Chapter 10. Communications management: Getting the word out
Communications management is about keeping everybody in the loop. Have you ever tried talking to someone in a really loud, crowded room? That’s what running a project is like if you don’t get a handle on communications. Luckily, there’s Communications Management, which is how to get everyone talking about the work that’s being done, so that they all stay on the same page. That way everyone has the information they need to resolve any issues and keep the project moving forward.
Party at the Head First Lounge!
Jeff and Charles want to launch their new Head First Lounge, so they’re going to have a party for the grand opening. They’re thinking of all of the things they need to do: the DJ, the hors d’oeuvres, the drinks, hula dancing. They need to start contacting caterers, DJs, and suppliers to make sure it all goes off without a hitch.
But something’s not right
When Jeff called the caterer and the DJ to request everything he wanted for the party, his old staticky phone made it hard for everybody to understand what he was asking. Sometimes their taste for retro furniture can make things a little difficult.
Anatomy of communication
When you communicate with your team, you need to encode your message into a phone call, a document, an IM chat, or sometimes even a different language for them to understand. Your team then decodes that message so they can get its content. If something happens to your message along the way (static on the phone line, your printer inserts garbage characters, your Internet connection is spotty, or your translation isn’t very good), then your team might not get the intended message. The kind of interference that can alter your message is called noise.
Note
When you’re talking about messages, encoding, decoding, and noise, you’re talking about a communications model.
Match each communication element to what it does.
Sender | The thing used to transmit the message |
Receiver | The person who gets the message |
Medium | Something that interferes with the message |
Feedback | Modifying a message that has been sent so that it can be understood |
Noise | A response to a message |
Encoding | Modifying a message so that it can be sent |
Decoding | The person who needs to initiate the communication |
Answers in What’s My Purpose.
Get a handle on communication
Any kind of communication can have interference. The wrong person can get the message; noise can garble the transmission; you can make mistakes decoding or encoding the message. It turns out that 90% of a project manager’s job is communication, which is why there’s a whole knowledge area devoted to it. The Communications Management processes are here to help you avoid these common kinds of errors, through planning and careful tracking of stakeholder communications on your project. Just like every other knowledge group we’ve covered so far, it all starts with a plan.
90% of a project manager’s job is communication
Find out who your stakeholders are
One of the first things you need to do when you start a project is to figure out who your stakeholders are and what you need to do to keep them all in the loop. The Identify Stakeholders process is all about writing down your stakeholders’ names along with their goals, expectations, and concerns in a document called the Stakeholder Register. Most projects succeed or fail based on how well the Project Manager knows and manages stakeholder expectations. Writing them down up front will help you to come up with a strategy to help people who don’t buy into your project to see the value in what you’re doing.
Stakeholder Analysis is a critical tool in this process. You need to interview all of the stakeholders you can find for your project and find out the value the project has for them. As you sit with stakeholders, you’ll identify more people to interview.
During Stakeholder Analysis you can divide your stakeholders into groups based on their level of involvement and need for communication. When you understand what motivates all of your stakeholders, you can come up with a strategy to make sure that they’re told about the things that they find important, and that they’re not bored with extraneous details.
Expert Judgment in this process means talking to all of the experts on your project to identify more stakeholders and learn more about the ones you’ve identified
When you get started on your project, the first thing you should do is examine the charter and any contract information you have to figure out who will be impacted by it. Once you have a preliminary list, you should sit down with each one of them and figure out their responsiblities, goals, expectations, and concerns. These interviews will be the basis for the Stakeholder Profiles in your Stakeholder Register. As you interview people, you’ll likely find more stakeholders to include in the list.
It’s not enough to know who your stakeholders are – you need to understand what motivates them, and what it will take it to make the project a success for each of them. That’s where the Stakeholder Management Strategy comes in.
