CIS 385 ASSIGNMENT 3

Impact of Communication Gap on Project Management

University of the Fraser Valley Duncan Jeffries
Praneet Batwar 6/24/2012

An in depth view and analysis on the importance of Project Communication Management.

Executive Summary
In this report the importance of communications in Project management is discussed. Apart from listing out the key concepts of Project management such as: Identifying Stakeholder Plan Communication Distribute Information Managing Stakeholders Report Performance

Some case studies are discussed such as the AEI, where effective communications management was used. This ensured the success of the project. The FBI case studies and the US Census Bureau case studies are a clear example where the client or the contractor did not effectively communicate the status of the project or the requirements for the project. This resulted in the total abandonment of the project causing a loss of several million dollars. The Clark Faucets case studies shows us that lack of proper communication can cause unrest in the workplace and can eventually lead to serious implications. These case studies strengthened our belief that communication management is required. Later on we discussed and listed some reasons that were the major cause of communication failure. Human factors such as fear, laziness were some of the causes of project communication failure. Other reasons included Geographic distance, different time zones and technical problems. In the end we reached the conclusion that communications in project management should be managed at all levels of the project.

Table of Contents
Introduction ....................................................................................... 5 Subject Overview............................................................................. 5 Key Concepts.................................................................... 6 Project Communications Plan...................................................... 6 Identify Stakeholders......................................................................... 7 Plan Communications.......................... 7 Distribute Information....................................................................... 9 Manage Stakeholders....................................................................... 10 Report Performance................................................................. 10 Is Project Communications Management Overrated?............... 11 AEI Case Study.................................................................................. 11

FBI Case Study................................................................................... 13 Clark Faucet Case Study................................................................... 13 USA Census Bureau Case Study..................................................... 16 What Causes Communication Failure in Project Management ?.................................................................... 18 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 20 Appendices....................................................................................... 20 Works Cited ..................................................................................... 20

Introduction
Communications is probably one of the most important aspects in Project Management. Even outside of the area of Project Management, Communications is very important. If there is a mismatch in the information passed between the stakeholders of the project, the overall success of the Project can be endangered. Communications and human interactions can make or break the project. It is an area of Project Management which cannot be ignored or neglected. In this report, first we will discuss the key components of Project Communications Management. Then we will discuss some case studies which show us how effective communications management can eventually lead to the success of the Project.

Subject Overview
Communications is the exchange of data or information. It requires information to be passed on and received. Similarly in project management information needs to be given and information needs to be received. As a project manager it is important to keep your team informed about the budget, the time constraints and the levels of quality they have to achieve. It is equally important to keep the Project Board informed about the progress of the project. These people include the Executives, the suppliers and the clients. It is also important that all the relevant information about the project; customer needs, objectives, plan, constraints, changes, assessed risks and progresses are available at all times (Buehring 2009). The PMBOK descries Project Communications Management as the timely and the correct generation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval and disposition of project information. Project Managers employ project communications management to ensure a seamless and effective communication among all the stakeholders of the project. It is a more organized approach to dissipate information to the various members of the team and the stakeholders and all the people related and responsible to the project.

Project Communications Management: Key Concepts

I. Project Communications Plan
Firstly a communications plan has to be made in order to organize how, when and how the information is sent out. It is the written strategy for getting the right information to right project stakeholders at the right time. Each stakeholder has unique requirements for information as their roles and responsibilities in the project vary. Project Communications Management includes the following processes: 1. Identify Stakeholders This is the first and an important part of chalking out the plan for communications. It is the process of identifying all the people and organizations which are affected by the project.

2. Plan Communications This is the process of determining the responsibilities and information requirements of the various stakeholders. This is a very important step. One wouldnt want to give the vice-president project related technical information.

3. Distribute Information This is the process of making relevant information available to project stake holders as planned. Different channels can be used to send out information. Presentations, emails, company website, circulars can be used to give out information.

4. Manage Stakeholder Expectations The process of communicating and interacting with the respective stakeholders to meet their needs and answering to any issues they have.

