Project management

After examining the 4 values in the PMI’s code of ethics and professional conduct, I have chosen “Responsibility” to be an essential ethical value for successful communication planning, managing and controlling. Specifically, the PMI defines “Responsibility” as “our duty to take ownership for the decisions we make or fail to make, the actions we take or fail to take, and the consequences of the result”. This means that project managers take ownership of all aspects of the communication process in the project. It’s also their responsibility to devise back up plans to correct potential errors and protect confidential information to be communicated through the execution of the projects. If the project managers (PM) act in ways that the team members feel appropriate and ethical, the more the PM will be trusted. This paper will explain why “responsibility” is the core foundation of successful project communication and how it applies in the 3 domains of the communication plan; planning, managing and controlling.

I. Why “Responsibility”?

As project managers, we spend 90% of our time communicating with the key stakeholders throughout the project life cycle and engage them in critical processes of communication. This is because the execution of projects involves groups of people from different backgrounds, cultures, and areas of expertise. Obviously, these differences could cause chaos and potentially jeopardize the success of projects if not managed properly in a systemic approach. Therefore, having an effective communication plan will help project managers understand the stakeholders in-depth and reduce such complexity. Once the establishment of the plan completes, it’s critical to monitor and control its processes to prevent or detect any potential breakdown during the life span of the project.

a) Communication Planning

The initial communication planning process takes into considerations of the project culture, stakeholders, and technology. The project managers are held responsible and accountable to determine communication requirements, methods, and expectations from the key stakeholders using the 5Ws (What, Who, Why, When, Where). Then the project managers analyze these specifications and do everything they can within their power of authority to satisfy the stakeholders. They must execute what they plan as in sending the right messages to the right people using the right methods in a timely manner. Even though not all project communications start from the project managers, but all the channels go through them at some time. Without effective communication network or structure, the participants involved in the project will definitely sense loss of directions as they don’t know who they should talk or send the information to, how they should send it, where to store and when to send it. As the primary communication coordinators, the PMs always disseminate, distribute, and administer information in the form of phone calls, status reports, project status meetings, change requests, issues and risks lists, call conferences, face-to-face meeting, etc. In the plan, the PM must commit to conducting project communication activities in ways that honor ethical values, meet the best interests of the stakeholders, project goals and objectives, and the organization. Every decision made by the project managers impact everybody in particular and the project in general. Moreover, a good communication plan increases the transparency for the project and entails ground rules regarding expectations for responding to received or sent messages.

b) Communication Management

Based on the definition provided in the lecture, communication management is “the process of creating, collecting, distributing, storing, retrieving, and the ultimate disposition of project information in accordance with the communication management plan”. This simply means that the project leaders are responsible for supervising the information flow and overseeing stakeholders’ engagement to foster positive social-emotional communication in overcoming communication barriers/problems (Keyton et al. 2013). As the project progresses after the planning stage, the project development team proceed to execute core project components to achieve certain milestones or create planned deliverables. To do this, they simply collaborate via telecommunication technology such as online collaborative platforms, videoconference or instant messaging or face-to-face meetings. The collaborative platforms, such as Google Drives, allow team members to share information and knowledge by simple upload into the team database. The project leaders can also gain access to it if they need to. So, the project leaders are expected to make informed decisions based on the resources available to determine the best communication practices (Kerzner, 2014). They make sure that the stakeholders understand the roles of software to utilize accordingly and address any concern regarding informational value.

c) Communication Control

This means that they emphasize the “Why we communicate?” to communicate ethical content with ethical principles. It’s their responsibility to make sure the right information, data and resources are used to create high quality project status reports; the right communication channels/software to be utilized; the right target audience to receive. It’s also the leaders’ role to become arbitrator in conflict/barriers resolution. This process involves many different inputs, such as stakeholders’ requirements, time frame of frequency, status reports, issue log, change requests, etc., that help the project leaders make the best decisions based on the types and information they have from these inputs. If the communication processes aren’t working effectively as planned, it’s the project manager’s responsibility to engage experts in meeting to improve it, to identify communication blockers, or to improve usability and readability of information by using charts, graphs or story boards (Cynthia, 2017).

I have never had any job-related experience in planning, managing and controlling communication besides relevant coursework that involves team collaboration. In this quarter, I was assigned a virtual team for the course “leading and managing remote project”, and my team includes individuals who are physically separated from one another. We rely heavily on telecommunication technology to collaborate and communicate with one another. Our strategy was to create a detailed team charter clarifying communication methods, frequency, and goals and objectives, including leadership roles and responsibilities. Specifically, we schedule weekly meetings on Google Meet to discuss the assignments and assign tasks and responsibilities accordingly. During the meeting, we would clarify the requirements and set expectations on the quality of the work, including the team deadlines. WhatsApp was mainly used for quick messages or urgent issues, and Google Drive was utilized for team database where everyone could access to meeting minutes and assignment drafts and share important information. This is because knowledge sharing is very important and helps us keep track with team progress. Everyone takes ownership of their work and put efforts into creating the highest quality possible. We were also all very proactive in planning, controlling and executing the team assignments which really speed up our collaboration and problem-solving process. Without responsibilities taken from leadership as we rotate every week, it could have jeopardized the team assignment success. If we didn’t create or follow the communication requirements detailed in the team charter, there would be no communication structure or strategy for us to use to do necessary work.

II. Conclusion

As leaders of the projects, they must set an example for the team members to follow and act ethically. They must take responsibility for executing, managing and controlling the communication processes and make sure everyone complies to it. If they see any problem, they must act as quickly as possible to make necessary changes to maintain or enhance communication flow among stakeholders within the project context. Every action that they take or decision that they make has consequences, and they must take full credit for it.

Reference

Kerzner, H. (2014) Project Management 2.0. Somerset : Wiley

Bragantini, D., & Licciardi, M. (2017). STAKEHOLDERS COMMUNICATION APPROACH: A NEW ERA. PM World Journal, VI(VII), 1-10.

Snyder, C. (2018). What You Should Know about Control Communications for the PMP Certification Exam - dummies. Retrieved from http://www.dummies.com/careers/project-management/pmp-certification/what-you-should-know-about-control-communications-for-the-pmp-certification-exam/