The Path to the PMP (Part 10)

Following 20 years at a large Canadian telecommunications firm, Bruce established the project management consulting firm Solutions Management Inc (SMI). Since 1999, he has provided contract project/program management services, been a source for project management support personnel and created/delivered courses to over 7,000 participants in Canada, the United States and England.

  Communications Management   Using PMI Standards  

One of the exercises I like to do in an introductory project management workshop is ask participants for their input on reasons past projects have not gone well. The list varies and can include missed requirements, lack of skilled team members and poor risk management. Another cause that often garners a lot of votes relates to poor communications.

When I ask why something as simple as communications management could be a problem, the feedback usually includes “It’s easy!”, “We communicate every day!” and “Why do we need to bother?” It takes a few moments for the lesson to sink in; unmanaged communications is easy to correct but often goes unaddressed, which leads to...well...unmanaged communications!

Returning to the exercise theme I’ve used in this series, communications planning can be likened to doing simple things like warming up, taking safety precautions or running in safe areas. It seems so obvious to take the precautions, yet unfortunate injuries happen every day when short cuts are used.

When preparing for the PMP exam, it’s important to take the Project Communications Management knowledge area as seriously as every other chapter in the PMBOK 4^th edition. Recently, I received feedback from an individual I had been coaching stating that he realized on the night before the exam that he hadn’t …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.