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University System of Maryland

Effective Communication for Program and Project Stakeholders and Teams

University System of Maryland and University of Maryland, College Park via edX

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Overview

“Everyone communicates, but few connect” is a famous book and message by John C. Maxwell on leadership. The meaning behind this message is that as leaders of programs and projects, we need to be not just communicators, but effective communicators.

Obtaining your Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) or similar project management certificate is the first step. But, as you gain program management and project management experience, you realize that effective communication goes beyond what you learned in "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge" (PMBOK).

Gaining a program management certification or project management certification (such as the PMP certification) equips you with the necessary project management tools to begin your project or project management career. There is more to effective program and project communication than what is on the PMP exam.

For communication from program managers and project managers to be truly effective, there must be understanding beyond what you learned from your professional certification. The communicator and the receiver must use feedback to determine how the message was received and if the communicator created the intended level of understanding in the receiver for the communication to succeed.

In this course, you will learn about the Understanding Triad - know-what, know-how, and know-why. The Understanding Triad aids you in crafting just the right level of explanation for all your audiences. The Understanding Triad will make you a more effective program manager, traditional project manager, agile project manager, or certified scrum master.

The Project Management Institute, Inc (PMI) teaches that project management communication is the transfer of information. The project or program manager sends messages to their project teams, stakeholders, customers, and executive sponsors. If the program manager or project manager believes that communicating a clear message is enough for good communication, then the manager may be fooled into thinking their communication efforts are complete. Even if there is feedback, the feedback is usually limited to confirming that the message was received as intended. However, communication is not merely the transmission of information. The difference can be days, months, or years of wasted time and effort; or successful, early delivery.

Certified program and certified project managers earn 10 professional development units (PDU) as they learn how communication can make a difference in every interaction, and become a truly effective program or project manager. Gain the power skill of communication in this certificate program.

Syllabus

Week One - Defining Communication

Module One - The Transmission Model of Communication

Module Two - The Emergence Model of Communication

Module Three - Program and Project Management Communication - Tasks, Resources, and Schedules

Module Four - Program and Project Management Communication - Visioning and Building a Team

Week Two - Creating Messages to be Understood

Module One - The Building Blocks of a Message

Module Two - What is Understanding - Know-What

Module Three - What is Understanding - Know-How

Module Four - What is Understanding - Know-Why

Module Five - Putting It All Together With Building Blocks

Week Three - Feedback and Understanding

Module One - What is Good Feedback?

Module Two - How to Give Good Feedback

Module Three - How to Use Feedback for Testing Understanding

Module Four - Incorporating Continuous Feedback into Your Project

Module Five - Putting It All Together and Preview of the Next Module

Week Four - Audience Analysis

Module One - The Different Audiences in a Program or Project

Module Two - What Information Does Each Audience Need

Module Three - Balancing the Understanding Triad in Your Message

Module Four - Troubleshooting Understanding

Taught by

Bill Brantley

Reviews

4.5 rating, based on 46 Class Central reviews

Start your review of Effective Communication for Program and Project Stakeholders and Teams

  • Anonymous
    I was really enjoying the course and feel the content was useful. However, I did not feel the course was professionally executed. There were typos, which is ironic for a communications course. There were also technical issues with the videos when we got to Week 4. 2 videos didn't match the transcript and it took several weeks to get it fixed for the first one so I just read the transcript for the second one so I wouldn't have to wait for it. In addition, there was a question on the final exam that I believe had the wrong answer. So the quality at the end was not what I hoped it to be and will not be paying to get a verification certificate on any other course as it is not worth the money in my opinion.
  • Anonymous
    I found the course extremely useful to my profession. I enjoyed the videos and the presenter's slides. I have learnt a lot about project or programs communication: understanding triad: the know-what, know-how and know-why. It's a course I would recommend to anyone.
  • Anonymous
    Good fundamental course on right from communication models to the importance of mapping stakeholders and using communication to effectively complete the projects. The videos are good and duration is apt.
  • Pauline Njoki Nyaga
    The course was well structured and illustrated. It was really enjoyable and educative. I loved the way summary notes were provided after the animations and additional resource information.

