Project management or Program management is the ability of planning, organizing and managing your resources to successfully complete a project/program’s goals and objectives.

Every project or program is managed by the principles of project management. A Project Manager will be assigned for the entire lifespan of that program or project, no matter the size or intensity.

The Project Manager (PM) must have the skills and knowledge to ensure that everything is done in the set timeline of the project and therefore the PM uses appropriate tracking tools according to the PMBOK (Project Manager’s Book of Knowledge) to ensure successful completion. Communication is a core part and has its own knowledge area that should be managed in the PMBOK principal.

It is quite useful to think of project management as being a lot like people management; and this is why communication is so important. A good Project Manager will, first and foremost, have first-rate communication skills and make sure that people understand each other in project teams.

The importance of communication in a project is huge. Careful communication planning and setting the right expectations with all the project stakeholders is extremely important. Face to face initial communication within the project team to establish the team dynamics and learning the customer’s expectations are the keys to success when starting a project. Good relations with the people on the project will ensure good communication.

There are two types of project communication that require planning:

1. Regular or Ongoing Communications
   
   Regular, or ongoing, communications include those opportunities you have to communicate to your project team members, sponsors, steering committee members, and other key stakeholders on a regular basis. These types of communication could include your regular status reports, scheduled project team meetings, monthly updates with the steering committee, or regularly scheduled campus updates on a project.
   
   Use your stakeholder analysis to develop these routine and ongoing communications for the project. Review this plan at regular intervals (quarterly at least) to ensure that you are adequately communicating to those stakeholders who are closest to the project.
2. One-time or Event-driven Communications
   
   During the life of any project, opportunities arise for one-time or event-driven communications. Work with your project team to identify those opportunities. This plan could include critical issues sessions, vendor meetings, training- , and roll-out schedules.