In general, the purpose of projects is to satisfy stakeholders. Now consider how much you have to magnfiy that for the manager or executive responsible for overseeing the implementation of many projects.
Project managers often cite timely decisions, sufficient staffing, participation in customer status meetings, and visibility to the team as signs of management support. Yet, maintaining active involvement and oversight for a range of independent projects seems nearly impossible.
A manager with a schedule full of customer and project meetings can feel more like a bottleneck than a productivity multiplier.
The only way to effectively support multiple projects and devote your time to the projects that need it the most is to monitor and control your portfolio using the project control systems. Managers of multiple projects have no choice; they must use SOW, regular status reports, issue logs, and the other control tools to sufficiently understand their project portfolios.
It goes without saying that the company’s overall project management practice must have these activities already built in to their project management methodology and in full use in order for the managers to realize success in using these control tools.
Project managers say that their best supervisors understand the language of project management. This language allows them to speak precisely about problems and progress. Decisions are made based on facts and rational analysis.
When the organization adopts consistent formats for the project management tools, the communication between projects and management becomes even clearer. And we all understand that the effective and efficient flow of communication can make or break the success of the engagements being managed.
The advantage of clear communication in the language of project management extends to customers, support staff, and other stakeholders. More than anything else, clear expectations and consistent, honest communication form the foundation of successful, long-term stakeholder relationships.
After a department in a large organization begins to use the proper project management communication tools, its customers begin to adopt these techniques on their own projects.