Module 9 – Communication and Reporting Performance – Closing Out the Project

Key Takeaways

  • Not every project stakeholder is born with effective communication skills.
  • Not every project stakeholder can acquire and practice effective communication skills.
  • The communication requirements of stakeholders change over time.
  • Project stakeholders need to be able to identify communication barriers and work diligently to remove these from impacting the project.
  • Always plan, manage, and follow up on the project meetings to ensure they are achieving what they set out to achieve.
  • Project reports must be three dimensional – reporting progress, status, and forecast to complete information.
  • Tailor and target the communication tool for the stakeholder.
  • Understand exactly what effective communication is.
  • Remove any ambiguity from your project communications (this is one of the greatest sources of frustration and scheduling changes on most projects).
  • Acknowledge that scope creep will probably occur and prepare for it.
  • Sign off with the stakeholders as to what the agreed criteria will be for measuring and recording performance once the project starts.
  • Look for continuous improvement in how you measure and control achievement.
  • Work with the project lifecycle appreciating the respective inputs and outputs at each stage and how they can influence communication.
  • As the project nears finalisation, the reporting focus should move off progress and status and focus on forecast completion information.
  • Consider cancelling a scheduled meeting if there is nothing to meet about (this will frighten a lot of people).
  • Involve all the decision-makers in your meetings.
  • Remember, corrective action will not always be required for every deviation.
  • Keep each other informed – openly, honestly, and regularly.
  • The earlier you admit you are in trouble, the more chance you have of assistance.
  • Don’t forget to sing your praises in the reports (as no one else will).
  • Reporting and schedules go hand in hand – make sure you have both when making decisions.
  • If your project report is a one-page document, it will be read (and hopefully actioned).
  • Measuring performance is inherently difficult by yourself, let alone in conjunction with every other stakeholder with a vested interest in their outcomes.
  • What can be measured, can be reported and controlled.
  • If you are just reporting on your projects…don’t bother, the information is already out of date and so is the project.

 

Exercises

 

 

 

 

 

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Project Management: A Strategic Approach Copyright © 2022 by Carmen Reaiche is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.