Why Do You Need to Integrate Communication?

Several project management methodologies can follow models and best practices with greater or less adherence to guides.

The project manager can focus on developing a plan to control the changes as an agile leader deals with adaptations and the inevitable changes. Also, companies have their processes of your value chain. Traditional value chains focus on internal competencies, processes, and infrastructures, products and services, channels and customers. New value chains emphasize customer needs, integrated channels, products and services, processes and infrastructure that are flexible in internal competencies.

According to Kerzner, maturity projects means the adoption of a project management methodology and its utilization consistently. The implementation of a philosophy that directs the company toward a maturity in project management and communicates this to all employees. Management processes and organizational processes support the organization to achieve its results.

People work with knowledge of the processes in which their activities are embedded. What about the processes, employees often need to know why, for whom, impacts, standards and quality of the process. It would not be different to the necessity of information about the activities and the project.

The Project Manager could analyze communication and information requirements, dealing with the different needs, concerns and expectations of stakeholders and especially the team as the project is planned and carried out. Also, the project manager should worry about the conflicting constraints of the project which includes but are not limited to scope, quality, schedule, budget, resources and risk.

Communication is critical for the project manager to be able to integrate the management processes. It also refers to the exchange of information. So communication can be thought of as a plan or organized under agile or hybrid models. Communication thought of as a project of the information exchange plan there is greater control and formality. It is to specify methods to transmit information without noise, clearly, always taking feedback from the receiver.

In an agile communication often occurs face to face between the team members, with a client, managers, business analysts, etc. which can be gathered in a single room. Real – time communications is emphasized with constant feedback and transparency. There is also the need for maturity among team members.

It is important to distinguish the integration of project management processes in an approach as guided by the PMI and the integration of other agile methodologies, for example. While agile integration is related to the leadership role within the team, process-oriented integration has the definition of process inputs and outputs within the project life cycle. This consolidates all phases of the project (initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control and closure).

Integration also involves getting all the parts of a project into a cohesive unit. Moreover, active management is the primary role of the project manager. It supports the iteration in the project and consists of making choices about where to focus resources and efforts, anticipating potential problems, treating them before they become critical and coordinating the work. The need for integration in project management is evident in situations in which individual processes interact: Cost, Time, Risks, etc.

Communication in all the methodologies upgrades the level of knowledge of all about the project. The management integration in the project also represents the balance between all areas of knowledge, according to the PMI. In high-performance teams, “leaders manage principles, and principles manage a team.” Carl Larson and Frank LaFasto (1989).

Leadership is the attribute of people, distinct from formal authority. The motivations of the project team, the project mission, the leadership skills and the context within which the leadership process is exercised are highlighted. Additionally, motivation (high or low) and competence (high or low) should be analyzed. Leadership also relates to the Development Team, Motivation, Communication, Influence, Decision Making, Knowledge and Cultural and Trading. It is a broad subject and involves a substantial body of knowledge that is not limited to the context of projects that have been investigated as a skill to develop.

It is up to the project manager to make an analysis of the project stakeholders and communication requirements. These requirements result in the information needs of stakeholders and are defined by combining the type and format of information required with an analysis of the value of such information.

The necessary information may include organizational charts, project organization, responsibilities among stakeholders, internal and external information needs, departments involved, etc. Additionally, it is recommended that the “bad news” should be shared and the number of participants in a project that determines the number of communication channels. It is natural to have a larger number of participants in a project greater scope.

A critical component of project communications planning is determining and limiting who will communicate with whom and who will receive what information as the project manager integrates the processes and the project takes place.

References
[BURB07] Burbridge, R. Marc; Costa, Sérgio de Freitas e outros. Gestão de Negociação. Editora Saraiva, 2ª. Edição, 2007.
[CLE06] Cleland, David I.; Gareis, Roland. Global Project Management Handbook. Second Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2006.
[KERZNER06] Kerzner, Harold. Gestão de Projetos – As Melhores Práticas, 2ª. Edição, Bookman, 2006.
[LAR89] Larson , Carl E.; LaFasto, F. M. J. Teamwork: What Must Go Right/What Can Go Wrong, SAGE, ISBN 0803932901, 1989.
[PMBOK09] Project Management Institute. “Um Guia Do Conjunto De Conhecimentos em Gerenciamento De Projetos (Guia PMBOK): A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge – Official Portuguese Translation”, 4th Edition, PMI, 2009.
[SUT14] SUTHERLAND, JEFF. Scrum – A Arte de Faze o Dobro de Trabalho na Metade do Tempo. LEYA CASA DA PALAVRA, 2014.