Communication is one of the critical success areas in a project, and should always be approached with a comprehensive perspective of every project’s information. Information is synonymous with communication, and communication is transmitted through management.
For the project to achieve an integrated communication, a management system must be defined that includes all the necessary information to be communicated during the project's life cycle
The information management system must collect and integrate accurate information provided by all the project areas to support the team in making appropriate decisions and managing the project, while providing truthful communication. To make the system effective, it must include three critical success variables: measurable information, non-measurable information and integrated information.
• Measurable information shows all the project indicators defined in the project with the appropriate compliance targets
• Non-measurable information shows all the information that cannot be measured but should be communicated
• The integrated information groups the measurable and non-measurable project information according to the defined strategy and provides a comprehensive framework based on what should be analyzed and communicated.
Furthermore, to build an information management system, the necessary stages which may vary depending on each project context, should be defined. As a reference framework, the following stages could potentially be included:
> Analyze and understand the project’s order of magnitude at the outset
> Plan the project according to the defined strategy -traditional, agile or hybrid-, and identify the relevant information to be considered in the information system.
> Define the critical success variables as per the measurable, non-measurable and integrated information identified at project planning.
> Prepare the project information system, considering the information that should be analyzed and communicated.
Communication in a project must be based on an information management system allowing for sound communication to all the project stakeholders in order to manage their expectations. Thus, the team will be able to manage the project based on communication as an integrating vision.