SECTION A $[40$ MARKS$]$

Read the Case Study below and answer ALL questions that follow.

COMMUNICATION IN ACTION

Organization: Barrick Australia$-$Pacific, Perth, Australia

The project seemed simple enough: Barrick Australia$-$Pacific was extending the warehouse at one of its sites.

In the past, a contractor had maintained all of the company$$s equipment and stored and tracked spare parts. $$When we took over the equipment maintenance, all of that responsibility fell to us$,$ explains Warwick Jones, principal capital project engineer at Barrick.

And he didn$$t want anything to slip through the cracks. Following the company$$s communication process, Mr$.$ Jones used a standardized template to map all key stakeholders affected by the project, including executive sponsors and leaders from the mining, mobile maintenance, environmental, supply, and health and services departments. Then he brought them together to discuss the goals and potential benefits, review the project plan, and talk through any risks or priorities. $$We wanted to be sure all of the issues we needed to address were identified,$$ Mr$.$ Jones says.

The meeting brought several concerns to light and prompted the project leader to question some of the assumptions made in the initial project plan, says Barrick$$s Graham Colborne.

For example, the project plan called for a two$-$story mezzanine with long staircases. The health and safety department stakeholders pointed out that the addition increased the risk of injury to workers carrying heavy materials. So all of the stakeholders in the meeting agreed that large equipment and products would be stored on the first floor. But that decision prompted even more changes. $$It impacted the layout of the design, and the kinds of racking and shelving units that we built inside the warehouse,$$ Mr$.$ Jones explains.

The early discussions led to the addition of extra paved paths in and around the facility grounds to allow room for larger trolleys and forklifts. The project plan also shifted storage of less frequently used items farther away from the handling area.

If Barrick had skipped this communication step, Mr$.$ Jones says the project team probably wouldn$$t have considered any of these issues. It would have followed the original plan, only to have the warehouse management team point out all the problems once the project was delivered.

$$That$$s where you run into extra costs and increased schedules,$$ he says. $$Having a good communication process at the beginning of a project saves time and money at the end.$$

GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT

For all communication, the medium must be as strong as the message. Some people live and die by emails filled with spreadsheet attachments. Others want a simple text. And all of those preferences should be considered as project communications are developed.

Project managers can produce the best project update in the world, but if they deliver it in a $50-$page report, busy executives can$$t be blamed for not paying attention, says DuPont$$s Mr$.$ Brown.

To streamline the information$-$collection process, executives should work with project leaders during the initial planning phase to define their preferred communication style, frequency and format.

DuPont project leaders, like those in many high$-$performing organizations, rely on a variety of push and pull communication methods to keep executives, sponsors and other stakeholders up$-$to$-$date on project progress.

At the heart of the process is a portal where all project documents are stored by and accessible to anyone related to the project. Depending on the information the stakeholders want or the format they prefer, they can view a spreadsheet of financials, a PDF of the work breakdown structure, a risk matrix or a status report document. $$It$$s a mash$-$up of all the project information in one cohesive place,$$ Mr$.$ Brown says.

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By offering the data in multiple formats, each stakeholder can access the information they need in the format they prefer. $$People in different roles need to see the data in different ways,$$ Mr$.$ Brown explains. $$The finance team will look for tables, while a stakeholder interested in strategy might click on a slide presentation.$$

Creating the portal doesn$$t ensure stakeholders will actually visit the site and read the documents, but it does let them get the information they seek in the format of their choosing whenever they need it$.$We want key stakeholders to be able to easily access all the projects in the portfolio,$$ Mr$.$ Brown says. $$It increases transparency and encourages more conversations about what$$s being accomplished.$$

To further encourage their participation, Mr$.$ Brown$$s team pushes project communication to stakeholders through emails and meetings where stakeholders are invited to review progress and offer feedback. $$It ensures everyone stays engaged and seeing the same messages,$$ he says.

Communication builds trust among project teams, stakeholders, executives and customers, says Imran Malik, OPM$3$