CASE STUDY [30 Marks]

PROJECT COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT IN A GLOBAL VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT Martina Murawski Communication Plan Meeting the data needs of project stakeholders is the central goal of the Communication Management Plan. According to Kogon, Blakemore, and Wood (2015), Project stakeholders can be defined as "The individuals and organizations that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be affected as a result of project execution or project completion" (p. 44). For this reason, it's essential for a project manager to be as thorough as possible when defining the project stakeholders. Stakeholders can often be overlooked if the initial process is hurried. Taking time at the beginning of the project to develop a comprehensive stakeholder discovery process will help to keep the project on track. Another essential step in the communication process is developing a thorough information delivery method. Establishing multiple communication tools allows us to unify processes such as what to use for conference calls, video conferencing, scheduling, and instant messaging. Setting clear communication channels contributes to creating a feeling of unity among team members. In order to mitigate any issues that might result in poor project performance and to create an atmosphere for project success, a Communication Matrix must be developed. According to McLarnon, O'Neill, Taras, Law, and Donia (2019), "without frequent communication, team members may be "flying blind" with respect to the activities, behaviors, and challenges faced by other members and can result in weaker integration of individuals' efforts and accomplishments" (p.208). Other items necessary for successful virtual project management are standardized reporting methods, both structured and informal meetings and clear and detailed deliverables. The communication matrix is used as an assessment tool. This tool will help to identify how project team members will communicate and provide the basis for our communication goals. The distinctiveness of the virtual team brings various risks mainly inherent in these types of collaboration settings. Therefore, it is imperative to be proactive in dealing with virtual project communication risks by developing a concrete Communication plan in order to help mitigate the possibility of project failure. A risk factor is a situation that may give rise to one or more project risks. A risk factor itself doesn't cause you to miss a product, schedule, or resource target. However, it increases the chances that something may happen that will cause you to miss one (Schnetler, Steyn, & Van Staden, 2015). For this reason, the project team tracked and determined the risk factors associated with the virtual global initiative by having brainstorming sessions to pinpoint risks and utilizing the Communication Risk Register Murawski, M., (2019) Project Communication Management in a Global Virtual Environment. Global Project Communication. Academia. Answer ALL the questions in this section.

Question 1 (10 Marks)

Discuss the uses of the Communication Matrix and provide reasons as to why such a tool is developed.

Question 2 (10 Marks) As per the extract, define the concept of project stakeholder management and justify as to why it is important for project managers to identify and define them in a project.

Question 3 (10 Marks) Define a risk factor and state reasons as to why it is important to note the concept in developing a virtual communication plan

NB! Answer must be in 2000 words with 5 academic references .(These include textbooks,journal articles and internet sources that are relevant .