Abstract
The nature of projects in both developed and developing economies has been the main focus for infrastructural development and economic growth. As a result, these economies invest billions into megaprojects with the notion that will advance their country and enable them to build and sustain competitive advantage. From a firm's perspective, operating in the global economy requires a well-structured project communication management system that provides the required information for each phase of the megaprojects, as these projects are often unpredictable and chaotic. Yet, such a systematic approach is imperative with some agile aspects of things to ensure flexibility and adaptability of schedule and design.
To address this complexity of projects, the study observed that some software development firms' critical success factors derive from the application of effective project communication management. Effective communication address the processes that are required for project planning, scheduling, controlling and monitoring and closure, which entails data collection, creation, distribution, retrieval and management to name but a few. It is also important to ensure timely and appropriate data is disseminated to the respective teams for the progression of a project. This is because the prominent nature of software development comprises interactive, depending on the verbal, nonverbal, written, subject, and mode of communication to convey a message. The present study aims to analyse factors affecting project communications management and address the research gap on the impact of encouraging effective, environmentally friendly communication among project participants in software teams.
The study adopted an exploratory approach with a mixed research design combining both qualitative and quantitative methods with a purposive sampling method. The study adopted an exploratory approach with a mixed research design combining both qualitative and quantitative methods. For gathering quantitative data employees of software development companies based in Johannesburg South Africa were selected. The data for qualitative analysis was gathered from the software development companies‟ representatives who are in charge of supervising the teams. For the selection of respondents for the quantitative survey, purposive and snowball methods are used to ensure the enrolment of the maximum respondent. On
the other hand, only purposive sampling based on the judgement of the researcher is used to identify respondents for qualitative study. The total sample gathered from the targeted population was obtained from 5 organisations contacted via email. Of the organisations in a quantitative survey, 20 respondents from each were selected, making it a total of 100 and for qualitative, the sample comprised 5 participants. The quantitative sample was gathered using Google forms and the qualitative was gathered using the interview technique. The qualitative data collected were analysed using descriptive analysis and for the quantitative data, the methods of using frequency charts, descriptive tests, and correlation analysis using the SPSS tool are conducted.
The study is important from the perspective that innovative communication systems are involved in changing the work environment. The rapid adoption of technology has facilitated dependence on project communication across diverse teams that are dispersed geographically. Concerning the same, the current study examines the development of innovative communication systems considering the current dynamics of software companies. For the same, the findings of the study suggest that the practices of project communication management are applied to create clear communication regarding goals, responsibilities, performance, feedback, expectations and outcome of the project(s). Additionally, the technology-based project communication management platform creates flexibility and real-time data for decision-making and mitigating risks.