Reports and Presentations - Construction Project Scheduling and Control - page 249

it is important for each organization (e.g., owner, contractor) to have an
employee or a department that is proficient in reading and interpreting legal
language. Project team members should use simple language in their daily
communications. Technical terms should not be used, unless they are known
in the profession, and to the least possible extent absolutely necessary.
3. Accuracy : Professional communication must be accurate, objective, and up to
date. Personal opinion and subjective statements should be limited and clearly
labeled as such. For example, the project manager should not say, “I don't
think the project is behind schedule, although we have a negative float of 20
days on the critical path.” However, the project manager may say, “Despite
the fact that the project is behind schedule by 20 days, I believe we can finish
on time with a recovery plan.”
When you are quoting information, such as prices and professional opin-
ion, you should include all relevant information (specific description, quan-
tity, name of salesperson, date, length of validity of quote, etc.). Information
that is taken from the Internet and then quoted may not be accurate or reli-
able. It depends on the specific source, which should always be mentioned.
Communications must be up to date in today's business world. For
example, “general conditions” of a company's contracts may have been
written years earlier, and its technical specifications may have become
obsolete.
4. Timeliness : Although accuracy is important, timeliness is equally important in
internal communications. Many issues have deadlines and/or a critical sched-
ule. If such information is not communicated in a timely manner, it will lose
its value and may lead to negative consequences.
5. Preciseness and relevance to the subject : Providing too much or irrelevant
information may be confusing and counterproductive. An example of this is
what this author calls lazy designer syndrome : some architects and engineers
copy and paste information from the drawings and specifications of previous
projects or boilerplates, although many sections, details, or paragraphs may
not pertain to the current project. For instance, a contract may be written
in New York or Chicago that contains a clause about the frost line, which
would never apply in Miami or the Caribbean. Such information will only
confuse and aggravate the contractor when the contractor is trying to link
it to the studied project. People who write contracts may do the same: they
may use forms that belong to previous cases with many clauses that don't
relate to the present contract. This only adds more pages, wasted time,
confusion, and frustration.
6. Legibility : Some people have handwriting that is illegible or difficult to read.
Sometimes only a person's secretary can read that person's handwriting. Such
people should either type their communications using a computer or have
someone on their staff type it for them. Legibility also includes “readability,”
whether on paper, on the computer screen, or on the projection screen. One