Stakeholder | Stakeholder Group | Current Level of Buy-In | Incentive to Buy-in | Desired Level of Buy-In |
Jeff | Head First Lounge Employee | Commitment | More $$ for the lounge | Commitment |
Charles | Head First Lounge Employee | Commitment | More $$ for the lounge | Commitment |
DJ Tom | Head First Lounge Employee | Commitment | Better reputation | Commitment |
Adam | Neighbor | Understanding | Peace and quiet | Acceptance |
Mike the Blogger | Press | Understanding | More site hits | Commitment |
Mark and Laura | Guests | Acceptance | A good party | Commitment |
One way to get a handle on the best way to communicate with your stakeholders is to create a Power/Interest Grid. When you plot your stakeholders on a Power/Interest Grid, you can determine who has high or low power to affect your project, and who has high or low interest. People with high power need to be kept satisfied, while people with high interest need to be kept informed. When a stakeholder has both, make sure you manage their expectations very closely!
This is the Plan Communications process. You’ve seen a lot of planning processes now. Can you fill in the Inputs and Outputs for this one?
Tools
Communications Requirements Analysis means figuring out what kind of communication your stakeholders need from the project so that they can make good decisions. Your project will produce a lot of information; you don’t want to overwhelm every member of your project team with all of it. Your job here is to figure out what all of them feel they need to stay informed and to be able to do their jobs properly.
Here’s an example: Jeff and Charles will definitely care about the cost of the overall catering contract, but they don’t need to talk to the caterer’s butcher, liquor supplier, grocer, or other companies they work with.
Communications Models demonstrate how the various people associated with your project send and receive their information. You’ve already learned about this—it’s the messages you send, how you encode and decode the messages, the medium you use to transmit the messages, the noise that blocks the messages, and the feedback you get.
Communications Technology has a major impact on how you can keep people in the loop. It’s a lot easier for people to get information on their projects if it’s all accessible through a web site than it is if all of your information is passed around by paper memos. The technologies available to you will definitely figure into your plan of how you will keep everyone notified of project status and issues.
Communications Methods are how you actually share the information with your stakeholders. Communications can be interactive, where everyone exchanges information with each other. You can push information out to your stakeholders by sending out emails, memos, faxes, or other one-way communications. Or, if you need to get a lot of information out to people, they can pull it down themselves from intranet websites, e-learning courses, or libraries.
Note
Before you turn the page, take a minute and think of three examples of how you used each of these methods on your last project. That’ll help you remember them for the exam!
This is the Plan Communications process. You’ve seen a lot of planning processes now. Can you fill in the Inputs and Outputs for this one?
Tools
Communications Requirements Analysis means figuring out what kind of communication your stakeholders need from the project so that they can make good decisions. Your project will produce a lot of information; you don’t want to overwhelm every member of your project team with all of it. Your job here is to figure out what all of them feel they need to stay informed and to be able to do their jobs properly.
Here’s an example: Jeff and Charles will definitely care about the cost of the overall catering contract, but they don’t need to talk to the caterer’s butcher, liquor supplier, grocer or other companies they work with.
Communications Methods and Models means knowing how you’ll get the message across.
These tools are pretty important when you’re running your projects, so here are a few questions to think about.
Will you be using emails? Meetings? Documents? How will you know when the message has been received? What will you do to deal with any noise along the way?
It’s also important to keep track of your methods for communicating. How do you typically handle communications methods on your projects?
Push—How do you and your team send messages on a periodic basis to the stakeholders?
Interactive—How often do you you sit down and discuss messages and answer questions on them?
Pull—Where do you post information publicly so that stakeholders can get it when they need it?t
Enterprise Environmental Factors Organizational Process Assets Stakeholder Register Stakeholder Management Strategy
Communications Technology has a major impact on how you can keep people in the loop. It’s a lot easier for people to get information on their projects if it’s all accessible through a web site than it is if all of your information is passed around by paper memos. The technologies available to you will definitely figure into your plan of how you will keep everyone notified of project status and issues.
