This area of PMP prep podcasts chapter ten focuses mostly on stakeholders and it makes sure that they understand the terms of communication. It is also about project communication management outputs that are going to be exchanged during the course of a project like minutes of the meeting, status updates, report and deliverables. Project managers come up with effective plans so that they can outline the person that is going to receive communication, who to deliver, how the message is going to be delivered and when communication is going to be delivered. All the information has been summarized in a communication plan and it is created at the planning phase.
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There are four important points that should be considered when it comes to preparing a communication plan. Some of the points that should be considered are defining the requirements, defining the audience, creating a good communication schedule and looking for a team member that is responsible in scheduling communication, defining medium of communication and creating the content well.One of the simplest areas when it comes to creating communication plan is defining the audience. In this area what should be done is listening to stakeholders who want information about events of the project. There are so many tools that are be used in communication like internet, fax, phone, email and instant messaging. Besides that, there are different types of techniques that can be used in managing communication. The first technique to use is establishing a good project communication management schedule that plans events daily, so that it keeps clients posted throughout the project. The second technique to use is managing flow of information during the time of the project.
When it comes to looking for team members, a project manager can do this without asking for assistance but the manager must involve executives in communication just to make sure that there is a lot of commitment in the project. Presenting information smoothly is vital especially to stakeholders. This is because they do not take part in the project but they have to know what is happening. During this stage a good medium of communication should be used so that information is delivered appropriately to all stakeholders.
It is the duty of the project manager to prepare content of communication. The project manager should check the content before submitting to stakeholders. What should be mentioned in the content are steps and roles that team members use, purpose of the process and many more. The manger should use a template when preparing the content because it speeds up the final process.
The key in getting a good output is by communicating with team members. It is also a good time of discussing the steps and strategies which should be used. Besides that, stakeholders should be informed of what the manager is doing. There is no need of surprising them. Communication can be used in various forms but make sure that it targets stakeholders, management team and the right audience. When the project comes to an end it is good to issue a memo and give out to all the members of the team and other people who should be told that the project has come to an end. Therefore, it is good to set a good accountability. There is no doubt at all that, turnarounds in PMP prep podcasts are dynamic and it is vital to update information every time so that visibility and control can be maintained.
A good management plan should identify project stakeholders and their needs. This includes the type of communication that is required, level and method of communication. In order to plan a project communication, it is good to use a stakeholder register and stakeholder management strategy. They are created during the process of identifying stakeholders. Some of the techniques and tools that are used during in this process are communication technology, communication models, communication methods and communication requirements. But, the output of the whole process of communication is management plan. There are also other plans that must be updated.