5. Report Performance This is the process of gathering and giving out performance related information which includes status reports, progress measurements and project forecasts.

II. Identify Stakeholders

Project Stakeholders are the people customers, sponsors, the organizations and the public that are actively involved in the project. They may have a great influence over the project and play an important role in the overall success of the project. They may be at different levels in the organizations and have varying levels of importance. Sometimes major stakeholders can be external to the organizations and at times can be in a completely different geographic region (Overseas Software Development). It is essential that the stakeholders are identified early on in the project. This is important as their levels of interest, expectations, importance and influence are needed so that the right information is delivered to the right person.

Figure 1 Interest Grid in Project Stake Holders

III. Plan Communications

Once the stakeholders are identified it is important that a written document that guides the communication management be written. This can be the part of the overall management plan.

For smaller projects this could be a part of the contract itself and for projects with larger scale it could be a whole another document. This communications management plan is of extreme importance as it chalks out important information as to who needs what information and by when. Identifying the information needs of the stakeholder and selecting a suitable means of meeting those needs are essential for the overall success of the project. To give a crude example, a project manager will have to determine the dates and kind of information that will be a part of the status report which should be given towards the end of the project. This will help the project manager analyze the data to be gathered to be mentioned in the status report. This will also give the manager a deadline before which the required data has to be gathered.

Figure 2 Sample Communications Plan The kind of communication needed is also determined in the plan. There are three different methods of communications which can be determined by the nature of the information that is needed to be sent. Interactive Communications: This is employed when there is some kind of negotiation to be made. Whenever there is a need for information to be passed both the ways, Interactive
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Communication is used. It is one of the most efficient ways to discuss issues and come to a common understanding. It includes meetings, phone calls, phone conference calls and video conferencing, etc. Push Communications: This is generally used to send out information to a specific or an intended user. This can be used to send out confidential information too. This is an effective way of sending out information but it does not ensure that the messaged received was interpreted correctly by the audience. This includes letters, memos, reports, faxes, mails etc. Pull Communications: this method of communication is generally used when information is needed to be passed onto a large target audience. This too doesnt ensure that the information is received by the intended audience as the target audience can receive information at their own discretion. This can include the company website, intranet sites, notice boards etc.

IV. Distribution of Information

This is the process of making the required information available to the respective project stakeholders. This is mainly the execution process of the Project Communications Plan and is performed throughout the life of the Project. The main focus here is selecting the appropriate media and understanding and managing the different distribution channels that are a part of communications management (See Appendix). Building on the method of communication that has been determined an appropriate medium for communication needs to determined. As technology has progressed over the years the choice of the available mediums has vastly widened. Table A lists some communication tools that are available.

Communication Tools Type/Technique Email Description It allows the members of the team to communicate text, images, audio, video files between members Memos Provides a formal forum to communicate important dates, policies and procedures Instant Messaging Gives team members a platform to communicate realtime. Project Status meetings Telephone/Video Conferences Provides regular status updates and reviews of the project Bridges gaps in team members caused by geographic indifference. Intranet Formally communicate status, progress, highlights and objectives. Project Road show Walk-about Provides feedback to all stakeholders or users Involves a hands-on face to face approach with your team.

Table A

V. Managing Stakeholders
This is the process of communications and working with the stakeholders to meet their needs and addressing any kinds of issues that has occurred. This process mainly focuses on activities that are directed at project stakeholders to influence their expectations concerns. Actively managing and meeting the expectations of the stakeholders is likely to increase the acceptance of the project. This enables them to be active supporters of the project. This decreases the risk of project failure by failing to meet its objectives and goals due to unresolved stakeholder issues.

VI. Report Performance

Report performance is the last and the final process in Project Communications Management. It is the process of gathering and dissipating performance information related to the project. This can include status reports, progress measurements and forecasts. Performance reports need to

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cater to audience at different levels. The format of the reports will depend on the kind of the audience the report is being presented to.

Is Project Communications Management Overrated?