Tell everyone what’s going on
Once you have the communication plan completed, it’s time to start making sure that everybody is getting the information that they need to help your project succeed. The Distribute Information process is all about making sure that the right information makes it to the right people.
Communication methods There are a lot of different ways to get a message across. For the test you will need to know four different kinds of communication, and when to use them.
Choose which kind of communication is being used in each situation.
You and your business analysts write a requirements specification for your project.
You call up a supplier for materials for your project to let him or her know that you are a week late, so he’s got a little flexibility in his delivery schedule.
You present your project’s status to your company’s executive committee.
You send an email to some of your team members to get more information about an issue that has been identified on your project.
You leave a voicemail message for your test team lead following up on an issue he or she found.
You IM with your team members.
You prepare an RFP (request for proposals) for vendors to determine which of them will get a chance to contract a new project with your company.
Answers in Exercise Solution.
Watch it!
Be careful about when you use different kinds of communication. Any time you need to get a message to a client or sponsor, you use formal communication. Meetings are always informal verbal, even if the meeting is to say something really important. And any project document—like a project management plan, a requirements specification, or especially a contract—is always formal written.
Get the message?
Communication is about more than just what you write and say. Your facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice, and the context you are in have a lot to do with whether or not people will understand you. Effective communication takes the way you act and sound into account. Most of the communication on your project takes place during the Distribute Information process, so you need to know how to communicate effectively. There are a important aspects to effective communication:
Nonverbal communication means your gestures, facial expressions, and physical appearance while you are communicating your message. Imagine what Jeff and Charles would think of the caterer if he negotiated the contract for their party while wearing a chicken suit. They probably wouldn’t take him very seriously. You don’t always think about it, but the way you behave can say more than your words when you are trying to get your message across.
Note
When you’re communicating with other people, you actually do more nonverbal communication than verbal!
Paralingual communication is the tone and pitch of your voice when you’re talking to people. If you sound anxious or upset, that will have an impact on the way people take the news you are giving. You use paralingual communication all the time—it’s a really important part of how you communicate. When your tone of voice makes it clear you’re really excited about something, or if you’re speaking sarcastically, that’s paralingual communication in action.
Note
If someone has dread in his voice when he tells you about a promotion, you get a much different impression than if he’d emailed you about it.
Feedback is when you respond to communication. The best way to be sure people know you are listening to them is to give lots of feedback. Some ways of giving feedback are summarizing their main points back to them, letting them know that you agree with them, or asking questions for clarification When you give a lot of feedback to someone who is speaking, that’s called active listening.
Note
Like effective communication, effective listening is about taking everything the speaker says and does into consideration and asking questions when you don’t understand.
You do most of the project communication when you’re performing the Distribute Information process.
Jeff and Charles are interviewing new bartenders to help with the expanded space. Choose which kind of communication is being used in each situation.
One applicant came in 30 minutes late and was dressed unprofessionally. The guys knew that he would not be a good fit for the position.
Charles asked an applicant about her background. Her tone of voice was really sarcastic, and he got the impression she didn’t take the job seriously. Charles and Jeff decided to pass on her, too.
Charles asked the next applicant if he knew how to make a sidecar. He said “A sidecar? Sure. It’s one part brandy or cognac, one part Cointreau, and one part lemon juice.”
Then the applicant told them about his background as a bartender for other retro clubs. As he spoke, he made eye contact with them and made sure to confirm agreement with them.
Answers in What’s My Purpose.
More Distribute Information tools
The tools in this process area are all about getting information from your team and making sure that the information makes it to the people who need it. As you learn more about your project, you write down decisions you make and everything you learn on the project as lessons learned, and update your Organizational Process Assets to include them.
Communication methods are the specific methods you use to distribute information to your team... and you’ve already learned about them!
