Jose Roberto explains how project management and communication skills improve stakeholder alignment, KPI tracking and successful project delivery.
Projects rarely fail in one dramatic moment.
Most begin to drift much earlier. When expectations are unclear, risks remain unspoken and teams measure progress in different ways.
During a recent conversation on The Executive Outlook, Jose Roberto explained why successful delivery depends on more than schedules, software and technical knowledge. It depends on whether people understand the objective, communicate consistently and act when reality moves away from the plan.
With nearly thirty years in information technology and more than two decades in project management, he has worked with organizations including Oracle, Walmart, HP and EDS. He began as a programmer, moved into systems analysis and later chose to focus on people, leadership and delivery.
That decision shaped his understanding of project management and communication skill. Planning creates direction, but communication keeps people moving together.
When he starts a project, he does not immediately create a schedule or assign tasks. His priority is understanding the stakeholders.
He wants to know who has influence, who can make decisions, what each person expects and how they will judge success. He also studies the delivery team, including its skills, maturity and capacity.
Stakeholder management in project management is not simply a reporting activity. It begins before planning because the plan must reflect the people who will approve, support, deliver and use the outcome.
A technically strong plan can still fail when stakeholders are misaligned or the team lacks the required skills, authority, or resources. He identifies these gaps early, so the plan is based on reality rather than assumptions.
Once the stakeholders and team have been assessed, He turns to the organization's strategic direction.
A project should not operate separately from the wider priorities. Its objective should contribute to an outcome the organization has already identified as important.
He referred to objectives and key results as one way to create this connection.
The value of OKR in project management is not terminology. It is the discipline of linking project work to a measurable business result.
A team can complete every scheduled activity and still produce limited value if the project is never connected to a meaningful objective.
For any OKR for project managers used to be valuable, leaders should begin with one question. What business results should this project help achieve?
Useful OKR examples for project management should describe more than activity. Leaders must define the result, such as lower costs, faster service, fewer errors, or stronger compliance.
OKR project management tools can make objectives visible and help teams review progress. However, they cannot create alignment where leadership has not agreed on the goal.
The strongest theme in José’s approach is communication.
He estimates that communication represents close to ninety percent of a project manager’s work.
This does not mean scheduling, cost control, risk management, or technical planning are unimportant. It means none of them can work properly when communication fails.
A risk that is not communicated cannot be managed. A delay that remains hidden cannot be corrected. A stakeholder's expectation that is never clarified eventually becomes conflict.
He believes poor communication is one of the most common reasons projects fail, especially when teams work remotely or across countries and cultures.
More communication platforms do not automatically create better understanding. Messages can remain unclear and decisions can still be missed.
This is why project management and communication skills must develop together. A project manager must not only distribute information but also confirm that it has been understood and acted upon.
He creates a communication plan during the planning phase.
He does not send the same update to every person involved. Instead, he adjusts the information according to each stakeholder’s responsibilities.
Senior leaders need strategic communication about objectives, major risks and executive decisions. Functional leaders need tactical communication about milestones, dependencies, resources and delivery issues. The project team needs operational communication about priorities, responsibilities and immediate work.
A long technical report may not help an executive decide. A high-level summary may not give the delivery team enough detail to solve a problem.
Effective stakeholder management in project management requires the project manager to change the level of detail without changing the truth.
He defines project management KPIs with stakeholders during the planning phase.
The measures usually cover resources, costs, risks, progress, and deliverables. However, he does not assume that the same indicators will work for every project.
A finance leader may focus on the cost. An operational leader may focus on readiness. A technical team may focus on quality, dependencies and risk. Senior executives may want to know whether the project remains aligned with strategy.
This is why KPIs for project management should be agreed collaboratively.
When stakeholders help define the measures, the KPIs become more than numbers in a report. They create shared expectations about what success looks like and when intervention is required.
He reviews these indicators throughout execution. When the project begins to move away from the plan, he creates a corrective action plan and works with stakeholders to bring delivery back toward the intended objective.
The purpose of project management for KPIs is not to prove that the original plan was perfect. Their purpose is to reveal when reality has changed and action is required.
One of the most important changes in José’s current practice is his use of artificial intelligence to support project planning.
Creating an initial project plan requires considerable time. He now uses carefully designed prompts to generate a first version within minutes.
However, he does not treat the AI output as a finished or approved plan.
The generated document is only a starting point.
He reviews it with stakeholders, examining the objective, timeline, assumptions, resources, expectations and connection to business strategy. Only after approval does execution begin.
An AI-generated plan may look complete while missing internal decision making, team maturity, operational limits, or stakeholder expectations.
AI can reduce planning time, but it cannot replace business judgement, human validation, or accountability.
The time saved should create more room for communication, risk analysis, alignment and action.
He does not expect execution to follow the original plan without deviation.
Projects operate inside real organizations. Priorities of change, risks emerge; resources move and assumptions prove incorrect.
The role of the project manager is not to prevent every change. It is to identify deviations early enough to respond.
This requires regular reviews of progress, performance, risks, concerns and deliverables. It also requires a culture where team members can raise problems honestly.
When he identifies a deviation, he creates an action plan to move the project back toward its objective.
The KPIs reveal the gap. Communication explains why it exists. Corrective action addresses it.
Without all three, project monitoring becomes passive reporting instead of active management.
The most difficult assignment Jose discussed was a broader programme involving products, marketing and the development of physical stores.
He had to coordinate business areas outside of his previous experience. Technical knowledge alone could not guide the programme because much of the scope belonged to other disciplines.
Jose had to listen carefully, ask better questions, understand unfamiliar areas and create alignment across teams whose expertise differed from his own.
The experience reinforced an important lesson. Project management principles remain relevant even when the industry or scope changes.
The project manager does not need to perform every specialist task. The role is to bring the right people together, establish a shared objective, maintain communication, monitor progress and help the group respond when conditions change.
José’s belief in project management extends beyond corporate work.
He is the author of two books, including a children’s book that introduces project management concepts to children around seven and eight years old. It is available in Portuguese, Spanish and English.
The idea reflects his belief that project management is also a practical life skill. Children can learn to define a goal, divide it into smaller actions, work with others and complete what they start.
Across the conversation, Jose presents project management as a deeply human discipline.
Plans, frameworks, project management KPIs, OKRs, schedules, risk registers, and project management tools all matter. But they only create value when people understand the objective, share accurate information and act on what the project is revealing.
José’s message to leaders is clear.
Begin with the stakeholders. Understand the capabilities of the team. Connect the project to the organization's strategy. Define success with the people responsible for delivering and approving it. Build the communication plan before execution begins. Use AI to reduce administrative effort but never remove human judgement from the process.
Most importantly, create an environment where risks, delays and concerns can be discussed before they become failures.
The success of a project is not determined only by what appears in a schedule, dashboard, or status report.
It is also determined by the conversations the team is willing and prepared to have.
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