Soft Skills. Communication, Project Group Collaboration & Product Documentation
The course develops a systemic understanding of communication not as a set of “soft skills”, but as a structural element of project architecture, a mechanism for aligning meanings, a risk management tool, and a factor of team resilience.
Dive into the dynamic world of teamwork with our course. You’ll explore the unique challenges and opportunities of two key scenarios: building a brand‑new project team from scratch and thriving within an already established team.
By the end of the course, you’ll have acquired a powerful set of knowledge and skills. You’ll master the theory of communication in project work, understanding how and why we communicate at different stages of a project. You’ll learn to predict and guide team development through team dynamics models, and grasp the principles of role‑based and competency analysis to match the right people with the right tasks. You’ll also master negotiation strategies, turning disagreements into productive outcomes, and understand the structure of project documentation, learning to create clear, user‑friendly documents. Additionally, you’ll gain insight into the capabilities and limitations of LLMs, knowing exactly when to leverage AI as a smart assistant and when to trust your own judgment.
You’ll develop practical abilities: you’ll be able to analyse any team’s structure, quickly identifying its strengths, gaps, and hidden potential. You’ll distinguish between the dynamics of new and established teams, adapting your communication style and strategy to the specific situation, and design a tailored communication system for any project to ensure everyone stays aligned. You’ll spot risks of communication breakdowns before they occur, preventing misunderstandings and delays, and develop professional technical documentation, writing clear specifications, reports, and plans. By using LLMs, you’ll accelerate your analysis and fact‑checking, gaining insights faster and verifying data more efficiently. At the same time, you’ll learn to critically evaluate AI‑generated results — not just accepting the outputs, but questioning, refining, and improving them.
Moreover, you’ll gain real‑world skills in facilitating productive discussions, guiding conversations so that everyone’s voice is heard and ideas are built upon. You’ll be able to resolve conflicts constructively, turning tension into collaboration and finding win‑win solutions. You’ll master designing communication regulations, creating simple, effective rules that streamline teamwork. Finally, you’ll learn how to integrate AI into your team’s workflows, making LLMs a natural part of daily operations and boosting efficiency without losing the human touch.
How do we use LLMs? Through three powerful modes that turn theory into action. In the Handbook mode, the model becomes your instant expert, providing clear explanations of terms, models, and concepts exactly when you need them — no lengthy searches required. The Training mode lets you practise negotiations and conflict resolution via interactive dialogues: you customise questions, explore scenarios, and build confidence in a risk‑free environment. The Controller mode acts as your quality‑assurance partner, checking your argument logic, analysing document structure, and spotting gaps or inconsistencies — like having a second pair of expert eyes reviewing your work.
Join us to transform how you communicate, collaborate, and lead — with the perfect blend of human insight and AI support!
OBJECTIVES
The objective is to develop students’ systemic understanding of communication as a managed and designed process under conditions of uncertainty, interdisciplinarity, and technological complexity.
KEY TASKS
Mastering professional communication models;
Analysing the role structure of a project team and competency profiles;
Assessing psychological compatibility and motivational factors;
Designing a project communication system;
Mastering negotiation and conflict management methods;
Developing project documentation skills;
Instrumental use of LLM in communication practice;
Developing a critical attitude towards AI capabilities and limitations.
Main topics of the course:
1. Communication as a systemic factor in a project. We explore why communication is not just a “soft skill” but a key element of project architecture. We examine three types of communication: problem‑content, information‑monitoring, and disciplinary‑management. We analyse typical communication risks using the example of a failed project.
2. Business communication models: verbal and non‑verbal interaction. We master the fundamentals of effective business communication. We study communication barriers and distortions, and learn to recognise non‑verbal signals. We practise conflict resolution skills by reconstructing conflict dialogues.
3. Two teamwork scenarios: new vs. established teams. We compare the specifics of forming a new project team versus working within an existing team. We conduct a comparative risk analysis for both scenarios and learn to write analytical notes on assessing team processes.
4. Team role analysis: formal and informal roles. We study formal and informal roles within a team and learn to identify role imbalances. We create a “role map” and develop a role distribution model for a project, supported by LLM tools.
5. Competency and psychological analysis of a team. We distinguish between hard and soft skills and assess psychological compatibility among team members. We learn to match tasks with competencies by building a “Task — Competency — Performer” matrix.
6. Assessing team potential under uncertainty. We analyse factors affecting team potential: task complexity, routine vs. non‑routine work, and deadline rigidity. We predict bottlenecks in high‑uncertainty projects and conduct critical audits of decisions.
7. Designing a project communication system. We learn to establish information flows and assign responsibility levels within a team. We develop a communication scheme and interaction regulations, and structure documentation with LLM support.
8. Problem‑content communication and argumentation. We master effective argumentation techniques and learn to detect cognitive distortions in discussions. We analyse real discussions, reconstruct argumentation schemes, and identify logical breaks.
9. Information exchange and monitoring: meeting minutes and reporting. We study principles of transparent communication. We learn to draft meeting minutes and reports properly. We develop report templates and control information completeness with LLM assistance.
10. Disciplinary‑management communication: problem escalation and execution control. We examine mechanisms for escalating issues and monitoring task completion. We analyse case studies of missed deadlines, develop task control regulations, and verify the correctness of instruction wording.
11. Negotiations and conflict resolution: strategies and interest balance. We acquire negotiation strategies and conflict resolution techniques. We practise “client — executor” interaction scenarios through role‑playing games, analyse strategies, and write post‑exercise reports.
12. Project documentation: technical specifications and materials for stakeholders. We study the structure of technical documentation and requirements for materials aimed at stakeholders. We analyse the structure of technical specifications (TS), prepare documentation fragments, and unify terminology using LLMs.
13. AI in project communication: opportunities and limitations of LLMs. We evaluate the potential of LLMs as handbooks, training assistants, and controllers. We compare human‑written and AI‑generated texts, identify automation risks, and write a reflective report on the boundaries of AI use in communication.
14. Human‑AI balance in communication: automation boundaries and empathy. We define the limits of automating communication processes. We analyse how automation can distort meanings and reduce empathy in interactions. We develop AI usage regulations for teams, taking the human factor into account.
15. Practical workshop: designing a communication system for your own project. We apply all acquired knowledge in practice: we analyse team roles, develop a communication scheme, and create an AI usage regulation. We receive consultations and refine the project under the instructor’s guidance.
16. Final assessment: project defence with AI use justification. We present our work results: team analysis, the designed communication system, project documentation fragments, and a rationale for the appropriate use of AI in the project. We complete a graded pass/fail exam with a solution defence session.
