Project Planning - Human Capital

Project Planning – Human Capital Paper

The use of communication to maintain effective teamwork is essential to the parking garage project. Team A has outlined key points in the parking garage project such as communication management, team selection, project revisions, and performance monitoring.

Communication Management

Communications Management is important to keep the members of a project management team up-to-date on the progress of the project. A communication plan clarifies how the project manager will communicate significant information to the stakeholders who need to know. The goals, strategies, activities, timeframes, and stakeholders are explained in the communication plan. Communication must be provided to project stakeholders so tasks are completed on schedule and conflicts can be resolved.

Processes can breakdown when communication among the team members and project stakeholders is not sufficient. Communication breakdown could in turn result in unfavorable outcomes of the final project such as additional costs or time overruns. A communication plan will ascertain what information needs to be communicated to the management and the customer. That information must be reported in a timely manner and readily available. Reports should be provided with the status of the project, and measures of the progress of the project. Forecasting can occur when reporting if tasks are on time, on whether or not the project is within the budget and within the scope of the project. Performance can be measured by comparing real progress to projected progress.

Communications management is the basic skill set of developing an agenda to manage meetings, and plans for resolution of conflicts. Deciding the appropriate method of communication, whether it should be an informal memo or a formal report, a face-to-face meeting or e-mail messaging, are dependent upon the stakeholders. Presentation techniques can include the use of visual aids such as PowerPoint presentations. Possible barriers that influence the project or conflicts that may occur to interrupt or delay the project should be communicated quickly. Examples are labor strike anywhere along the supply chain, or extreme weather that could include tornado, flood, or earthquake.

Documents that provide information can be posted to the company website on a monthly basis. E-mail bulletins can be sent out regularly. Weekly status meetings to brief management with presentations showing the status of the current stage of the project should be scheduled. A meeting should occur every six weeks to update management on the current state of the project.

Team Selection

The task of building a parking structure requires strict focus toward the project. Such focus is not typical of a functional structure, which leaves the pure project and matrix structures the alternatives of