Information distribution tools are how you get the information your team needs to do the job. You might have an inbox where everyone puts their status information. If it’s printed out on paper, you’re doing hard copy document distribution. You could also use electronic communication. For example, you might use email, or you could have a software application that gathers information about your project and saves it to a database so that you can make your reports. Or your company might have electronic tools for project management, like a timesheet system for tracking hours spent on a project or a budgeting system for tracking expenditures. All of those are information gathering and retrieval systems because the data they produce will be used to make decisions about your project.
Organizational Process Asset updates
You’ve used lessons learned from all of the other projects your company has done as you’ve planned out your work. Here’s where you get a chance to give your project’s experience back to the company and to help future project managers learn from what’s happened on your project. You’ll put a lot of information into your organizational process asset library:
Any stakeholder notifications you send need to be kept, because they could be important later on. And if you get feedback from them, you should save that, too!
Project reports and presentations are really useful to refer back to if your project runs into trouble
Any records from your project (like memos, important emails, announcements, or other documents) need to be added and organized in your process asset library.
One of your most important outputs...
Lessons learned are all of the corrective and preventative actions that you have had to take on your project, and anything you have learned along the way. And one of the most valuable things you’ll do for future project managers is write them down and add them to your company’s Organizational Process Asset library. That way, other people can learn from your experience.
There are only four communication types; formal written, informal written, formal verbal, and informal verbal. For the test, you need to be able to tell which is which.
Let everyone know how the project’s going
You spend a lot of time collecting valuable information about how your projects are doing. So what do you do with it? You communicate it. And that’s what the Report Performance process is for: taking the information you gathered about how work is being done and distributing it to the stakeholders who need to make decisions about the project.
Note
Remember, the team members are all stakeholders, too—and this information is especially important to them.!
It all starts with Work Performance Information
You create one of the most important outputs of your entire project when the team is doing the project work in Direct and Manage Execution. Work Performance Information tells you the status of each deliverable in the project, what the team’s accomplished, and all of the information you need to know in order to figure out how your project’s going. But you’re not the only one who needs this—your team members and stakeholders need to know what’s going on, so they can adjust their work and correct problems early on.
Take a close look at the work being done
Work performance information isn’t the only information you need to figure out how the project is going. There are a whole lot of outputs from the Executing processes that you need to look at if you really want to get a clear picture of your project.
Report Performance takes the outputs from the Executing process in Distribute Information and turns them into Performance Reports and Forecasts.
Relax
Performance reports and forecasts are a lot easier than they look—because you already know all about them!
Take a minute and flip back to Cost Control in Chapter 7. You learned how to use CPI and SPI to measure your project’s performance, and you used EAC and ETC to forecast when the project would be complete. Now you’re just taking that information and communicating it!
Report Performance is one of those PMBOK® Guide processes that’s really familiar to a lot of project managers. Can you figure out what each of its tools and techniques is for just from the name?
Variance Analysis
Forecasting Methods
Communication Methods
Reporting Systems
Report Performance is one of those PMBOK® Guide processes that’s really familiar to a lot of project managers. Can you figure out what each of its tools and techniques is for just from the name?
Variance Analysis
Looking at performance data to see how it varies from the baseline
Forecasting Methods
Using Earned Value and other Forecasting methods to find out whether we’re on budget and on schedule.
Note
There’s a whole lot of information floating around on a project, and it’s your job to get a good handle on all of it. You need to talk to people, take measurements, make forecasts, go through deliverables, and generally get your nose in everything in order to really figure out where the project is. And once you get all of that information, you need to put it together so it makes sense and is easy to work with.
Communication Mehods
Deciding on Push, Pull, or Interactive methods of communicating
Note
You need to figure out up front how you’ll keep everybody informed and make sure everyone knows where to get project information.
Reporting Systems
A system to keep track of how much time and money people spend doing work
Note
A lot of people use specialized computer systems to keep track of time and cost. But sometimes all you need is a couple of spreadsheets to get the job done. The important thing is that you’ve got an organized way of keeping track of the time people are putting into the project and how much money is being spent.
