Managing projects FEATURE

SECTION

Key  task  is  to

communicate
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.
BY GARRY MILLER, TEACHING FELLOW, UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND

such as teamwork, effective stakeholder

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
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 import–
ance of communication, a BRANZ-supported
University of Auckland study involved
117 participants from the building

Build 154 — June/July 2016 — 71

 FEATURE Managing projects
SECTION
industry. The study identified issues at three
levels – task, project and industry (see
Table 1).
Comments were mapped against the
Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBoK) knowledge areas. These are organi-
sational influences and scope, time, cost,
quality, human resource, communication,
risk, procurement, stakeholder and integra-
tion 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).
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 integra-
tion – 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
72 — June/July 2016 — Build 154
macro socio-economic and societal issues
integration management
stakeholder management
procurement management
risk management
communication management
human resource management
quality management
Task level
cost management
time management Project level
scope management Industry level
organisational influences
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Figure 1: Summary of task, project and industry factors.
Table 1
Some comments received from study participants
QUESTION EXAMPLE 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.
in a position to really influence the wider This underlying level is where there is the
socio-economic factors. greatest risk for getting it wrong and also
At a project level, however, project leaders where the opportunity lies for improvement.
and project managers can influence factors It is here that excellent communication in
such as coordination and integration by being the day-to-day project decision making really
forward looking and exercising effective lead- matters.
ership and efficient management. For more Read A guide to the project
At a task level, everybody is in a position management body of knowledge (PMBOK Guide)
to influence what is arguably the prime by the Project Management Institute,
success factor, which is communication. Pennsylvania, US.