Now that we have had a grasp over different important concepts of Project Communications management, let us analyze the importance of Communications in PM . Some might argue that managing a communications plan is important, but not as important as managing costs or time. That brings us to our main argumentative question. Is managing communications in Project Management not as important? In 1998, French computer manufacturer BULL had requested an independent survey. Spikes Cavell and independent Research Company was to do the survey. The survey was to identify major causes of IT Project failures in the finance sector of UK. 203 telephonic interviews were conducted where several project managers from finance, utilities, manufacturing, business services, telecoms and IT service sectors were questioned. The survey revealed that Bad communications or communication breakdown accounted for 57% of the projects failure. Where solutions are supplied by an external party, the supplier client relationship is the key for the success of the project. About 60% of the people who were surveyed believed that communications is essential in the making this relationship work.

AMERICAN ELECTRONICS INTERNATIONAL CASE STUDY

Back in 1994, AEI was awarded with a contract for R&D and production qualification for an advance type of guidance system. The Mask Project, which was the name of the project, would easily be 30 months in length. The length of the program was justified as 15 different units had to be tested. As this project was longer than any project AEI had ever encountered the executives at AEI were concerned about the staffing. Blen Carty, the project manager for the preliminary testing phase, was aware of the upcoming issues when the follow-on contract would be given and the main project would
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commence. Blen felt that the managers would be reluctant on giving up their key personnel fulltime to his project and lose their services for duration of 30 months. With an intention of discussing and solving this issue, Blen Carty held a meeting with John Wallace, the director of project management, and Dr. Albert Runnels, the director of engineering. The key-problem was discussed and a final conclusion was reached. It was decided that the names of the top people of the company including several Ph.Ds. to be added into the proposal. This would initially bloat up the management volume. Once the contract is finalized, necessary assignments would be made depending on who is available. The fact that Blen Carty identified the issue and took it up with the stakeholders helped the team reach a conclusion. This conclusion was instrumental in the completion and the success of the project. Had the issue not been addressed the follow-up contract wouldnt have been offered in the first place. Furthermore let us look at the completion of the Material Development Project. The Materials Development Project was a major success, from its inception, everything just went smoothly. Richard Flag a Ph.D. in engineering was to serve as project engineer. This was risky as Richard was a research engineer. During development however Richard showed that he was capable of performing the role as a project engineer. Flag made sure that excellent working relation with development lab personnel and managers was maintained. Richard spent 10 minutes each week to personally inform them of the status of the project. The department managers liked this approach taken by Richard as they got first-hand unfiltered information about the project. They also liked the fact that they did not have to spend hours in team meetings. Although not planned, but the communications approach Richard Flag took was quite instrumental in the success of the project. This shows that maintaining excellent relations with the stakeholders and having an effective communications plan is necessary for the success of a project.

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FBI CASE STUDY

In 2003, FBI had come up with an ambitious plan to replace paper based reporting of crimes and investigations. An online system was proposed and the contract was given to SAIC. The project was called Project Trilogy. SAIC came up with 730,000 lines code for the Virtual Case File and it seemed to work very well. Zalmai Azmi the FBIs technology chief then enquired about the error rate. The errors reported were in hundreds. As different tests were being done, the number of errors kept multiplying. A few days later Azmi warned the director that $170 million proposed system was in serious trouble. A year later the project was dead. It was later reported that FBIs approach to the project was flawed. But FBI was only partly to blame for the failure of the project. Even though SAIC knew FBI had a flawed approach to the project, they kept quiet for several reasons. The FBI was paying the bills and SAIC did not want to cut their source of revenue. They were reluctant to tell FBI that they were at fault. There was no one willing to tell the government that they were asking for the impossible. This is a clear example of lack of communications due to fear of being criticized. Sometimes the contractor is afraid of losing the business if they point out mistakes with the requirements of the clients. Worst case scenario is that along with losing a potential client they also lose face. If SAIC had told FBI upfront the flaws with the requirements of the project, the project would have ran smoothly and wouldnt have cost the US Government $170 Million.

