Communication Plan for Project Management - Literature review Example

PRОJЕСT MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT Name Course Professor Institution Date Prоjесt Management Assignment A project can be defined as an activity taken to come up with a unique product or result. All projects are temporary in nature in that they have a start and an end (Lester 2013, p.4). This means that the resources and the scope of any project are defined. Project management involves applying skills, knowledge and tools to the different activities that encompass a project with the main aim of meeting the goals and objectives of the said project (Kerzner 2009, p.12). Some of the processes involved in project management include planning, executing as well as monitoring and control. The extent and intensity of the project management activities depend on the scope of the said project. Since the whole process of managing a project involves many individuals, effective communication is important to its success. Communication Plan for Project Management A communication plan is crucial because it guides the way a project is managed. The way people communicate in a project makes it a success or failure. During the planning phase, there is often the need to create a high-level communication management plan that will define the general communication needs for the project (Larson & Gray, 2011, p. 24). The plan should clearly state the purposes well as the approach and communication objectives and goals. Moreover, it is important to consider that the communication plan needs to define the communication methods and tools that will be used during the project process. It is also very helpful to include any particular standard or requirements that control the project, if applicable. Although there are various standard items that should be included in the project communication plan, it is critical to spend sufficient time collecting input from the stakeholder groups. This is to make sure that the plan is comprehensive enough. Additionally, it is vital to note that the alterations may need to be made to the plan as the project commences and moves forward (Larson & Gray, 2011, p. 24). Under the purpose and approach section of the communication plan, it is prudent to include a high-level description plan and how to implement the plan of the project. This should be just a summary that will capture the essence of what has been detailed in the project (Meredith & Mantel, 2011, p. 303). The plan should also define what the plan should achieve. This may include various things depending on what the project will attain (Meredith & Mantel, 2011, p. 303). In general terms, these should be the things that focus on updating and educating any person impacted by the project. Similarly, communication is not expected to come from only one person in the course of the project. Therefore, it is sensible to define the roles as well as their corresponding communication responsibility so as to avoid conflicts. The preferred methods and tools should be those that people in the project will have the best chance to understand what others are communicating (Kerzner, 2013, p. 425). There are a lot of theories that can improve the management skill of a person when it comes to the management of a project (Forsberg, Mooz & Cotterman, 2005, p. 57). One of such theories includes the diffusion theory which focuses on human habits. The project managers must keep this theory in mind during the communication planning stage because sudden changes are likely to happen that can disorient some of the team members. Therefore, there is the need to make plans to avoid the occurrence of disorientation among the team. When one is aware of the diffusion theory, it is possible to come up with ways to make transitions efficiently for most of the members if not all (Ceschi et al., 2005, p. 201). Another theory is what can be referred as Groupthink that emphasizes that so as to attain a maximum outcome, a team need to have one mind. The group member under the same project has the similar goals, and there must be unity in their communication proves as well as decision-making (Gido & Clements, 2014, p.876). The last is the Communication Accommodation Theory, which argues that a person adapts to those they are communicating with. When a person communicates and interacts with others, they try to accommodate others through changing speech patterns, gestures, language, and body. Therefore, it is the duty of project team member to communicate with others (Pickton & Broderick, 2001, p. 431). Risk Management Risk management, by definition, refers to the process of identifying, responding and analysing risk factors throughout the life of the project (Koskela & Howell, 2002, p. 294). This is often in the best interests of the objective. A proper management of risk implies control of possible future events (Cleland & Ireland, 1999, p. 209). The risk management system must be designed in a way that it does more than just identifying the risk. The system should be able to qualify the risk as well as predict the impact of the project (Söderlund, 2004, p. 183). The result is thus a risk that is either unacceptable or acceptable. The process of managing the risk starts with an idea that comes from identifying all the possible risks that can jeopardize the success of the project (Turner, 2014, p. 67). The team members must choose the risk possibilities that more likely to occur. As the project commences, there is usually more at risk than when the project closes. A risk management needs to be conducted early in the project lifecycle as well as an on-going basis (Burke, 2013, p. 484). A critical point to keep at the back of the mind is that risk management is a continuous process that should not only be done at the beginning of the project, but also constantly throughout the life of the project (Kerzner, 2013, p. 20). There are several ways in which individuals can respond to the risks, including avoidance; this is where specific threats are usually eliminated by avoiding the cause (Teller, Kock & Gemünden, 2014, p. 191). Another way is through mitigation; reducing the expected monetary value of a risk event through the reduction of the possibility of occurrence. Acceptance is another approach where the team accepts the consequence of the risk (Kerzner, 2013, p. 20). This is commonly achieved through the developing a contingency plan to execute in the case that the risk event happens (Teller, Kock & Gemünden, 