AT&T Project Management Center of Excellence (PMCOE) Xu Ai li 1000819053

3. The project manager realized that effective and efficient communication was a key element for the success of the PMCOE, and they had to determine how to best share valuable information on a large scale. In your opinion, which main processes of project communication management are affected by this challenge, and how did the project team handle this?

In my opinion， to best share valuable information on a large scale, information distribution is affected by this challenge. They need to get project information to the right people and at a right time with a right way, they need to find a best way to distribute the information. Information distribution involves making needed information available to project stakeholders in a timely manner.
To help people understand, follow, and improve business processes, they need formal and informal plans, policies, procedures, guidelines, information systems, financial systems, management systems, lesson learned and historical information, that's what organizational process assets include. And the main outputs of information distribution are updates to organizational process assets and requested changes.
So information distribution is the most important process of project communication management that affected by this challenge.

Since effective communication was a vital element to the success of the project, the PMCOE established a formal Communications Management Plan which promoted awareness and use of PMCOE products and services throughout the company. As companies merged, targeted emails to known project and program managers of each legacy company were used to announce the center’s purpose and mission, offering to support their professional needs. As the PM Community grew, the PMCOE launched a monthly newsletter containing recent project management accomplishments, success stories, upcoming events and reminders of best practices. It was distributed via corporate email to ensure that information was being disseminated effectively. More recently, the PMCOE is expanding communications through rich content on the corporate intranet using the latest in Web 2.0 technology.
Additionally, to further promote the PMCOE and communicate the mission of the center, an annual AT&T PM Symposium was established to bring significant recognition to the practice of professional project management at AT&T. The annual event provides training and empowerment for project managers as well as the opportunity to network and collaborate with peers. Furthermore, leadership involvement in the Symposium has been consistently high, and in 2007, 22 AT&T officers and vice presidents participated across multiple locations. Communication with these corporate leaders has also been a critical success factor for the PMCOE. AT&T has found that when executives and middle managers support the mission of the center, their words have a significant influence on the project management community.

Q4.AT&T has found that top management support gave a significant influence on the project management community. How could this support affect the whole project life cycle, and how did the project team get the top management involved in the project?

A project life cycle is a collection of project phases, it define what work will be performed in each phase, what deliverables will be produced and when, who is involved in each phase, and how management will control and approve work produced in each phase. A very important factor in helping project managers successfully lead projects is the level of commitment and support they receive from top management. Top management commitment is pivotal to project management by the following reasons:
Project managers need adequate resources.
Project managers often require approval for unique project needs in a timely manner.
Project managers must have cooperation from people in other parts of the organization.
Project managers often need someone to mentor and coach them on leadership issues.
Executive support contributed the most to successful information technology projects. Top management must work with project manager to help them plan and execute project successfully.

To further promote the PMCOE and communicate the mission of the center, an annual AT&T PM Symposium was established to bring significant recognition to the practice of professional project management at AT&T. The annual event provides training and empowerment for project managers as well as the opportunity to network and collaborate with peers. Furthermore, leadership involvement in the Symposium has been consistently high, and in 2007, 22 AT&T officers and vice presidents participated across multiple locations. Communication with these corporate leaders has also been a critical success factor for the PMCOE. AT&T has found that when executives and middle managers support the mission of the center, their words have a significant influence on the project management community.