You can be the best data analyzer, an expert in Earned Value Management, or a very good planner/scheduler. However, if you don’t have good “communication” skills, you won’t be able to go far in Project Controls. If you are not comfortable picking up the phone or meeting people face-to-face, Project Controls is NOT for you. To be an effective Project Controller, you need to be a good communicator. Why?

A Project Controller is a channel between the project team members and the Project Manager. As a Project Controller, you are responsible to get accurate information from the project team members, analyze the information received, and accurately reflect the project status and forecasts to the Project Manager and ultimately to the client. If you are not a good communicator, you won’t be able to get the right information and report the right project status.

For example, I have seen planner/schedulers who just send an Excel spreadsheet to get the schedule updates from the team members. The result of this effort is only getting updates on some dates, without knowing the reason for delays, mitigation strategies and so on. If you don’t take the time to sit down with team members and go through the schedule with them, understand why they are delaying their tasks, and remind them of the criticality of some of their tasks and its impacts on the project major milestones, how can you effectively report on project’s schedule status? It is more than knowing the scheduling software and its application. It is about “communication,” “communication,” and “communication.” To be an effective communicator, you need to:

Be Engaging:

Constantly and consistently engage with those responsible for the completion of the project. Impress upon them that you are there to help them in any way you can. Make yourself a part of the team by actively participating in the meetings, and discussing the project status and providing solution to the issues. When the team members see the value of your efforts, they become more responsive to your requests.

Make Relationships & Build Trust:

One of the important prerequisites to accurate reporting in Project Controls is accurate project information received from team players. The whole project team is not very keen to give you information unless you can make relationships and build the trust with them. When you show the urge to make relationships, you immediately gain trust. Isn’t it easier to get more information from a team player whom you build trust with?

Report Actively:

You not only require being engaging and making relationships to get the right information but also you need to effectively communicate the project cost and schedule status to the project team.

Some project team members may not have a clue about the information you are presenting. For example, they might not know what CPI or SPI means. It is your role to effectively communicate the project results, interpret the project outcomes, and provide solutions to the problems. Don’t send a report to the team and expect everyone to understand your report or act upon it. Idle information will remain idle. You need to make your reports live by effectively communicating the reports to the team. This communication can be in the form of a project meeting or face-to-face meeting.

Effective communication is the key to success in Project Controls. Project Controls is not only about reporting, but it is also about engaging, making relationships, building trust, and in one word “communicating.” Improve your communication skills to climb the ladder of success in Project Controls further.

About the Author, Shohreh Ghorbani

Shohreh is the founder and director of Project Control Academy, the leading provider of comprehensive online training programs in Project Controls. Shohreh has served tens of thousands of professionals and several international corporations build their technical Project Controls knowledge and shave off years of trial and error in learning the vital skills in controlling their projects.

Shohreh is a licensed project management professional (PMP) recognized by Project Management Institute (PMI) and holds a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering.

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