Communication Methods

General technique · See it on the map

Runnable here

Choosing how a message travels: a live back-and-forth, a message sent out, or one people retrieve on their own.

When to use it

Deciding, for a given message, whether it needs real-time exchange, confirmed delivery to specific people, or general availability for anyone who needs to look it up.

When to avoid it

Push method for anything urgent or ambiguous — a sent-but-unread status email is not the same as a confirmed handoff, and treating it as one is how urgent information sits unread. Pull method for anything time-sensitive that needs a specific person to act — nobody is obligated to go look.

Steps

1. Ask whether the message needs real-time back-and-forth (interactive), confirmed one-way delivery to named recipients (push), or general availability for self-service retrieval (pull).
2. Match urgency and audience size to the method: interactive for small, urgent, or contentious exchanges; push for time-bound updates to a defined list; pull for reference material a broad or changing audience retrieves as needed.
3. For push, confirm receipt for anything that requires action, not just delivery.
4. For pull, make sure the audience actually knows the material exists and where to find it — a pull method nobody knows about is not a communication method, it's a filing exercise.

What it produces

• A stated method for each planned communication in the communications management plan.

Common pitfalls

• Defaulting to push (email) for everything regardless of urgency or ambiguity, because it's the path of least resistance.
• Using pull for a decision that needed a specific person's timely action.
• Confusing 'I sent it' (push) with 'they received and understood it' — those are different claims.

Worked example

For the retrofit's weekly status, the PM uses push (a summary email) for the steering committee, pull (a shared dashboard) for the wider stakeholder list who check in occasionally, and reserves interactive (a call) for the one issue — the conduit delay — that needs real-time discussion that week.

Source

• PMBOK-6 §10.1.2.5

Where it comes from: this technique is named by the PMBOK Guide, 6th edition.