Why is communications management so important during project execution?

The importance of communication in project management cannot be overemphasized. Even a well-scheduled and well-funded project can fail in the hands of a hardworking team of experts due to the lack of proper communication. As a project manager, you may be dealing with a wide functional variety of individuals, ranging from executives, to marketing personnel, to sales folks, to technologists. You should be able to wear different communication hats depending upon who you are communicating with. For example, you will not be talking in terms of technical jargon with executives or marketing folks, and you will not speak marketing lingo to software developers. You will be speaking to different stakeholders in their language, while filling the language gap between different functional groups and eliminating misunderstandings due to miscommunication. (Remember the term Translator in the previous paragraph? You will be the Translator for the project)

The key point is that you put on the appropriate communication hat depending on which individual you are communicating with. Be able to switch communication hats quickly and avoid technical jargon and acronyms that are not understood by the person or the group you are communicating with. The goal is the clarity of the language to convey the message accurately.