Project Communication channels

Communication is everything in a project.. If the communication fails there is no chance for the project to succeed.

If we have a team of 10 people (Including the project Manager) the number of communication channels can be calculated as

n= 10

[ n(n-1)/2 ]

Today I came across with this question:

The project manager of a large multi-location software project team has 24 members, out of which 5 are assigned to testing. Due to recent recommendations by an organizational quality audit team, the project manager is convinced to add a quality professional to lead the test team at additional cost, to the project.

The project manager is aware of the importance of communication, for the success of the project and takes this step of introducing additional communication channels, making it more complex, in order to assure quality levels of the project.

How many additional communication channels are introduced ????

The answer is :

Number of communication channels with “n” members = n*(n-1)/2

Originally the project has 25 members (including the project manager), which makes the total communication channels as 25*24/2 = 300.

With the addition of the quality professional as a member of the project team, the communication channels increase to 26*25/2 = 325.

Therefore, the additional channels as a result of the change, that is, 325-300 = 25.

When the numbers of communication channels are more, there is more chance for miscommunication.

Communication can be verbal or written and it can be formal or informal.