What are project meetings?
Project meetings are face-to-face or virtual meetings held to make decisions, respond to Stakeholder Requests, discuss Project matters of mutual interest with suppliers, vendors, and other project stakeholders.
Project Meeting types
Following meetings are held on a project:
Procurement Meetings
Like Pre-Bid Conference, Bid Opening, Contract Negotiations, Contract Review Meetings, Procurement Review Meetings, etc.
Project Status Meetings
Review the status of the project; held at a frequency specified in the Communication Management Plan
Standup Meetings
Meetings in which attendees participate while standing. Some software projects envision daily Standup meetings to help team-members coordinate efforts to resolve difficult and/or time-consuming issues
What is a ‘standup meeting’?
Short meetings, briefing day to day activities.
Project Meeting Rules
Project Meetings, other than Standup Meetings, are conducted in accordance with the following rules:
1. Pre-Meeting Rules
- Formulate Rules of Business (ROB)
- Schedule recurring meetings in advance
- Have a purpose of each meeting
- Create an agenda with the team input; distribute it well in advance
- Bring the right people together
- Let people know their responsibilities in advance
2. Rules during the Project Meeting
- Chair, manage and lead, with authority
- Communicate for Effect/Impact
- Stick to the agenda and the ROB
- Assign deliverables and time limits
- Record minutes of meeting (MOM)
3. Post-Meeting Rules
- Finalize & publish MOM asap
- Follow up on deliverables and time limits
Effective communication
Here are some do’s:
Ensure: The Right Message, the Right Content, the Right Audience, the Right Channel, and at the Right Time.
7Cs of Project Communication
Follow 7Cs:
- Correctness (in grammar, spelling & punctuation –beware of autocorrection horror)
- Concision (KISS: Keep It Simple & Short)
- Clarity (in purpose and expression directed to the needs of the reader)
- Coherence (logical flow of arguments)
- Control (of flow and words)
- Courtesy (in choice of words and in salutation)
- Completeness (in format)
Don’ts for Effective communication
- Do not deliver Bad News in written message or by Email
- Be Assertive (stating what you need, while considering the wants and needs of others); do not hesitate to say “No”, and timely “No”
- Respond (to petitions, applications, inquiries, etc.); do not React
- Do not “fit-one-size-to-all” in communication modes/methodologies
- Seek acknowledgement to important messages; do not assume that Your Message has been Received, Read and Understood, or you have understood Other’s Message
- Be mindful of Violating Others’ Privacy accidentally through wrongly addressed email
- Do not communicate too little; it leads to Anxiety; see 7th ‘C’
Managing Project Communications
Communication is key to the success of a Project. To that end:
- The principle “The Right Message, with the Right Content, to the Right Audience, through the Right Channel, and at the Right Time” is followed
- Petitions, applications, queries, inquiries, etc. are promptly Responded to; tendency to React is curbed
- “One-Size-Fits-All” Approach to Communication is avoided
- New people are met with an Open Mind
- Miscommunication and Violation of others’ Privacy are avoided
- Balance is maintained in communication: neither too little, nor too much
Communication Plan
Documents both the communications need of stakeholders and a strategy to meet those needs. Contains:
- what Communication should be prepared, disseminated, and received among all project stakeholders
- how Communication should be named and stored
- who has access to the Communication?
- who has the ability to edit Communication?
- who has responsibility for sending and receiving Project Communication?
- Measures of Effectiveness (MOE) of Communication
