Communication Management

Communication is very important on a project. Project manager is communicating 90% of the time. Project Manager is responsible for good communication among team members. I n communication there are two entities, sender and the receiver.  Receiver is most important. Communication channels is very important subject in PMP studies. Communication channel is a path between the team members.  These members belongs to same team.

Formula for determining the number of communication channels on a team.

Communication Channels = [N * (N-1)] / 2

where N is number of team members.

In case there are 3 team members.
Then number of communication channels are [3* (3-1)] / 2 = 3.

 

You add one new member. Total members of the team are now 4.
Then number of communication channels are [4* (4-1)] / 2 = 6.
 

So by adding one additional member, three communication channels are added. It is a very important to note that by just adding one more team member, your communication channels have doubled.

 

 

 

In case there are 6 team members. Then number of communication channels are [6* (6-1)] / 2 = 15.

There is no mention of if these communication channels are different. It is assumed they are all equal. Every body on the project talks to each other with same importance. I do not know how much this is true in the real world.