Effective communication is central to successful project management. It helps align stakeholders, coordinate project teams, manage expectations, and support informed decisions throughout project delivery. Drawing on professional experience, this article examines four key roles of communication and explains how they contribute to successful project delivery.
Communication skills in project management literature
Communication skills ae central to the success not only a project manager but all the team running a project in practice. Surely, the project manager spends most of his time in the project he runs in the site in communication. Doing so with consultant, contractor, subcontractor, and his site team. Thus, good communicators and communication skills create a bridge between all stakeholders in the project. From these skills a face-to-face communication transfer important info, expertise, perspectives, and interests in the outcomes planned in the project. Being tolerant in daily work in the project represent a criterion of success. We can find several sets of criteria of success in site work and strong communication in CM literature. Here by in the next paragraph, I am presenting a project manager experience for managing communication that include:
- Identifying stakeholders: the activity of specifying people and organizations involved in the project. Documenting their impact and interest and role in the project success.
- Plan communications: the process of defining and documenting what needs to be communicated throughout the project life-cycle.
- Distributing information: the process of defining the means or tools of communication and transport of information, like emails, face-to-face, and meetings.
- Managing stakeholder’s expectations: the process of communicating stakeholder’s needs and addressing project issues as they occur.
- Report performance: the process of collecting and distributing performance information of the involved stakeholders including status reports, progress measurements, and forecasts.
Project management communication and transferring information are executed at various levels. At the external level employees communicate information to support the decision-making process. For example, a planning engineer transforms data about preparing a project payment or installment to the project manager. The project manager will discuss the information with the firm to send the official letter to owner to release payment. The internal level represents the project level itself where employees transfer information top down (from PM to team) and bottom up (team to PM) to help move the project activities forward as per plan. While at formal level employes transfer information through reports, memos, and briefing. While informal transferred information is through emails and internal discussions. Official information transferred is for company publications and annual reports.
It is essential for professionals in communicating information to understand two factors. When the transferred information is needed to support an internal project activity. And when the information is required for transfer to support a decision-making process.
The three main communication skills
Communication skills comprise three main skills. Informing includes various tasks such as how to execute a task, whether it is on site or preparing a document. Revealing a miss understanding from a situation through answering question or explaining an idea. Finding evidence to support communicated information. Persuading is encouraging others to take action or decide. Informative communication is less persuading than persuasive communication to take action. For example, project manager asks the project accounting manager to prepare a persuasive letter or email to the project consultant to approve a payment for the owner to release it. A project manager might send an email to a subcontractor to accept subcontract bid price reduction.
Instructing comes from top-down direction to lower-level management. Instruction could come from project manager to lower manager’s levels to proceed to conduct an activity. Whether it is related to documentation work or on-site work. This communication skill is necessary for a team member responsible for several activities in site or in office work. For example, preparing construction drawings or detailing drawings. A project member (normally a PM) practices these three skills in his daily work in a project. And he must have several personal characteristics to support him in his work of effective communication. He must be an effective and active listener. Negotiation serves as another key characteristic for effective communication that supports reaching a mutually acceptable agreement between project stakeholders. Problem solving also plays a crucial role in resolving conflicts to prevent disruptive impacts.
The three criteria required for successful project management
Success in any project management requires knowledge, expertise, and authority. These components cannot make a team member or a PM move forward to project success without strong communication skills. Communication uses knowledge to support a project activity. If insufficient knowledge is communicated effectively to conduct a task, there is still a possibility to meet and discuss the knowledge required for the task. Through meetings and discussion within the team, a support could come to execute this task as per project plan. At the same time, expertise is like knowledge in the process of developing it. Surely, through meetings and discussion to do a task, but when effective communication is present.
Authority is a critical requirement to achieve success when all people in the project organization chart know their authority level. Knowing the proper direction of information to communicate and to which authority level is the success itself in any project. Any team member for a project to reach its planned goals should possess high level communication skills.
The 4 critical roles of communication in project management
My experience in project management revealed many factors and critical roles of communications leading to the project management success. In 2009, I worked on a school project construction for 1000 high school students in the Middle East. The project was a design build project where my company’s responsibility is to design and construct the project. As a project manager, I had to deal with various matters in the project lifetime such as the high-water table, and changing the floors slabs to hollow core slabs during construction. Another project I worked on as Design manger/project coordinator in 2014 was a district cooling plant for a major airport project also in the Middle East. The project witnessed various problems such as the soil cavities, pile casting problems, and construction time limitations. It included two big thermal energy storage tanks, main compressors building, and cooling towers areas.
Targeted and planned completion time of this project is 7 months from building permit issue. Adding to these projects many other projects heading a supervision small team like shopping center, residential multi-story buildings. Also, office multi-story buildings, and three urban development projects. What revealed from my experience in the project management filed in these projects and long experience in construction for the critical role of communication in project management is:
Understanding project documents & design: communicating project documents data and drawings information for the project management is the key critical role. Main project contract defines the contractor’s main activities and responsibilities. The contractor construction relationship with the various involved parties such as the subcontractors, sub consultants, material suppliers, and labor and other services suppliers. From that, a project management team member goes through in detail the mentioned earlier involved parties’ contracts with the main contractor and their planned activities. Then he should study the project management plan to understand the project activities and their timeline.