  • Anonymous
    This was a good course but for me some of the information was repeat knowledge from what I have learned over the years in my field. I would recommend it to others.
  • Anonymous
    It seems a little confusing with all those charts. But, I gathered some very productive information that will be useful going forward
  • Arwa Abdelhalim Mohammed
    The course was well structured and very informative and I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to starting other courses.
  • Profile image for Arianne Melara
    Arianne Melara
    I really enjoyed this course and learned a lot. I find it very helpful to have both videos and text as the content can respond and meet the needs of diverse learners. I do think that the videos could be improved a bit in terms of some typos both in the...
  • Anonymous
    I really appreciated the format and structure of the course : you can watch the video or focus on the take-out. The videos are well done : they help to visualize the concepts and memorise them. The use of historical / real life examples is interesting...
  • Anonymous
    The course illustrates the importance of soft skills alongside hard skills, appropriately called power skills here. The Ermergence model, which is considered more appropriate for project management communication, is focusing on deeper understanding. The inside-out approach (1. why, 2. how, 3. what) is also seen as helpful for deeper understanding.
  • Anonymous
    What I really liked about the course was that the professor did not only explain the content in a very clear way but also that his speech was accompanied by drawings. The drawings were understandable and creative and therefore it was both appropriate for the auditory and visual learning type. After each module there was a written summary, which was perfect to refresh the content. The professor referred to historical events and pointed out to which extend the communication was affected and drew parallels to the communication in project teams. This was quiet interesting. All in all I enjoyed the course and would recommend it.
  • Anonymous
    This course was a great way for me to learn how to become a more effective project manager. I am very new at project management, and I have a lot to learn. I was able to take away some information from this course. I have a better knowledge of the Understanding triad and how to use it when communicating with other people. Also, how the understanding triad is closely assisted to the Emergence Model of Communication, the two tools, can give better feedback when doing evaluations. I have better knowledge of how to conduct a stakeholder analysis and assess their roles in the project.
  • Anonymous
    This course was a great way for me to learn how to become a more effective project manager. I am very new at project management, and I have a lot to learn. I was able to take away some information from this course. I have a better knowledge of the Understanding triad and how to use it when communicating with other people. Also, how the understanding triad is closely assisted to the Emergence Model of Communication, the two tools, can give better feedback when doing evaluations. I have better knowledge of how to conduct a stakeholder analysis and assess their roles in the project.
  • Anonymous
    It was a good and smooth course to learn from, the way they have presenting were so easy and understandable, the speaker was talking clearly and he used his experiences and lessons learned to inherit each idea that he gave.

    I was so excited while i was learning more about how to divide the steps during communication, many people think that thing is easy to do, but when you go deep inside that processes and how much you have to be smart while you are designing the best way and time to deliver your message you will discover the importance of raising your communication effectiveness.
  • Anonymous
    most questions are "knowledge level". You need to click three times the "submit" before the answers will be verified and given points. I am also confused about the question about Paul Shannon Vs. Claude Shannon. The name should be Claude and not Paul and the answer should be false. If possible provide enough bibliography and also inserted in the paragraph to its validity and reliability. If possible don't keep on repeating the questions. The choices also is not that good cause you can easily guess even you didn't read anything about it. honestly, I am bit disappointed.
  • Anonymous
    I found this course to be very useful and easy to learn and understand. the videos are short and to the point and each week takes an hour of your time at most. After taking this class I now know things to think about and look out for when communicating with others that generally has improved what I have done. The course is easy to complete and teaches useful information in short and digestible sized portions that make it simple for anyone to learn from. I would recommend taking this course to anyone interesting in project management or any line of work.
  • Anonymous
    Great information, really concise and explained in a easy way to apply on project management. I really enjoy the course!
  • Anonymous
    I've truly learned a lot from this course. I can't wait to continu the rest of the program!
    Thank you!
  • Anonymous
    I really liked this course. I found the videos captivating. I sometimes struggle to listen to a conference when you are just looking at a lecturer talking, but the use use of illustrations to support the content helped to stay focused. I also appreciated the written summary of the videos that followed. The reference materials were interesting to get more information.

    However, it seems that there were some mistakes in the quizzes.

  • Anonymous
    Unfortunately, transcription is not correct almost all the time - it looks like it was some poor AI doing transcription.

    Pictures sometimes do not correspond to the text in the description (for example in 4.3.2 - no cybersecurity in the table).

    And I am wondering what is the sense of blocking automated quizzes? I thought people can take the whole course and pay to have a verified certificate to put on the office wall or on Linkedin.
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