Talking about communication management in IT projects

1 Preface

In an IT project, it is not easy to quickly and successfully complete a project and achieve or exceed the pre-designed results, A well-designed blueprint and a specific practice require both standardized and unified planning and a set of timely monitoring and execution methods, at the same time, the creativity and autonomy of the entire project development cannot be eliminated. In this way, a flexible and easy-to-use communication process is required, so that important project information is updated in real time.

In IT projects, many experts believe that the greatest threat to success is the failure of communication. There are three main factors for successful IT projects: active user participation, clear demand expression, and strong support from management. All these three factors depend on good communication skills, especially non-information technicians.

The goal of communication management is to promptly and appropriately create, collect, send, store and process project information, standard project communication includes four processes: communication plan, information transmission, implementation report, and management ending.

This article will talk about some of my experiences in communication management practices.

2. Develop a communication plan

After the project is established, the first step is to formulate the communication plan, which should include the following:

File Storage Method: In the communication plan, the information storage method and Information read/write permission are defined first, specify the storage location of user letters, meeting records, work reports, project documents (requirements, design, coding, release programs, etc.), auxiliary documents, and corresponding read/write permissions. This is used to collect and store different types of information. It is necessary to formulate and follow a set of unified rules and regulations to document important work related to the project.

Contact info: there should be a brochure dedicated to the contact information of all relevant personnel in project management, including project team members, Project Team superior leaders, administrative staff, technical support staff, staff related to booking tickets on business trips and other systems, landlines, mobile phones, and functions, which should be listed on a one-to-one basis, it is concise and clear, and it is best to have some small notes for special personnel. When opening the booklet, we can understand the information of all relevant personnel, A lot of things that usually involve a lot of weeks can be easily done in a good habit.

Work Report method: clearly express the work report methods of the project team members to the Project Manager or project manager to the superiors and related personnel, and specify the time and form. For example, the project team members send weekly reports to the Project Manager by email, the project manager sends monthly reports to direct customers and superiors by email, and the urgent report is communicated by phone in a timely manner; the project team holds the current work Communication meeting every two weeks, and provides oral reports to customers and superiors every week.

Unified project file format: a unified project file template is part of formal management. Therefore, various file templates must be unified and a guide should be provided.

Communication Plan maintainer: Who will revise the plan during release changes and send it to relevant personnel.

Since the communication plan is relevant to many people, it must be ensured that there are stakeholders involved in the plan and that the communication plan is accepted and understood by a considerable number of people. A plan is used for execution, rather than being shelved by a plan.

3. Send Information

It is very important and difficult for the project management information to be correctly transmitted to the corresponding personnel. what often happens is that the information sender feels that he has correctly transmitted the information, however, the actual result is that the information is not transmitted or is incorrectly understood. Too many people are still not very accustomed to the pile of documents or the whole article of the E-MAIL sent mail, If you can use informal way or the way the two sides talk to listen to important information, it is faster, more accurate, and more acceptable, just as a traditional letter is better than any modern contact method in some occasions, with different value orientations, the communication method is totally different in the use effect.

In our communication, we should follow the four basic principles proposed by Peter Drucker:

Communication is a kind of perception

Communication is an expectation

Communication requirements

Information is not Communication

I feel the following in my learning and practice.

3.1 communication is a kind of perception

Communication must be two-way, and the information must be received by the recipient. All communication methods must have a feedback mechanism to ensure that the recipient receives the message. For example, whether the recipient simply replies "received", "OK", or "received by phone", the recipient must ensure that the message is received and the response information has been received.

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The information must be correctly understood when it is received. Many messages are received, but are incorrectly understood. Many messages are delivered, but are incorrectly understood.

For example, project a said to Project B, "I am going to open a bid today, but I have only a few people here. Can you ask someone to help me grow ".

Project B Manager has some programmers and system analysts, while some programmers are currently idle. The system analyst has some urgent work today, but Project B's misunderstanding is that project a's project manager needs a system analyst who then assists in the answer, so the answer is "no, there is an urgent job today and there is no way to help ".

Project A manager had to find another solution.

The above is a typical misunderstanding. It is very important for the sender to correctly express and understand the receiver correctly. A simple method is to send information by the sender, Which is refined by the receiver after understanding and then expressed twice. However, this expression is the result of conversion or execution while confirming that you understand it, instead of retelling.

3.2 communication is an expectation

In project management, different stakeholders have different communication needs.

