Mentoring & Coaching - 7 - Project Communication Management

The construction project has many people and specialized teams at the worksite every day. Frequent communication between the team leads is critical for safety and efficiency. Which agile ceremony can this project incorporate to increase timely cross-functional communication? Which of the following outputs is missing from the list?

• Iteration reviews
• Risk-based spikes
• Retrospectives
• Daily standups

The project manager provides a project status report at the end of each sprint as mandated by the communications management plan. However, during a sprint retrospective, a scrum team member states that some stakeholders are asking for interim updates, which causes a distraction from the development work. What is the project manager's best course of action?

• Capture the information in the issue log as an impediment and assign the problem to the project sponsor for follow up
• Ask the stakeholders to stop contacting the development team and tell them to wait until the project status report is issued
• Invite the stakeholders to the sprint review meetings so they can see the progress being made so far on the project
• Utilize information radiators, including burn charts, to communicate project status and refer stakeholders to those resources

You are managing a project in which several contractors are being hired to complete project work. As you receive the signed contracts from the contractors, you file them in the project folder where they wait for approval by an appointed member of senior management. The onboarding process is slower than anticipated, and your project starts out behind schedule. What was the most likely cause of the problem?

• Noise between encoding and decoding of the message
• Lack of test and evaluation documents
• The use of push communications
• The use of pull communications

Which of the following is a tool and technique of the Monitor Communications process?

• Strategies for threats
• Performance reviews
• Project management information systems
• Contingent response strategies

Once a quarter, a project manager invites managers from various departments to the project team meetings. Although these managers are not involved in the project, the project manager invites them because this is what she was doing in her previous organization. However, when any of these managers attend the meetings, their questions cause the meeting to run late. What should have been done differently?

• Starting the meeting by stating the objectives
• Following up the meeting with minutes
• Preparing and distributing an agenda
• Inviting the appropriate participants

A key stakeholder has been resistant to the project's objectives, and the support of this stakeholder is vital to the success of the project. The project manager has employed various engagement strategies which have been ineffective and needs to determine the underlying reason that stakeholder engagement is not having the planned effect. What should the project manager do next?

• Develop a stakeholder engagement assessment matrix
• Conduct data analysis
• Submit a change request to update the stakeholder engagement plan
• Perform an alternative analysis

The project team is just starting the process of developing approaches to involve project stakeholders based on their needs, expectations, interests, and potential impact on the project. In support of this process, the project manager is advising the team to review information regarding the project purpose, objectives, and success criteria. What is the best way for the team to obtain this information?

• Ask the project sponsor
• Study the stakeholder engagement plan
• Examine the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix
• Review the project charter

A project to develop self-service ordering kiosks for an international fast-food chain has begun its execution. Although the project scope was rigorously defined, the team members felt they hit a wall each time they tried to develop the next work package. The project manager decides that the team should work closely with the customer and end-users in a co-creative process. Which of the following would be the most likely outcome of this collaboration?

• Increased level of detail in the resource breakdown structure
• Decreased velocity and higher work in progress (WIP) limits
• Stronger bond between the project manager and scrum master
• Improved stakeholder involvement and higher satisfaction

A new director of business development has just been hired. Recent focus groups revealed several promising concepts he is interested in pursuing. But first, he needs to know what projects are in progress to determine what his involvement should be. The director requests the project managers in each office send him high-level information on authorized and currently active projects. What document would best fulfill the director's request?

• Approved business case
• Approved project register
• Approved project management plan
• Approved project charter

Project facilities, resources, and stakeholders are geographically distributed. The project manager understands that under these circumstances, communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs and expectations, address issues, and foster their involvement will be challenging. What does this challenge represent?

• Organizational process assets
• Enterprise environmental factors
• Resource breakdown structure
• Logistical factors