THE CLARK FAUCET COMPANY CASE STUDY

The Clark Faucet company had become the third largest supplier of faucets for both commercial and home use. Customers would evaluate the faucets by design and quality. Each faucet needed to be available in at least 25 different colors. Although The Clark Faucet did not spend a great amount of money on advertising, they spend some money on giving out ads in professional journals. Most of the companys marketing and advertising funds were used for
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the semi-annual home and garden trade show and the annual builders trade show. These were really important as they were used to show case the various products offered by the company. One large builder could easily order 5000 components for the furnishing of a newly constructed hotel or building. Missing one such opportunity meant missing out on a opportunity to earn a large revenue. Although Clark Faucets saw good market success, the culture at the company wasnt looking so bright. The marketing and the engineering team would never talk to one another. The engineering team wanted freedom and the marketing team wanted a final say on what the engineers conjured up with. The conflict became so intense that several attempts to implement Project Management completely failed. No one wanted to be project manager. Meetings were not attended and time was spent on personal projects rather than required work. The executive council decided to step up and make a strong attempt in implementing Project Management. It was needed not only for new product development but also for enhancements. To first resolve this conflict some interviews were conducted in order to pin point the major cause of this uncooperative nature. The engineering team mainly had complaints that the marketing team did not understand that there was other work to be done than just coming up with new products. The engineering team also wanted to be left alone and let them finish their work uninterrupted. The marketing team on the other hand said that the revenues generated at these trade shows directly impacted their livelihood. They want new products up in time for the tradeshows. Looking at this case, it is clearly understood that it is a clear case of lack of communications management. Judging by what the engineering team has to say, the marketing team makes ton of changes after the initial input is given. This obviously has major implications. If there was a more organized approach to this such as weekly status reports or weekly meetings between the engineering and the marketing team, in the presence of the upper management. Negotiations and discussions could have been made regarding new product designs. The engineers could give the marketing team a clear status reports indicating how

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further along are they into the project. This could avoid further conflicts and result in the smooth functioning of the firm.

USA CENSUS BUREAU CASE STUDY

In 2008, the Census Bureau decided to introduce 500,000 handheld devices to allow the officials to follow up on the individuals who failed to mail in responses to the 2010 Census. It was abandoned as it wouldnt have been completed in time for the 2010 Census. This system was initially meant to replace the clipboards, pens and papers which they had used in the past. The company which was hired was Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fl. under a $600 million contract. Apart from building the handheld devices, Harris Corp was to even create a system to manage the data. What went wrong? After the initial contract was signed the number of changes requested by the Census Bureau increased. At one point 417 new technical requirements were made. This vastly increased the production costs and increased the time. This was a major break in the project. The census officials did not clearly state what they wanted from Harris in its program. This resulted in bloating of the costs and made the project risky. Steve Murdock the director of the bureau states We now understand the problem of the FDCA program was due to a lack of communication between the Census bureau and the prime contractor. We did not effectively convey to the contractor the complexity of census operations and detailed requirements that needed to be fulfilled. The overall failure of the project increased the total cost to increase to $ 3 Billion, which would bring the 2010 Census bill to $14.5 Billion, the highest ever recorded. This is clear case of lack of communications between the client and the contractor. Had there been a clear channel of communication between the census bureau and the contractor, and all the technical specifications would have been conveyed early on in the project, the

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project would have been completed on time. This is where the importance of Communications plan comes into picture.

Analyzing these case studies it is quite evident that an effective communications strategy can make or break the project. Now we have come to a come conclusion that effective communications is needed in project management. Unlike other mismanagement it is quite hard to spot issues with Project Communications management. Let us look at some of the major reasons that cause Project Communications to fail.

What Causes Communication Failure in Project Management?