Now you can get the word out
Now that you’ve gathered up all the information about how the project’s being done, it’s time to get it out to the people who need it. The outputs from Report Performance shouldn’t be particularly surprising... you’re just packaging up the information you collected and turning it all into stuff that’s easy to distribute to all the stakeholders. You’ve got three outputs from the process:
Performance Reports are the most important output of the process—which shouldn’t be a surprise, since the process is called Report Performance. Your performance reports tell everyone exactly how the project is doing, and how far off it is from its time, cost, and scope baselines. These include forecasts, which are what you turn your EAC and ETC numbers into. That way, everyone has a good idea of when the project is going to finish.
Organizational Process Asset Updates need to be added—especially your lessons learned. There are always a lot of lessons to be learned when you’re gathering this kind of project information.
Note
Did you find a variance when you compared your forecasts against the baseline? Make sure you add that to the lessons learned!
Change requests happen when you do Report Performance. What do you do if you find out that your forecasts have your project coming in too late or over budget? You put the change request in as soon as possible. And if you need the project to change course, you’ll need to recommend corrective actions to the team.
Brain Power
Report Performance is about more than just telling people how the project is doing. It’s also about finding problems. What kind of problems are you likely to uncover when you sit down with stakeholders and put together your performance reports and forecasts?
Take some time to sit back and give your right brain something to do. It’s your standard crossword; all of the solution words are from this chapter.
Across | Down |
3. __________ listening is when a listener uses both verbal and nonverbal clues like nodding or repeating the listener’s words to communicate that the message has been received. 4. Most communication on a project takes place in the __________ Information process. 6. A stakeholder with high interest and low power must be kept ________ of your project’s progress. 10. When a message is received, the receiver needs to ________ the message before it can be understood. 11. This interferes with a message sent from a sender to a receiver. 12. A contract is always ________communication. 13. The communication model you use when you send email announcements. 14. This kind of communication includes vocal but nonverbal signals, such as changing the pitch and tone of voice. | 1. A stakeholder with low interest and high power needs to be kept _______ with the project. 2. Information should be distributed to all________. 5. According to the PMBOK® Guide, ________percent of project management is communication. 7. You consult the Stakeholder _________ to understand your stakeholders’ goals and expectations. 8. A conversation in a hallway is an example of_______ verbal communication. 9. You can use the ETC and EAC calculations from Cost Management to create ______. 13. When your stakeholders get information from an intranet web site, you’re using this communication model. |
Answers in Communicationcross.
People aren’t talking!
There’s so much information floating around on any project, and if you’re not careful it won’t get to the people who need it. That’s why so much of your job is communication—if you don’t stay on top of all of it, your project can run into some serious trouble!
Problems
The caterer’s serving food that doesn’t go with the drinks or theme.
The DJ and the band want to set up in the same place.
All the guests are telling us they like different food.
Has anyone even talked to the neighbors about the noise?
Three people are bringing friends, but nobody told the caterer.
The Manage Stakeholder Expectations process is a typical Monitoring & Controlling process. You already know the inputs, tools & techniques, and outputs! See if you can figure out what the outputs and tools & techniques do from their names, and write down a description for each of them.
Communications Methods
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
Interpersonal Skills
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
Management Skills
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
Note
Since the Manage Stakeholder Expectations process is all about resolving communications issues that the stakeholders experience, the tools are focused on communicating with the stakeholders about those issues.
Manage Stakeholder Expectations process
Change Requests
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
Project Document Updates
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
Organizational Process Asset Updates
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
Project Management Plan Updates
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
Note
How will the outputs be used to communicate with stakeholders? Don’t forget that every team member is a stakeholder!
The Manage Stakeholder Expectations process is a typical Monitoring & Controlling process. You already know the inputs, tools & techniques, and outputs! See if you can figure out what the outputs and tools & techniques do from their names, and write down a description for each of them.