In the specific work arrangement, the project team members want to know whether the position meets his wishes. The superiors should understand the expectations of the recipient, while conveying work arrangements to subordinates, they should also understand their willingness and orientation, and then adopt appropriate methods to mobilize their enthusiasm for work, so as to promote their efficient work, in project management, if a subordinate has a rebellious or inefficient job, it is a failure instance that the project manager cannot communicate. Therefore, it is more important to develop a coordinated communication plan.

The Project Manager's superiors and customers are more concerned about the progress: whether the time will be extended, whether to add costs, and whether the quality is guaranteed. For the project manager, it is necessary to give immediate feedback on the time, especially the delay, the cost of adding the project, and the failure of quality, enables the project manager's superiors and customers to adjust their work plans in a timely manner.

3.3 communication requirements

Communication is two-way. communication must be in the interest of the recipient so that it can be persuasive. This requires both parties to have good communication methods, especially good communication, to achieve a win-win situation. Consistent communication helps the organization to promote project updates.

Verbal communication skills also seem to be a key factor for job improvement. Therefore, communication is inevitable, for example, the job is successful, the project is completed as soon as possible, the problem is responded appropriately, and the salary during off-holiday periods must be communicated to achieve the goal.

3.4 Information is not Communication

In the information age, it is necessary to identify which communication is information. The information used for communication must be clear, concise, and eye-catching to avoid sinking into the sea of information.

Information can also be used for communication, but the information is too rigid. A text file cannot be used for communication. In the project, the project manager does not want to concentrate on the information, but wants to understand the personnel working in the project and establish a mutually trusted relationship with the project manager. The effective sending of information only relies on the good communication skills of the project manager and the project team members.

Now we can communicate effectively through the four rules above to ensure the effective communication of information in management.

4. Implementation Report

There are generally three forms of implementation reports: regular reports, phase reviews, and emergency reports.

Regular Report: reports the completed workload to the superior at a specific time. In actual project management, the project staff reports weekly to the project manager, and the direct superiors of the customer and the Project Manager conduct unified progress reports by phase or month. From the perspective of project management, the main content of the project periodic report includes: What is the current status? At what stage? Progress completion? Is there any problem that can be solved by the superior (User? What is the plan for next week (next stage or next month.

Phase Review: A phase review is required when the project reaches an important stage or milestone-like project development stage. The significance of the phase review is to review the current project situation, forcing people to be responsible for their work. The phase review can detect problems in advance and solve the problems in the early stage. However, the phase review is also the most prone to disputes, which is mainly aimed at determining the severity of the problem, the Project Manager or the project management board must find the focus of the problem in a timely manner with a comprehensive understanding of the project's development progress, so as to address the real crux of the problem and carry out subsequent projects.

Emergency Report: carry out emergency report in case of an accident. The emergency report includes the following content: the problems found, the relevant impacts, how to solve the problems (resources used), and the urgency of the problem (the time required for feedback ).

In the actual project management process, the Quality Assurance Department of quality management will also carry out quality audits and submit quality audit reports by stage.

After receiving the implementation report, the project stakeholders should provide immediate feedback to confirm that the report has been successfully received. The project stakeholders should work together to solve the problem during execution.

5 Management Finishing

5.1 project customer acceptance

During the end of the project, the customer will carry out acceptance of the project according to the contract, generally for the final result of the software system, the project documents "Operation Manual", "installation manual", "software cd", "Maintenance Plan" or "Maintenance Manual" shall be accepted, the two parties will generate the Project Development Summary Report and the project summary meeting memorandum of understanding of different people have different opinions, these reports are excellent resources, it will be of great help for the stable operation of future projects.

5.2 process file archiving

The project team organizes and archives the plans, requirements, designs, source code, changes, meeting minutes, customer emails, and other documents in the project process for future queries and reference. Project archives are often used after the end of many years. Good project archives can save time and money for the current project, and sometimes quickly provide valuable information such as auditing the organization.

5.3 Project Summary

Many projects do not have a good summary. The reason for the deduction is that the project team is insufficient/incomplete during the project summary, there are new projects that need no time, and no one can read them. All these reasons are not correct. In any case, we should make a summary. We can only summarize the current situation to improve the future.

After the completion of the project, the project members should write a Project Summary Report for the experience and lessons learned. summarize the methods and things used in this project to make the project better, the problems caused by the project, the situations to be avoided in the project in the future, and the things to be adhered to in the subsequent projects. and so on. It provides an excellent resource and basis for future project personnel to better work.