Top 8 Tools and Techniques for Plan Communication Management

Tools and techniques for plan communication management play a vital role throughout the project life cycle because they help project managers plan their communication effectively and efficiently. So, in this article, we’ll discuss tools and techniques of plan communication management and its benefits.

What Is Plan Communication Management?

Communication is a vital tool for building better collaboration among project stakeholders. According to the PMBOK 6th edition, project communication management is one of ten knowledge areas.

Project communication management consists of three processes, as follows.

Plan communication
Manage communication
Monitor communication

Accordingly, plan communication management is the first process of project communication management, and it helps project managers develop a proper approach and plan for project communication activities or tasks based on the following criteria.

Available organization assets
Information needs of each stakeholder or group
Need of the project

However, when developing a plan communication, project managers should use tools and techniques to ensure its success. Therefore, let’s explore the 08 tools and techniques because they are needed to plan their communication.

8 Tools and Techniques for Plan Communication Management

As discussed earlier, as a project manager, you can use the following tools and techniques when planning your communication to enhance effectiveness and avoid loopholes in project communication.

Communication Requirement Analysis

Communication requirement analysis helps project managers determine the information needs of the project stakeholders (primary and secondary stakeholders). So, these requirements are explained by combining the type and format of information needed with an analysis of the value of that information. Furthermore, project resources should be filled out only on communicating that contributes to the project’s success. On the other hand, it will help avoid communication delays because that can lead to project failure.

According to that, as a project manager, you should consider the number of potential communication channels as an indicator of the complexity of a project’s communication, and the total number of communication channels is n (n-1)/2. Remember💡 n represents the number of stakeholders. For example,

An IT project with ten stakeholders has 10(10-1)/2 = 45 potential communication channels.

So this will help project managers plan their project’s actual communications and understand the following aspects.

Determine the limit on who will communicate with whom
Who will receive what information

Typically, sources of information are used to identify and define project communication requirements, as follows.

Organizational charts
Internal and external information needs
Project organization
Stakeholder responsibility relationships

Expert judgment

As a project manager, when planning your communication, you can use expert judgment as a technique. So, this refers to making a judgment based on knowledge, skills, or expertise in a particular way. However, this expertise may be provided by a project team member or team leader. On the other hand, this can be provided by any group or person with specialized education knowledge, skills, experience, etc. Here is the process of expert judgment.

Select and confirm the activity to be analyzed
Create a list of questions/statements
Select the experts
Have the experts give their answers and ratings
Make a report and send it out to everyone
Have the experts revise their answers
Make the second report

However, as a project manager, you should select the appropriate expert judgment method for planning your communication. So, here are some methods of expert judgment.

Delphi technique – A group estimates on communication are returned to the individual experts for review and provided a forecast
Interviews – Interviews can be on a one-to-one or one-to-many basis and conducted by asking a series of questions
Brainstorming– Use when input from multiple experts is needed. These experts focus on a problem and develop as many solutions as possible

Communication Technology

Communication technology is another vital technique among project stakeholders because they use these methods to transfer information. However, the project team may use techniques from simple conversations to extended meetings or from simply written documents to complex online materials. Here are the factors that can affect the choice of communication technology.

Easy of use
Project environment
The urgency of the need for information
Availability of technology
Sensitivity and confidentiality of the information

Interpersonal and Team Skills

These skills are defined as not only the ability to establish a relationship with others. But also to maintain it. Efficient project managers are faced with the challenge of ensuring that all the stakeholders are followed and maintaining good communication with their project team. However, team skills refer to the project manager’s ability to build and effectively maintain relationships with the team. Accordingly, the following are primary skills of plan communication.

Communication styles assessments – This technique is used to assess communication style and choose appropriate communication format, method, and content for planned communication activities. Furthermore, this is used with stakeholder engagement assessment to determine the gaps and to build suitable solutions.

Political awareness – This helps project managers plan communications based on the project’s and organization’s environment.

Cultural awareness – Cultural awareness helps project managers understand the differences between individuals and groups and adapt the project’s communication strategy in the context of these differences. When planning communication, you should consider the different values and beliefs to ensure the project them. To do this, as a project manager, you should analyze all the cultural differences and develop appropriate methods to deal with them.

Communication Methods

As a project manager, you can use several communication methods to share information among project managers. Those are as follows.

Interactive communication – Typically, this may occur between two or more parties performing a multidirectional exchange of information. So, this is an efficient way to ensure a common understanding by all participants on a certain topic. Typically, this includes instant messaging, video conferences, phone calls, etc.

Push communication – As a project manager, you can use this method for sending specific recipients who need to receive the information. So this ensures that the information is distributed but does not ensure that it usually reaches or is understood by the intended audience. Typically, this includes reports, blogs, letters, etc.

Pull communication – As a project manager, you can use this method for large volumes of information and audiences and require the recipients to access the information content at their own discretion. Typically, this includes databases, E-learning, etc.

Meetings

Project meeting is another vital tool for planning communication because they provide facilities for discussion and dialogue with the project team to determine the most suitable way to update and communicate project information. As well as respond to requests from various stakeholders. Typically, project meetings are conducted as follows.

Face to face
Online ( for example, MS Team, Zoom, Google Meet)

Data Representation

As a project manager, you can use a stakeholder engagement matrix to determine the level of engagement of a stakeholder. Accordingly, this can be categorized as follows.

Unaware – Stakeholders who have very little knowledge or awareness regarding the project
Resistant – Stakeholders who oppose and take negative action when the project continues
Neutral – Stakeholders who have neither a positive or negative approach toward the project
Supportive – Stakeholders who have a positive approach and support the project
Leading – Stakeholders who are leading the project to achieve the goals

Communication Models

As a project manager, you can use this technique to facilitate communications, and the exchange of information may vary from project to project and within numerous stages of the same project. A basic communication model consists of two parties, defined as the sender and receiver.

The sender should be responsible for the transmission of the message. Therefore, you should ensure that your communication is clear, complete, and correct.

The receiver should be responsible for ensuring that information is received. Furthermore, it should be entirely understood correctly and acknowledged correctly.

Benefits of Plan Communication Management

The following are some benefits of plan communication management.

To avoid loopholes in communication, including communication delays, lack of communication with essential stakeholders, and information received by the wrong person