Note
Kickoff meetings are really important for any project. You should bring everyone together, go over lessons learned from previous projects, and make sure that each stakeholder knows how communication is supposed to happen. This can help prevent problems down the line.
This is where you decide how you’ll keep people in the loop using push methods, interactive methods or pull methods.
Interpersonal Skills
This is where you use your “soft skills” to keep everybody on track and working toward the same goal.
Management Skills
This is where you gather important information about your project and use it to make decisions about how to keep the team on track.
A kickoff meeting is a great way to get your project team and stakeholders on the same page.
Manage Stakeholder Expectations process
Change Requests
These are any changes to the project plan or other documents that involve stakeholder communication.___________
Project Document Updates
These are any updates to previously written project documents that come from the communication process.___________
Organizational Process Asset Updates
Any lessons learned from talking to stakeholders are added to the Organizational Process Assets.___________
Project Management Plan Updates
Approved changes actually need to be made to the project plan.___________
Count the channels of communication
How many people need to talk to each other? Well, Jeff and Charles need to talk. But what about the DJ and the band? They wanted to set up their equipment in the same place—it looks like they need to talk, too. And the bartender needs to coordinate with the caterer... Wow, this is starting to get complicated. A good project manager needs to get a handle on all this communication, because it’s really easy to lose track of it. That’s why you need to know how to count the channels of communication on any project.
Counting communication lines the easy way
Note
Sometimes you’ll see communications channels referred to as “lines.” You might see it either way on the exam, so we’ll use both terms here to get you used to them.
It would be really easy to get overwhelmed if you tried to count all the lines of communication by hand. Luckily, there’s a really easy way to do it by using a simple formula. Take the total number of people on the project—including the project manager—and call that number n. Then all you need to do is plug that number into this simple formula:
So, how many more lines of communication were added when three more people joined the three-person project above? You know there were three lines to start with. So now just figure out how many lines there are for 6 people:
When you added three more people to the three-person project—that had three lines of communication—the new team has 15 lines. So you added 12 channels of communication.
You’ll need to know how to calculate the number of lines of communication for the exam... but don’t worry; it’s really easy, once you get a little practice.
You’re managing a project with five people on the team, plus one additional stakeholder—the sponsor. Draw in all the channels of communication on this picture.
Wow, that was a lot of work. Luckily, you won’t need to do that again. Now do it the easy way: use the formula to figure out how many lines of communication there are for seven people.
Okay, now let’s say that you’ve added two team members and two more stakeholders, so there are now 11 people on the project who need to communicate with one other. How many lines did you add?
First figure out how many lines there are for 11 people:
So how many lines were added when four people joined the seven-person project?
Answers in Sharpen your pencil Solution.
You should add all of your performance reports to the Organizational Process Assets so that project managers on future projects can use them as historical information.
It’s party time!
The Head First Lounge party is a big hit! Everything came together beautifully, and Jeff and Charles are the new downtown sensation!
Question Clinic: The Calculation Question
Try coming up with your own calculation question! But this time, try using one of the Earned Value formulas from Chapter 7.
Join the Head First PMP community at http://www.headfirstlabs.com/PMP You can add your Head Libs answer, and see what Head Libs other project managers came up with!
Jeff and Charles are interviewing new bartenders to help with the expanded space. Choose which kind of communication is being used in each situation.
One applicant came in 30 minutes late, and was dressed unprofessionally. The guys knew that he would not be a good fit for the position.
Charles asked an applicant about her background. Her tone of voice was really sarcastic, and he got the impression she didn’t take the job seriously. Charles and Jeff decided to pass on her too.
Charles asked the next applicant if he knew how to make a sidecar. He said “A sidecar? Sure. It’s one part brandy or cognac, one part Cointreau, and one part lemon juice.”
Then the applicant told them about his background as a bartender for other retro clubs. As he spoke, he made eye contact with them and made sure to confirm agreement with them.
Choose which kind of communication is being used in each situation.
