Project Management for Dummies, 2nd UK Edition

Chapter 15

Keeping Everyone Informed

In This Chapter

Identifying the underlying causes of communication problems

Thinking through the communication needs in your project

Establishing the most effective means of communicating

Planning for communications coming into the project, happening within it and going out of it

Communications are a major source of problems in projects, which isn’t very surprising when you think how often people misunderstand each other outside the world of projects. You can minimise the problems, though, with some thought about communications up front. As with so much else in this book, you won’t find this chapter difficult, but it is essential.

There’s a distinct link between clear communications and defined roles and responsibilities, so if you haven’t read Chapter 11 already you might like to have a look at it after you’ve read this one. A lot of communications problems arise because people aren’t clear on what other people are doing; and sometimes they’re not all that sure about what they’re supposed to be doing themselves either. This is the root of many, ...