Importance of Effective Communication in Project Management

This report discusses the importance of effective communication in project management and its impact on project success. It explores the objectives, barriers, and consequences of poor communication. The report also discusses the structure of effective communication and compares different methodologies used in project management. References are provided for further reading.

Project Management

Table of Contents
Introduction-................................................................................................................................................3
Importance of Effective communication-....................................................................................................3
Methodologies-............................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion-.................................................................................................................................................7
References-..................................................................................................................................................7

Introduction-
Effective communication plays a vital role in project management. Success rate of project
depends upon the effective communication between project manager and team members. If
information is provided in right format, at the right time, to the team members then chances of
project to be successful is increased.
The main aim of this project report is to know the scope of effective communication between
project manager and team members. Communication helps in making team work effective and
efficient. If the communication between manager and its team member is not effective then
project can fail and not able to meet its desired outcomes.
Importance of Effective communication-
Effective communication is critical to project success. In order to avoid conflicts and
confusion good communication is necessary. It also helps in building trust among the team
members. So, team members work in a better way from starting till the end of project.
Objectives of this project are very clear. QAHE institute wants to refurbishment of space for
students in order to enhance quality of learning. Renovation or redevelopment of space attracts
students to perform more activities. In order to make this project successful effective
communication is very necessary. Poor communication causes the project failure. Poor
communication results in-
 Objectives- Objective must be clear in everyone’s mind. Like- renovation design details.
 Physical Barrier- Physical distraction at construction sites are more and it can affect the
communication. Like- noise or long distance between sender and receiver.
 Linguistic Barrier- Linguistic barriers can occur at work site. Different languages can
create misunderstanding.
 Poor Feedback- If the instructions given by manager are not followed by the team
members in a proper manner then it leads to poor feedback.
 Pressure of work- Pressure at workplace causes the mistakes. Mistakes results in form of
inaccurate outcomes.

 Coordination- If coordination between team members is not good and everyone is
moving in different directions then it results in project failure.
 Training- Training of team members is necessary. If proper training is not given to the
team members then it leads to lack of knowledge. Without having proper knowledge
about project team cannot perform up to the mark and it can lead to failure of project.
Impact of poor communication-
 Dispute- If right information is not provided to the team members then it causes dispute
between them. It is a very common impact which one can see in all the phases of the
project.
 Accidents- Accident could be happened while refurbishment of institute if there is poor
communication of instructions.
 Budget- Poor coordination and ineffective communication leads to a project to be over
budgeted. Over budget is highest risk in this project.
 Productivity- Communication can affect productivity. Lower productivity can be caused
by various factors but it is able to affect the outcome in terms of quantity and quality.
Structure of effective communication-
Structuring the communication is a serious challenge. Objective of structuring the
communication is to maximize communication between participants in the refurbishment of
institute. Effective communication is helpful in enhancing the productivity and there is less
risk of over budget. It is chain of command. Structure of effective communication should be
as follow-
 Client
 Project Manager
 Architect
 Team members
 Material supplier
 Client- Communication should be downward. Client should directly connect with project
manager. All the details related to refurbishment of space at institute should be given to
project manager.

 Project manager- Project manager plays main role in execution of the project from
starting till finish of the project. After getting all the details from client project manager
should make a report related to project and pass through it to the architect. Then Architect
needs to make design of the project according to the client’s requirement.
 Team Leader- Team leader leads the team. Team leader give the updates about the work
to the project manager.
 Team Members- Team members should be guided by the project manager. The work
needs to be done with good coordination. Proper communication must be there in order to
avoid any kind of risk of project failure.
 Material Supplier- Raw material supply should be taken care by team leader. It means
requirement of material, quality of material and quantity of material should be taken care.
Methodologies-
There are three methodologies that can be used to run the project. Which are agile methodology,
Waterfall methodology and PRINCE2 methodology. Discussion of methodologies is as
follows-
 Agile Methodology- It is a way to manage a project by breaking it into several phases.
All the phases are divided into short development cycles. This methodology focuses on
continuous improvement of the project and it is widely used. This methodology is used in
large scale projects. Refurbishment of institute project can be divided into four parts –
Planning, design, construction and performance.
1. Planning Phase- This is the first phase of the project. Planning can be done by
setting objectives and goals which are needed to be accomplished. There are 3 key
objectives in this project should be achieved.
2. Design Phase- Project should be designed in such a way so that it can fulfill
requirements of client. Blueprint needs to be send to the client for approval of the
design. If client needs any kind of changes then it needs to be designed
accordingly.

3. Construction Phase- Renovation of institute comes under this phase. This is the
main phase of project. In this phase team members are assigned their roles and
duties.
4. Performance Phase- In this phase, how much work is done and it is monitored
that total work done is meeting client’s requirement or not.
 Waterfall Methodology- It is most traditional method in project management. This
methodology says that every new phase of project will begin after completion of previous
phase. There are five phases of waterfall model. Which are as follows-
1. Requirements- This is the first phase of waterfall model. In this phase all the
requirements of clients are gathered and it is assumed that all the requirements has
been gathered till the project finished.
2. Design- It includes design of the project. There are two types of designs-logical
design and physical design. Manager designs workflow model in this phase.
3. Implementation- In this phase project work has been started. Team members
start their work.
4. Testing- Testing of project is very necessary to check that work is as expected
and fulfils the requirement or not.
5. Deployment- This is the last phase of the project. In this phase service is
officially launched. It is very critical phase.
 PRINCE 2 Methodology- PRINCE 2 stands for projects in controlled environments. It is
project management technique. This methodology has seven phases. From starting up the
project to close the project.
First phase contains business case which includes details of the person who is responsible
for the execution of the project, budget of the project and detailed plan of project. In
second phase project work is initiated and construction work is started. Reasons behind
initiating the project are found out. In order to improving the learning quality this project
is undertaken. The only risk in this project is over budget but institute can manage to
attract more students after refurbishment. Third phase is all about authorization of
initiation of project. In next phase, Manager assign tasks to team members and monitor
work done by team members. If any issue arrives then it is resolved by project manager.

Next phase controls the work between project manager and team. Last phase of project is
all about making sure that all the goals and objectives has been achieved.
Methodologies Comparison-
After understanding work process of all the methodologies, it can be said that Agile model is
most suitable for this project. As it is a construction project and a large scale project. Agile
methodology divides this project in several parts and makes it easy to achieve goals or
objectives. Once the construction is completed it is difficult to implement it and problem of over
budget can be arrived.
Conclusion-
From the above report, it can be concluded that effective communication is very important for
any project in order to achieve its goals and objectives. Effective communication breaks down all
the barriers as well as using the agile methodology for this project is also useful. Agile
methodology makes execution of project in an efficient manner.
References-
 Hwang, B.G. and Ng, W.J., 2013. Project management knowledge and skills for green
construction: Overcoming challenges. International journal of project
management, 31(2), pp.272-284.
 Gido, J. and Clements, J., 2014. Successful project management. Cengage Learning.
 Bourne, L. and Walker, D.H., 2004. Advancing project management in learning
organizations. The Learning Organization.
 Napier, N.P., Keil, M. and Tan, F.B., 2009. IT project managers' construction of
successful project management practice: a repertory grid investigation. Information
Systems Journal, 19(3), pp.255-282.