You and your business analysts write a requirements specification for your project.
You call up a supplier for materials for your project to let him or her know that you are a week late, so he’s got a little flexibility in his delivery schedule.
You present your project’s status to your company’s executive committee.
You send an email to some of your team members to get more information about an issue that has been identified on your project.
You leave a voicemail message for your test team lead following up on an issue he or she found.
You IM with your team members.
You prepare an RFP (request for proposals) for vendors to determine which of them will get a chance to contract a new project with your company.
Take some time to sit back and give your right brain something to do. It’s your standard crossword; all of the solution words are from this chapter.
You’ll need to know how to calculate the number of lines of communication for the exam... but don’t worry, It’s really easy, once you get a little practice.
You’re managing a project with five people on the team, plus one additional stakeholder—the sponsor. Draw in all the channels of communication on this picture.
Wow, that was a lot of work. Luckily, you won’t need to do that again. Now do it the easy way: use the formula to figure out how many lines of communication there are for seven people.
Okay, now let’s say that you’ve added two team members and two more stakeholders, so there are now 11 people on the project who need to communicate with one other. How many lines did you add?
First figure out how many lines there are for 11 people:
So how many lines were added when four people joined the seven-person project?
1. Answer: B
Any communication that can be used for legal purposes is considered formal written communication. An invoice is a formal document.
2. Answer: C
Information gathering techniques are part of Distribute Information but not part of Plan Communications.
3. Answer: A
The Communication Plan is the first thing you need to create in this situation. It will help you organize the meetings that are taking place and get everyone on the same page. The communication plan will help you to streamline communications so that the customer can use you as a single point of contact, too.
4. Answer: D
Paralingual communication happens when additional information is conveyed by the tone or pitch of your voice. It’s when you use more than just words to communicate.
5. Answer: B
When you look at work performance information, you’re in the Report Performance process. And what do you do with the work performance information? You compare it against the baselines to see if your project is on track! If it isn’t, that’s when you want to get the word out as quickly as possible.
6. Answer: A
Note
A lot of people choose B here. Don’t forget to include yourself! Look out for questions like this on the exam too.
The formula for lines of communication is n × (n–1) ÷ 2. In this problem there were seven people named, plus you. (8 × 7) ÷ 2 = 28.
7. Answer: D
All of the other options show the speaker that you understand what they are saying. That’s active listening.
Note
Active listening sometimes means saying things like “I agree,” or “can you explain that a little further?”
8. Answer: A
This question is just asking if you know the definitions of encode, decode, and feedback. Encoding is making a message ready for other people to understand, while decoding it involves receiving the message and understanding it. Feedback means letting the sender know that you got the message.
9. Answer: C
Note
Anytime you see anything about a formal document in communication with a client, it’s formal written.
Anytime you are communicating with the customer about the scope of your project, it’s a good idea to use formal written communication.
10. Answer: A
He has to encode his message so that others will understand it.
11. Answer: A
(15 × 14) ÷ 2 = 105 This one is just asking if you know the formula n × (n–1) ÷ 2.
12. Answer: D
Report Performance is the only Monitoring & Controlling process in Communications Management.
13. Answer: B
There are now 12 team members, five sponsors and a project manager. That gives you 18 people. Use the formula: n × (n – 1) ÷ 2 to calculate this: 18 × 17 ÷ 2 = 153.
Note
Did you get one of the other answers? Make sure you included the five sponsors and the project manager!
14. Answer: B
The idea behind forecasts is that you are using the Earned Value calculations that forecast the completion of the project to set everyone’s expectations. That’s why you use EAC (which helps you estimate your project’s total cost) and ETC (which gives you a good idea of how much more money you think you’ll spend between now and when it ends).
15. Answer: C
There are plenty of ways that communication can go wrong. When you send email to the wrong person, your communication had trouble—but that’s not noise. Noise is the specific thing that interferes with the communication. In this case, the garbled text is a great example of noise.