Chapter 9: IT project manager

Project Management Body of Knowledge PMBOK® area called project communications management, which includes project communications planning, information distribution, performance reportin

Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) area called project communications management, which

includes project communications planning, information distribution, performance reporting, and administrative closure

 Describe several types of reporting tools that support

the communications plan

 Apply the concept of earned value and discuss how

earned value provides a means of tracking and

monitoring a project’s scope, schedule, and budget

 Describe how information may be distributed to the

project stakeholders and the role information technology plays to support the project communications

Project Communications Management

includes the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate

◦ Generation

◦ Collection

◦ Dissemination

◦ Storage, and

◦ Ultimate disposition

of project information.

Communications Planning focuses on:

◦ How will information be stored?

◦ How will knowledge be stored?

◦ What information goes to whom, when, and how?

◦ Who can access what information?

◦ Who will update the information and

knowledge?

◦ What media of communication is best?

Information Distribution

◦ getting the right information to the right people in the right format

 Performance Reporting

◦ collection and dissemination of project information to the various project

stakeholders

 Administrative Closure

◦ verifying and documenting the project’s progress

Regardless of how well a project is

planned, unexpected situations will arise These unexpected events will require

adjustments to the project schedule and budget.

because an unexpected event or situation arises He or she will, however, lose (or

gain) credibility in terms of how they

handle a particular situation.

Can be formal or informal

 Supports all of the project stakeholders

◦ Who has specific information needs?

◦ What are those needs?

◦ How will these needs be met?

◦ When can they expect the information?

◦ What will be the format?

◦ Individuals or groups that have a positive or negative interest in the outcome of the project

 Information Requirements

◦ What stakeholders need to know about the project

 E.g., scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk, etc.

 Type of Metric or Report

◦ Could be a specific report from a project management

software package, a newsletter, or information that a particular milestone was achieved

 Timings/Availability

◦ When stakeholders can expect to receive a report or other information about the project

 Medium or Format

◦ How the information will be provided

 E.g., electronic mail, presentations, meetings, or online

 Project Metric

◦ A qualitative measurement of some attribute of the project.

following key areas:

◦ Scope

◦ Schedule

◦ Budget

◦ Resources

◦ Quality

◦ Risk

◦ Intuitive

◦ Objective (no bias)

◦ Easy and inexpensive to create

◦ What gets measured gets done

◦ Otherwise why bother?

Allow the team to gauge its own progress

 Be designed by the project team

 Adopt and use only a handful of measures

 Track results and progress

◦ Formal & informal meetings with

stakeholders

◦ May focus on specific deliverables or milestones

◦ Used to get acceptance, surface

problems or issues, or make key

decisions

Status Reporting

◦ Describes present state of the project

◦ Compares actual progress to baseline plan

 Scope, schedule, and budget

◦ Like a snap shot of the project at a

specific time

Progress Reporting

◦ What activities or tasks has the team accomplished?

◦ Actual versus planned

 Forecast Reporting

◦ Predicting the project’s future status or progress

◦ Example: trend analysis

Face-to-Face Meetings (F2F)

 Telephone, email, other wireless technology

 Collaboration technology