2014, p. 191). How to undertake risk management is by first looking at the various possible risks. There are numerous sources of risks such as project management, the external risk that can be said to be unpredictable or predictable, technical and legal. Once the risks have been determined, then risk analysis process begins. The analysis encompasses assessing the risk, developing responses and contingency plan. There are various theories of risk. There are several theories of risk management for project management (Teller, Kock & Gemünden, 2014, p. 191). The agency theory looks at other aspects of the firm, including separation of ownership, managerial motivation as well as control. Additionally, the theory gives an explanation of the interest disequilibrium between debt holders, shareholders as well as the firm’s management (Edwards & Bowen, 2013, 504). This disequilibrium can result in increased business risk which in turn may negatively affect the net value of a project. In addition, this theory suggests that elaborate hedging strategies can trigger vital influence on the value of the firm (Edwards & Bowen, 2013, 504). Another theory of risk management for project management is the stakeholder theory. It mostly focuses on equal stakeholder’s interests as key corporate policy’s determinant (Rowe, 2015, p. 657). Stakeholder’s theory provides a new insight into the potential foundation for management of risk (Edwards and Bowen, 2013, 504). Nevertheless, it provides only indirect evidence since it has not been directly tested. Various strategies are used to manage the budget in project management. To begin with, the continuous forecasting of the budget is the main strategy because if a project is operated without frequent budget management and forecasting, it is likely to fail (Letts, Mackay & Casey, 2014, p. 561). The constant budget review will ensure that the budget does not get out of control. Manage Budget in Project Management Just like continuously forecasting on the budget, regularly focusing on resource usage need one to revisit the budget to keep it on track, the same should be done with regard to human resource utilization because the individuals taking part in a project are among the things that contribute to its cost (Kendrick, 2015, p. 611). This will ensure full utilization of the resources and right resources for the rest of the project (Kendrick, 2015, p. 611). In addition, to the above budget management concepts, it is critical to keep the team informed. An informed team is one that is usually empowered (Patanakul & Shenhar, 2012, p. 13). Through keeping the individuals informed about the budget status, there is more likelihood of them keeping in check the costs of their project, coupled with far less likelihood to charge more for extra hours to the project. Lastly, managing scope meticulously is a strategy used to manage the budget in project management. One of the primary causes of overruns is scope creep (Alexander, 2013, p. 108). Project managers are required to consider the effect of scope creep by coming up with change orders for items not included in the initial project budget carefully (Gido & Clements, 2014, p. 649). Additional project funding is approved by change orders to cover the extra work fee, hence allows for the budget to be kept in check (Reiss, 2013, p. 577). The theory of budget for project management is of two kinds: descriptive, and, normative. The normative theory may be based on a greatly narrower range of observations compared to descriptive theory, and it got proposed solutions that that may be based on values rather than observations (Hwang & Tan, 2012, p. 335). References List Alexander, K., 2013. Facilities management: theory and practice. Routledge. Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA. Ceschi, M., Sillitti, A., Succi, G. and Panfilis, S.D., 2005. Project management in plan-based and agile companies. Software, IEEE, 22(3), pp.21-27. Cleland, D.I. and Ireland, L.R., 1999. Project management: strategic design and implementation (Vol. 4). Singapore: McGraw-Hill. Edwards, P. and Bowen, P., 2013. Risk management in project organisations. Routledge. Forsberg, K., Mooz, H. and Cotterman, H., 2005. Visualizing project management: models and frameworks for mastering complex systems. John Wiley & Sons. Gido, J. and Clements, J., 2014. Successful project management. Cengage Learning. Heagney, J., 2012. Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Hwang, B.G. and Tan, J.S., 2012. Green building project management: obstacles and solutions for sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 20(5), pp.335-349. Kendrick, T., 2015. Identifying and managing project risk: essential tools for failure-proofing your project. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Kerzner, H. (2009). Project management. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. Kerzner, H.R., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons. Koskela, L.J., and Howell, G., 2002. The underlying theory of project management is obsolete. In Proceedings of the PMI Research Conference (pp. 293-302). PMI. Larson, E.W., and Gray, C.F., 2011. Project Management: The managerial process. Lester, A. (2013). Project management, planning, and control. 4th ed. New York: Butterworth-Heinemann. Letts, P., Mackay, C. and Casey, E., 2014. Guide to project delivery part 2: planning and control (No. AGPD02/14). Meredith, J.R. and Mantel Jr, S.J., 2011. Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons. Patanakul, P. and Shenhar, A.J., 2012. What project strategy really is: The fundamental building block in strategic project management. Project Management Journal, 43(1), pp.4-20. Pickton, D. and Broderick, A., 2001. Integrated marketing communications. Financial Times Prentice Hall. Reiss, G., 2013. Project management demystified: Today's tools and techniques. Routledge. Rowe, S.F., 2015. Project management for small projects. Management Concepts Inc. Söderlund, J., 2004. Building theories of project management: past research, questions for the future. International journal of project management, 22(3), pp.183-191. Teller, J., Kock, A. and Gemünden, H.G., 2014. Risk management in project portfolios is more than managing project risks: a contingency perspective on risk management. Project Management Journal, 45(4), pp.67-80. Turner, J.R., 2014. The handbook of project-based management (Vol. 92). McGraw-hill. Read More

 

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