Complex Project Communication: the Ways to Make It Easy and Enjoyable

Working on a project entails teamwork. And such a thing as a human factor plays an important role in every team. We should always take it into account, try to foresee and consider the problems that may arise.

We all are different, have our own personalities, different views, and the attitude to the work we do.

It’s very important to find a proper approach to every worker, to not only unite a team with a mutual task but also to create convenient working conditions.

This may be done with the help of several working principles that can make work inside testing companies as productive and efficient as possible.

Ways to Improve Project Productivity

Main principles to improve project productivity

1. Constant implementation of cohesion as an important factor of teamwork in the mind of all employees (a mutual task is a mutual business);
2. Establishing friendly, cooperative relations in a team;
3. Reaching constant cohesion as the main factor of work productivity;
4. Understanding that every team member is an important team unit;
5. Building cooperation between all members of a working group;
6. Analyzing the motivation of every project member according to his/her purposes and desires.

To create efficient and productive communication inside a project group, you should constantly comply with the following conditions:

• Every team member’s views should be equally perceived, regardless of his/her nominal position in a company;
• Everyone should understand that every team member is equal while communicating with them;
• Everyone should support others if needed.

First two types usually help to reach the highest indicators and are very useful for teamwork.

Further, we’ll try to analyze potential conflict situations and give tips on how to prevent them (or mitigate them, if possible) in the future.

Popular problems in relations or why does project productivity decrease?

Sometimes it happens that work can’t be done properly, a project is very complex and it’s impossible to establish proper communication between the project team members (every day you need to resolve current disputes and every team meeting can rapidly turn into searching for the guilty).

In such a case, the process is absolutely unpleasant, the team’s productivity and efficiency will gradually decrease to the lowest point.

Here we can mention a few main problems that may spoil the team’s communication:

1. Too high level of concentration on a project and constant detaching from other people;
2.  Too high level of informal communication;
3.  Big lack of communication inside a team;
4. Bringing personal emotions to a team;
5.  Difficulty in a rapid expression of your requirements and work requests;
6.  Detaching from the conflicts that happen in a team;
7.  No desire to listen to others;
8.  Unreasonable disputes with no understanding of potential consequences;
9.  Perceiving every task as the way to put pressure on you;
10. Too high level of modesty.

After analyzing these problems, we’d like to talk not only about their future consequences but also give working tips on how to solve conflict situations that frequently lead to dissonance and misunderstanding inside a team.

Bad relations inside a working group will constantly prevent people from establishing efficient cooperation on a project.

Ways and methods to solve conflicts inside a team

Don’t be too shy

Sometimes it happens that a team contains a few employees who try to minimize the communication with their teammates and are completely occupied with their own tasks.

These people think that the main thing is to properly do their work and that the relations with colleagues is not their business.

When you interact with such a person, you constantly face unexpected situations and feel confused and try to get some information.

In result, their surrounding doesn’t understand what they are doing, who they are, and what tasks can be assigned to them.

A tester spends more time analyzing the work of such a developer since he/she doesn’t have the possibility to ask them about something himself/herself and solve the problem together.

Even if they analyze the question, they will give such an answer that a tester will have no desire to ask additional questions in the future.

Solution: you should understand that not all people want to communicate all the time. Not everybody can (and like to) give proper answers.

But don’t perceive this in a negative way. Maybe, establishing contact will take a lot of time, then you simply need to wait, search for a personal approach, and, maybe, a person will show another way of his/her behavior.

Informal communication should not take too much time

It’s great when a team contains a people person that can support a dialogue, defuse the situation, or support the colleagues when they need this.

But it’s bad when there are so many talks that other workers can’t do their work on time.

Actually, informal talks of colleagues can frequently turn into insolent giving somebody’s tasks to others.

Such talks can have bad consequences: a task can’t be completed on time, release dates are changed and the client expresses serious dissatisfaction.

Sometimes you need to say “No”, showing an intrusive communicator the achievable limits.

Lack of communication

Sometimes lack of communication inside a project team results in having difficulties to find common interests that can unite a team.

Mutual spending of non-work time can help to find and solve the problems inside a team. Lack of such attention can lead to the appearance of introversion and misunderstanding between the colleagues.

To solve such an issue, you should use the method of communicating outside the office. It’s a great way to unite and get to know the colleagues better.

Such a strategy helps to provide clear communication inside a team and leads to having efficient communication.

You should do your task regardless of your mood

The mood of one person should never affect the overall atmosphere of a team. You should keep your negative emotions inside and don’t spoil your relations with a team.

You should express your personal feelings only outside your workplace. They shouldn’t be inflicted on a team.

Simply focus on a set task and don’t show your negative emotions to other people. It’s very hard but we are people.

Everyone can be taken over by emotions but we should still respect our colleagues, first of all.

When we have enough work, all problems are in the second place and sometimes they may even disappear.

Always support your view

Sometimes a tester asks a manager to postpone a release date but doesn’t try to explain the reason for such a request.

As a result, a client gets angry at every team member and this, in turn, leads to problems while agreeing on the next release date.

An explanation will lead to understanding.

Sometimes it’s enough to explain the reasons for such a method of achieving a current task, deviation of a certain defect, choice of method of testing, or calculating the time needed for testing.

This will obviously help to prevent different conflicts and disputes. Use arguments, try to explain your requests since this helps to understand the level of necessity of your request.

Short conclusion

Trying to resolve the problems with communication on a project, people solve not only current problems of relations but also build more qualitative and efficient ways to organize their working process.

Getting rid of disputes and misunderstanding will help to make communication on a project pleasant and clear and this will greatly simplify the work on the set tasks.

It’s very important to make every team member understand his/her importance on a project. Only mutual work will lead to the necessary results.

Also, don’t forget such an important aspect as motivation: if you lose it, the project efficiency will gradually decrease since there will be no interest in the working process.

You should remember some moments of the motivation of every member of a project process since such moments always lead to a mutual interest in a project.