Here the professional in the team in his study gets the clear understanding of the related to his work data and information and its flow not only between the involved parties but to the project manager. Project team and project manager are going to construct a project by using the project documents and construction drawings. The project design includes many disciplines: architectural, structural, civil, mechanical, electrical, infrastructure, surveying, and related fields as well as administration department. Every professional must study and understand his relevant field construction and detail drawings. The materials used in constructing his related work and to cross reference the project management activities to the project management plan, contracts, and documents. For example, a project includes a VRF cooling system for installation. A mechanical engineer must understand the design and drawings if it requires reassessment or design work.
He should have full knowledge on how the system is going to be installed indoor units, outdoor units, piping system, fresh air related system. The main contract clauses related to this work and its relation to the subcontractor’s work. The mechanical engineer to understand the project plan in terms of when every part of the design he must install. Also, when the materials are going to be delivered and where to be stored. In addition to the required testing and site checking to be conducted throughout the project timeline. Good communicators know when to do effective communication, whether face to face or in a project meeting to deliver accurate information for project management success. This critical role defines how integrate human, knowledge, information, data and to understand how to communicate them.
Understanding your role and other intervening roles: misconception always is present between all professionals in the project management team about the specific definition of role vs. responsibilities. This mix leads to work clashes and failures in completing a task as planned. Every person wants to join a work team before applying for a job is supplied by job description, including his role, responsibilities, and skills required. Surely that is specified by the human resource department. A role is the function assigned by the HR department for a certain job. For example, civil engineer, project architect, quality control inspector and so on. These functions in practice cannot be negotiated. Responsibilities are the specific duties and work for a project activity expected to be completed as planned. Here, they are negotiable before taking a job. The role in project management is about the position of decision-making allowance.
Knowing your role means studying all activities under that position and which of these is under your decision-making allowance (authority). Defining a role means allowing the employee the capacity to accept submittals and work in site, reject work and submittals, and instruct and influence other to carry out work in site. He should go through the organization chart of any project and company to get thorough knowledge about other’s roles in the project and company. That is essential because many positions share the same responsibilities in project management work. For example, a civil engineer and a project architect role include supervising team, inspection, approving submittals, instructing to carry out work. So, the two roles intersect in many supervision areas and submittals work.
Civil engineer inspects a foundation layout projected on site as per the structural drawings and the project architect inspects the accuracy of these projections to the architectural plan of that specific floor. A civil engineer approves a shop drawing of this foundation layout, but that approval is noncomplete. The project architect to check its compliance with the architectural plan. A civil engineer approves concrete site work after casting and that also is subject to the project architect approval to identify whether any defects might influence the finishing work and its supporting secondary structure. When two roles are intervening, communication must be conducted within the limitation of the role and responsibilities accurately to complete a task as per project plan, using an effective communication tool and method.
Understanding decision-making process and required action: A project includes many and complex activities due to the many fields involved in the project management. Every activity comprises several tasks to complete it. Deciding when to start, assigning team members to accomplish the work, defining work required outcomes, checking procedure, and approval process. A professional in the project management team must, as revealed earlier study the project management plan. Prepare a checklist of his assigned activities. He must define when his activities start and expected deliverables. All tasks require communicating information and data. But the team member must define what required action to take within the activity process in terms of communication. Some activities require preparing a site report to the higher management written or verbal.
Others require conducting a test in handing over a task and what to communicate to higher management or other team members or communicating certain information about a task either verbal or by email for others within the decision-making process. Effective communication within any activity in the project management helps team members execute high-quality work, achieve project milestones, reduce risk, and reduce project management cost. For example, an owner informed by a telephone call while heading a school construction project that he wants to reduce construction time to catch up earlier with school opening schedule. He decided to change all slabs to hollow core slabs from cast situ. I had to communicate with my company manger about the decision by phone and asked him if we can call for internal meeting for all concerned engineers to study and decide on several things.
How much time drop this change will drop makes, effect on construction cost, effect on constructed services underground and over ground, can the hollow core company achieve our project timetable when preparing the concrete members, how much time our company need to prepare the structural design and detailing, and time required for authority approval.
To Know team member’s psychology and behavior: Working in the Middle East (UAE) makes an employee observe many mindsets and behaviors. In this manner he works within a country that have 200 races. Surely its effect is positive and negative on the ongoing project management and communication. That’s so rely on the person culture, inherited manners, mind reason. Furthermore, humanity in helping others to achieve their position and career goals. PM activities include many levels of complexity thus an employee to be sensible in passing info and data. He must be less hostile within team members, understand and support others in their work. In addition to encourage and reward others spiritually. And finally, selecting the most effective time and location to communicate information with other team members.
you can refer to my book that discuss experience in design and construction and its influence in successful career, click here.