real-world, high profile project team – look familiar?

Technology Provider


1 account mgr.

2

1 process eng.

Service Provider

1 executivesengineers

1 account mgr.

2

1 service mgr.1 service eng.1 process eng.

Customer

1 executivesengineers

1 account mgr.

1 executive1 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.


4


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 wantsa 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.


5


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.


6

1 See page 16.


Think you’re smart enough to make it up as you go along?


Or do you want to make 100% certainthat your project doesn’t become a statistic?

7


Assess the Audience


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


Assess the Audience



Weekly Calls





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




Weekly Calls





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









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.

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Weekly Calls

Assess the Audience








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.

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Weekly Calls

Assess the Audience







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!”

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Weekly Calls

Assess the Audience





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.

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Weekly Calls

Assess the Audience




Assess the Audience



Weekly Calls




One‐on‐One Face Time

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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.




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 sitefor 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

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Date post:	15-Apr-2017
Category:	Leadership & Management
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Best Practices in Project Communications

Leadership & Management