Key task is to communicate

This Issue This is a part of the Managing projects feature

By - , Build 154

Effective communication on a construction project optimises the outcome. A recent study found that excellent communication in day-to-day project decision making matters the most.

Figure 1: Summary of task, project and industry factors.
Figure 1: Summary of task, project and industry factors.
Figure 1: Summary of task, project and industry factors.

HAVE YOU EVER been in a project post-completion review and concluded that the project team communicated too much? Unlikely – it is much more likely to be the other way round.

Provides shared understanding

Communication is the means of gaining shared understanding between people. Information flow is critical for project coordination and management of resources.

Without effective civil communication, we cannot define and share project goals. Without efficient information exchange, we cannot achieve productive project outcomes for cost certainty, timely delivery and quality products and services.

Communication a critical success factor

There is a genuine desire in New Zealand to improve building performance. This is to ensure better outcomes for our nation, our industry, our organisations and individuals who make their living in construction-related projects.

Numerous studies have attempted to identify critical success factors for projects. Typically, these identify a range of factors such as teamwork, effective stakeholder engagement, having a well defined brief, leadership skills of the project manager, management of risk and ability to resolve conflict.

Invariably, project communication is identified by practitioners responding to questionnaires and surveys as one of the key factors. In reality, communication also underlies many other success factors, for example, teamwork and conflict resolution.

Although there is no argument against the need for effective communication, just how important is it compared to other factors that determine project performance and outcomes?

Study into importance of communication

To understand possible linkages between project performance and gauge the importance of communication, a BRANZ-supported University of Auckland study involved 117 participants from the building industry. The study identified issues at three levels – task, project and industry (see Table 1).

Table 1
Some comments received from study participants
QUESTIONEXAMPLE ANSWERS ON FACTORS
Task level Slow decision making by decision makers higher in the hierarchy.
Poor IT services.
Proliferation of communication tools and channels.
Lack of good administration processes, for example, filling out multiple forms.
Too many diverse tasks.
Project level Having the right resources at the right time – ordering and coordination of resources to suit project delivery process.
Client changing their mind, and poor project definition.
Lack of stakeholder identification and involvement.
Lowest-price procurement systems, short-term decision making based on lowest cost.
Industry level Lack of continuity of funding of capital development projects.
Fairness and equity of employment within the industry.
Inadequate level of national resources.
Lack of opportunities for collaboration and joint ventures.
Poor industry profitability.
Lack of economic growth.

Comments were mapped against the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) knowledge areas. These are organisational influences and scope, time, cost, quality, human resource, communication, risk, procurement, stakeholder and integration management.

Participants’ comments related to multiple issues were mapped against all relevant PMBoK knowledge areas.

Many comments on industry-level factors related to matters not covered in PMBoK, such as the wider socio-economic and societal issues. Because of this, a further category was introduced to categorise these matters (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Summary of task, project and industry factors.

Matters of influence identified

A review of the findings indicates that the greatest matters influencing task level performance are organisational influences and communication, followed by scope management issues (see Figure 1). At a project level, matters relating to project integration management predominate.

It is worth being reminded of a project integration management definition from PMBoK. This is, ‘the processes and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify and coordinate the various processes and project management activities’.

Therefore, it makes sense that the integration – coordination – is the main determinant of project performance.

At the construction industry level, our findings show that the influences on performance are predominantly the macro socio-economic and societal issues, such as economic cycles and regulation. Again, there are no real surprises.

Everyone can influence prime success factor

While it is interesting and possibly useful to identify factors that influence performance at an industry level, few people, if any, are in a position to really influence the wider socio-economic factors.

At a project level, however, project leaders and project managers can influence factors such as coordination and integration by being forward looking and exercising effective leadership and efficient management.

At a task level, everybody is in a position to influence what is arguably the prime success factor, which is communication. This underlying level is where there is the greatest risk for getting it wrong and also where the opportunity lies for improvement.

It is here that excellent communication in the day-to-day project decision making really matters.

For more

Read A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK Guide) by the Project Management Institute, Pennsylvania, US.

Download the PDF

More articles about these topics

Articles are correct at the time of publication but may have since become outdated.

Figure 1: Summary of task, project and industry factors.
Figure 1: Summary of task, project and industry factors.
Figure 1: Summary of task, project and industry factors.

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