Importance and Methods of Communication

Communication skills are essential in projects. Teams are rapidly formed and must have a solid understanding of the project in a short time. They must also be able to efficiently read, track, interpret, and contribute to information about the project; this includes, but is not limited to, project plans, progress reports, meeting agendas, and quality reviews. Project communication is essential to coordinating work and assigning tasks to people. Because it pervades all project areas, communication is also underestimated in terms of its importance and its potential for being misunderstood. Because Projects are only temporary organizations, they are especially vulnerable to miscommunications caused by poorly thought out communication plans. There are many methods for communicating project information. For example, any project taking place at this time is likely to use a combination of emails, telephones (most likely voice mail), meetings, presentations, video-conferencing, and "water cooler conversations" to exchange information. However, the volume of emails can overwhelm people, and telephoning and personal meetings do not leave an audit trail of vital information. For these reasons and others, any official communication about the project must be managed through documentation that is of high quality in terms of its timeliness, relevance, consistency, and accuracy.