Project Communications Plan

Purpose

This document provides guidance for planning the internal and external project communications. It identifies the minimum requirements for a communication plan and discusses how to determine the appropriate participants and methods for communication.

Please note that the Communications Plan is primarily focused on communication with internal project audiences/ stakeholders. External communication is also required, and in a programme, the change management workstream should produce a programme-wide communications plan.

Rationale

A critical success factor of any project is effective communication. Without effective communication it is almost certain that the project will be delayed or quality will be compromised due to untimely addressing of issues, lack of buy-in and idea sharing.

The sources of information that demand communication amongst the team and other stakeholders and should be specified in a Communication Plan. These include:

• Project Definition Document - developed at the beginning of the project and maintained throughout the project lifecycle

• Risk Log - maintained throughout the project lifecycle
• Issue Log - maintained throughout the project lifecycle
• Change Control Log - maintained throughout the project lifecycle    
• Project Progress/Status Reports - on a period ending basis
• Progress Meetings - held periodically with team members and stakeholders, informed and consulted, to review project progress / issues. Stakeholders can include business partners, external clients, sponsors and the Project Steering Board and other project teams determined by task dependencies.

Requirements

At a minimum, the Communication Plan must identify the following elements:

Element	Description
Communication Participants	The audience(s) or individuals who have a stake and need to exchange this information.
Communication Purpose	The objective of communicating with each identified group or individual, including the information to be exchanged and the outcome of the communication activity (Their Need).
Communication Inputs and Outputs	The source information used in the communication and the deliverables produced as a result of the communication (Content and Message).
Communication Method	The way in which the communication is conducted, for example teleconference or group meeting.
Communication Frequency, Timing and Location	The frequency of the occurrence of the communication and the physical location where the communication takes place (if applicable).
Communication Ownership	The person who is responsible for developing and/or delivering the communication.

Identifying Communication Participants

For the Communication Plan to be effective, the participants need to be clearly identified and information targeted to each audience.

Consideration of the following items, when determining what messages need to be communicated, can help to draft a communication organisation plan for all individuals involved:

• outlined project deliverables
• project dependencies.

Potential communication audiences can be identified from a wide variety of sources, including:

Team Internal:

• Project Steering Board
• Project Sponsor
• Project Manager
• Project Team Leaders
• Project Office
• Project Audit & Quality Manager(s)
• Team Members (Developers/Testers/Other)

Team External (Outside the project team but within the Organisation)

• Other Project Teams (with dependencies)
• Divisional Executive Teams
• Group Master Milestone Planning
• Divisional Operational Officers
• Divisional HR Responsibilities
• Divisional IT Responsibilities
• Communications and HR Division
• Corporate Learning
• IT Steering Committee
• Executive Board
• PMO
• All employees

External (Out of the project team and outside the organisation)

• Customers / Clients
• Competitors
• Shareholders
• Media

An example of using a project organisation chart to identify communication participants is shown below:

Communication can be one of the most resource intensive activities on a project. Therefore it is important not to waste time communicating unnecessarily. Careful consideration should be to determine which potential communication participants are in a position to exert positive or influence on the project, and to adjust communication effort accordingly.

Consider the Communication Methods

Each communication participant will be at a particular point on the commitment curve.

Awareness Understanding Buy-in Commitment

An assessment of their current and desired positions should be made before considering appropriate communication methods for each participant. Some communication methods (such as a newsletter for example) are well suited for raising a level of awareness across a wide audience with relatively little effort per person. Other communication methods (such as one-to-one meetings for example) are well suited for getting buy-in or commitment, but at the cost of relatively more effort per person.

Therefore, a portfolio of communication methods should be defined, driven by:

• the current position of each communication participant on the commitment curve
• the desired position of each communication participant on the commitment curve
• the level of influence of each communication participant
• the resources available to spend time on communications.

The Project Manager should evaluate the use of external and internal communication media. Communication can be via newsletters, road shows, workshops, teleconferences, videoconferences etc. based on project marketing needs. The Project Manager should take into consideration any existing communication channels, before establishing new ones, and decide whether or not they are appropriate for the project.

The communication methods selected should consider:

• how any feedback needs to be incorporated into the project plans
• circulating meeting information (e.g., agendas, minutes, project plans, draft deliverables) prior to the meeting, especially when the team is distributed and meeting methods may involve more extensive use of teleconference and videoconference
• conducting meetings with sufficient frequency to maintain the teamwork and cohesiveness     developed during the project launch
• making non-confidential meeting information (e.g., agenda, meeting minutes, presentation etc.) electronically available for team review
• scheduling team meetings to     discuss shared topics and deliverables and to surface and resolve issues and concerns.