Communicating Project Management: A Participatory Rhetoric for Development Teams

Communicating Project Management argues that the communication practices of project managers have necessarily become participatory, made up of complex strategies and processes solidly grounded in rhetorical concepts. The book draws on case studies across organizational contexts and combines individual experiences to investigate how project management relies on communication as teams develop products, services, and internal processes. The case studies also provide examples of how project managers can be understood and studied as writers, further arguing project managers must approach communication as designed experience that must be intentionally inclusive. Author Benjamin Lauren illustrates to readers how teams work together to manage projects through complex coordinative communication practices, and highlights how project managers are constantly learning and evolving by analyzing where they succeed and fail. He concludes that technical and professional communicators have a pivotal role in supporting and facilitating participative approaches to communicating project management.

Benjamin Lauren is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures. He is also an Assistant Director of the Graduate Program in Rhetoric and Writing. His work has been published in journals such as Technical Communication, Computers and Composition, the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, and Transactions on Professional Communication.