Competency E

Here in this section I submit two pieces of evidence that demonstrate Competency E: the evidence includes my INFM 204 group project final report and my INFM 205 term project on the importance of communication in project management. While the objectives of these two projects differ, both have a common theme focusing on collaboration and project management practices. Additionally, both pieces of evidence illustrate the importance on stakeholder communication during projects.

 

In the first piece of evidence, the INFM 204 group project final report, my group partner and I wrote a proposed project report detailing our plan to redesign our client’s, Derek Savage Production’s, website. At a high-level, this project report documents our redesign process starting from the business and design objectives, to the content strategy and audit/inventory (e.g. analysis of the website before doing any work to it), to our plans to conduct user research and testing out our prototypes, and to our recommendations to improving the website and its Information Architecture. This project gave me an opportunity to put Competency E into practice, because my group partner and I were able to practice team collaboration with each other, during the creation of the assignment, and we were able to practice communicating with a theoretical stakeholder to solve important data and information problems that are likely causing a negative impact to their business. Effective team collaboration between my group partner and myself was essential to our success on this project.

 

The majority of the assignments at the latter end of our INFM 204 class were geared to working on components that led up to the creation of the final group project report that is displayed here: some of the deliverables that led up to this final product included a proposal and a class seminar presentation (presentation assignment included as evidence in Competency D). To complete the project and other project related deliverables, my group partner and I were able to collaborate with each other remotely through both synchronous and asynchronous means. Throughout our correspondence, during the project, we found synchronous communication to be most effective to discuss high-level and long-term goals, whereas we found asynchronous communication to be effective when trying to divide out smaller tasks and get a general idea of the status of shared project responsibilities. Some of the techniques learned in INFM 205 pertaining to project management skills helped us during the goal setting and planning stages of the project, since we were able to set personal milestones that helped push us to complete deliverables in a timely fashion.

 

Aside from practicing team collaboration with each other during the creation of this assignment, the INFM 204 final group project report gave us a chance to practice communicating to project stakeholders. In this project we were able to pitch and communicate our ideas to our main project stakeholder Derek Savage Productions. We first started the assignment by  identifing some of the weaknesses in the website as it currently stood, then followed by our overall goals that laid out how we intended to help our client’s business with a redesign. After explaining our overall goals, we explained what we did when we conducted our user research and how this feedback can help inform us about user expectations and behaviors that can be incorporated into the redesign in our recommendations section. From practice with communicating to Derek Savage Productions, I learned that it’s crucial to communicate the work we have done and pitch ideas with the project stakeholder when working on organizational data and information solutions, so they can have they options to make informed decisions that best reflects their brand.

 

In the second assignment, the INFM 205 term project on the importance of communication in project management, I examined the role of communication with remote teams, multicultural teams, stakeholders, and others. Although many of the skills of project management focus on understanding what needs to get done and when it needs to get done, communication is an overarching skill that can be applied to the entire discipline. In the paper, I argued that communication is often the most significant factor that can make or break a project. In this assignment, I demonstrated Competency E by examining the role of communication in team collaboration and project management, and how certain communication tools and techniques can be employed to increase the likelihood of project success.

 

In the beginning of the paper, I opened up with a discussion of a four step process that is centered around how to communicate effectively with those involved in the project in general. Next, I discussed communication specifically tailored to teams working in a remote environment where in-person, face-to-face communication may not be possible. After referencing tools, techniques, and best practices with communication in regards to remote teams, I moved on to explore communication with multicultural and international teams and how having cultural awareness can be the key to project success. Finally, I concluded my paper with a discussion on stakeholder communication and communication with others who may are indirectly affected by the project. One of the tools and techniques that I found especially important for communicating with stakeholders and others is expectation management: expectation management allows a project manager to try to meet everyone in the middle, especially when there are conflicting interests, to create an environment of transparency.