Project Management | Communication in Project Management Part 3

In the first two parts of this series I looked at responsibility for communication and traditional methods of communication. Today I want to explore how some non-traditional methods can be utilised in order to assist project managers in communicating about their projects.

SMARTPHONES

With the advent of smart phones like the BlackBerry and others there are many more ways in which a Project Manager can utilise these deciess to communicate with people involved in their projects. IM or instant messaging can be used to carry one realtime discussions with groups of people without the need to have then all face to face. It gives the ability for people to respond when they are able to and not have to stop to answer a phone call. When you begin to add functionality like this to the suite of other functions available on the new smartphones they become an indispensable tool in the arsenal of the Project Manager.

WIKIS, INTRANET SITES AND SHARED WORKSPACES

More and more today Project Managers are utilising these tools as methods of communicating project information. These tools are particularly useful in large projects where information needs to be fed to a wide audience. Some of these tools can be sectioned off so that there are areas available to everyone and other areas with more restricted access, enabling all of the project information to be in one place. They also allow for non-colocated teams and virtual teams as people do not need to be around a table to work on and discuss a problem. Again though the responsibilities with regard to updating information have to be made clear from the outset.

TWITTER, FACEBOOK ETC

While relatively new technologies, social networking sites can and have been used effectively as tools for disseminating project information and utilising virtual teams. Private face book pages and protected twitter accounts provide alternative avenues for project communication.

In the final part of this discussion tomorrow I will look more at the roles and responsibilities involved in project communication