There are different types of project managers, some believe to use emails only to share data or confidential information. For other tasks like status updates they prefer the team to use time-sheets and other project management software and tools provided by the employer. They hate emails with subject “status update” followed by some number and one liner description as “done”.
The other reason why some project managers hate e-mail is that they feel that any information related to the project should be part of a formal process. For example, an e-mail may contain question and answer exchange, which might be interpreted as change in scope by one party, whereas the other party doesn’t look at it that way. Each party takes away a different perception and expectation. It is hard for a project manager to manage project activities when “business” is being done through e-mail. On large projects with lots of team members, it is very time consuming to go through all the emails with trail mails and understand what’s being shared in the volumes of e-mails.
Advantages and disadvantages of emails
When project managers are marked in CC, it’s hard for them to decide if any action is required or not. Miscommunication, misunderstandings, and in extreme cases, agreements and decision can be made in e-mails that haven’t gone through formal review process, resulting in confusion and miss-out. It is always recommended to use a common project management tool or platform to record all the discussions, doubts, queries, clarifications, file attachments, etc. on a project rather than using bulky e-mails. This can be of great help to all the stakeholders on the project to have access to the same information exchange, rather than limited access to the inbox of few recipients. There is another side to it, emails help us to reiterate facts, confirm findings or actions, control affairs and also minimize the likelihood of risks across many aspects of the project – which is good for everyone.
It entirely depends on the way emails are used. Nowadays emails are used as a conversation tools, every 2 seconds you have a pop-up on your screen, it is a huge distraction. When there is a chain of emails with more than 10 replies, it is better to pick up the phone to understand what is going on and invite people to a formal conference. All emails are a direct responsibility of the project manager to not only be made available to receive, but also to answer it, if he neglects to answer even one critical email whether on purpose or by happenstance, he leaves the project and his firm, (not to mention the client) in a precarious situation.
People must religiously follow the email protocols of how to update their internal and external stakeholders. Some of them put unnecessary pressure to respond to. If the stakeholders feel results are not coming as expected, they can take the call of scheduling correctional forums like conference calls or bridge calls especially in case of distributed environment. The project manager must put all the efforts to follow the Project Communications Plan and then to take corrective actions. If changes occur which require changing the Project Communications Plan, and it has not been updated, then it shows that the Project Manager has failed.
Email is definitely significant tool. Project Management is all about communication, and what better tool you can find to keep track of communication other than email. Email is good for individual or meeting minutes for groups, instant messaging can save what is said, but it should actually be shared to confirm mutual understanding and potentially forwarded to collaborate with others.
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