There is failure in communication when someone working on the project fails to communicate information about the project. It can be as simple as a team member not telling his project manager that he is having issues with his task and he wont be able to finish it time. Another major example is project manager failing to inform the stake holders on the status of the project. The third and probably the most is the client failing to convey all of the requirements for the projects beforehand. Communication failure always has a negative impact. It can result in failure to meet deadlines, increment in project costs, project delays, role confusion, failing to meet requirements, negligence by the stakeholders etc. Most common reasons that are responsible for communication failure are not technical reasons but rather human reasons Ignorance/ Feat of Criticism: This is particularly seen where the client does not want to seem technically under-knowledged in front of the project manager and fails to give out features that he requires. Stress: Doing many things at many times for long periods of time can eventually lead to stress. How fast a human can get stressed varies from person to person, but it does affect everyone. This leads to forgetting to send out important memos and mails regarding important topics

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Laziness: Although not a good thing, laziness is also a very important reason for project failure. Lazy project managers will just simply not want to find time to communicate with team members. Sometimes a project manager will see that it is not required to hold a meeting over a petty issue and just send out a memo, but fails to realize that meetings is a way to actively hold discussions and receive information rather than just send out information. Fear: A project manager might be fearful of to report to the external client that the project is behind schedule or a developer might be scared to tell the project manager that he or she is having with a particular task. This fear is usually a direct result of strict or demanding project managers or clients. The Non-Human reasons that cause communication failure includes Distance: For many projects distance can cause a lot of misunderstandings thus creating a gap in the communication. Many times having a face to face meeting would have been effective to discuss requirements and issues. But due to distance this is done over the phone or video conferencing. Different Time zones: When a project manager is on the other side of the planet as compared to the team, there are definitely major implications. The project manager will hardly find his team awake when there is a 10 hour difference between the team and the manager. This is a huge issue as most of the communication is done by e-mail. Real-time communication is rarely possible and is hard to discuss critical issues. Technical Issues: Technology plays an important role in communications. There can be many issues that cause communication failures. E-mail getting deleted or directly sent to the spam folder. People not checking their voice mails, failure to respond to mails, etc these all eventually lead to communication failure.

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Conclusion
Looking back at what was discussed it quite safe to assume that even if Project Communications Management is over rated it is required and it is important. Small reasons such as a missed email or an ignored voice mail can have major implications. In order to correctly plan communications in Project management, the five steps have to be followed systematically i.e. Identify Stakeholders, Plan Communication, Distribute Information, Manage stakeholder expectations and report performance. It is also important to understand that it is not easy to spot any disruptions in communication as many human factors can be the cause too. Project Communications Management doesnt just mean agreeing on requirements at project conception or handing out status reports, it means managing communications at every level of the project.

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Appendices
Appendix A

These are the various channels one must keep into account while developing a communication plan.

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Works Cited
1. Buehrin, Simon (2009, Jan 16) the Importance of Communication in Project Management. Retrieved on 24 June 2012 from <http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/theimportance-of-communication-in-project-management.html>.

2. Project Communication Management. Retrieved on 24 June 2012 from <http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/project_communicatio n.html>.

3. Charvat, Jason (2002, November 13) Project communications: A plan for getting your message across. Retrieved on 24 June 2012 from <>.

4. Performance Reporting. Retrieved on 24 June 2012 from < http://projectmanagement-knowledge.com/definitions/p/performance-reporting/>.

5. FBI Virtual Case. Retrieved on 24 June 2012 from <http://calleam.com/WTPF/?p=1964/>.

6. Eggen and Witte (2006, August 18) The FBI's Upgrade That Wasn't Retrieved on 24 June 2012 from < http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081701485.html>

7. Hedgepeth, Dana (2008, Apr 04) Census back to Pen and Paper. Retrieved on 24 June 2012 from < http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040302068.html>.

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8. Census Bureau USA (2008, Oct 18). Retrieved on 24 June 2012 from http://calleam.com/WTPF/?p=1894

9. Gaunt, Richard (2010, Nov 5) the Importance of Communication in Project Management. Retrieved on 24 June 2012 from < http://www.arraspeople.co.uk/camel-blog/projectmanagement/guest-bloggerproject-failure-is-also-due-to-poor-communication/>.

10. Statistics over IT projects failure rate. Retrieved on 24 June 2012 from < http://www.itcortex.com/Stat_Failure_Rate.htm>.

11. Kerzner, H. (2009). Project Managment Case Studies. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. 12. PMBOK 4th Edition (2008). Project Management Institute. 13. Project Communication Handbook 2nd Edition (2009). Office of Project Management Process Improvement

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