The key principles in brief:

Communications planning involves determining the communications needs of the project stakeholders, i.e. who needs to be informed, when and how?

Communications planning and the subsequent implementation are keys for a successful project.

Communications planning should be done at the start of a project and adapted to changing conditions throughout the project.

The result of communications planning is a communications management plan.

Depending on project demands, the communications management plan can be formal or informal, detailed or coarse.

The communications management plan becomes part of the project plan.

Note: Communicating is a principal task of every project manager; in a large project it consumes much of the project manager's time.

Related Concepts:

Project Planning: Stakeholder Analysis

Literature:

You'll find further information about this topic in the following books:

PMBOK:	Chapter 2.2: Project Stakeholders Chapter 10.1: Communications Planning Chapter 10.2: Information Distribution
ICB:	Chapter 21: Information, Documentation, Reporting Chapter 25: Communication

Developed with the ZHW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur.
Copyright © 1999-2005 by STS Sauter Training & Simulation SA. All Rights Reserved.

Exercises:

What constitutes a communications management plan?

Developed with the ZHW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur.
Copyright © 1999-2005 by STS Sauter Training & Simulation SA. All Rights Reserved.

How do I establish a communications management plan?

Use the stakeholder analysis and project organization as the basis for the plan.
Determine each stakeholder's information and communication needs. What information does the stakeholder need, how detailed and when? How does the stakeholder get the information and from whom?
List the available information sources (e.g. project status report, project review meeting, project database, etc.).
Describe the content of these reports, meetings, database inquiries, etc.
Generate an information distribution list summarizing:
- who receives
- which information
- when and
- in what form.
  
  The list's structure must correspond to the responsibilities and reporting paths defined in the organization chart.
Augment the communications management planwith additional organizational and infrastructure specifications, such as
- Who is responsible for collecting and distributing the information
- When and how to update the information
- How and where the information will be stored and safeguarded
- Handling of confidential information (what information should be communicated to which stakeholdersand what should not be released)
During the entire project, adapt the communications management plan to changing situations.

Note: If you are having communications problems, you are not spending enough time on communications management!

Developed with the ZHW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur.
Copyright © 1999-2005 by STS Sauter Training & Simulation SA. All Rights Reserved.

Automobile Damage Claims Processing

The executive committee of ClaimsPro has decided to automate and speed up the processing and settlement of automobile damage claims between all parties involved. Sandra, the project manager, has identified the following project stakeholders:

AllInsure is the sponsor of the development project and will provide an insurance representative to the project team.
ClaimsPro is the project owner, represented by the executive committee.
The IT department is the performing organization, represented by the information technology officer (ITO).
Repair shop owners and damage assessors are the users, but they are not actively participating in the project. Hence, a user representative will be required to champion user interests within the project team.
A QA (quality assurance) representative will assure quality control.
An external data security/privacy expert will ensure that data privacy laws are not violated.
The core project team is composed of Sandra, the software developers, the data security expert, as well as the insurance and user representatives.

Based on the stakeholder analysis, Sandra has determined the following stakeholder information requirements:

Sandra enumerates the following information sources to cover the information requirements:

Development status meeting
Weekly meeting of the project team and ITO to schedule short-term activities and to update open items.
Design review meeting
Meeting of the project team as scheduled in the project phase plan to verify and approve important deliverables.
Project status report
Formal monthly report with target/actual comparison of the scope of delivery, schedule, and costs in preparation for the project review meeting.
Project review meeting
Periodic meeting of the executive committee to control the project in reference to the project and phase plans.
Phase approval meeting
Meeting of the project committee (ClaimsPro and AllInsure) to decide on the next project phase based on a submitted phase plan.

Sandra then matches up the stakeholders'communications requirements with the information sources in the following information distribution list:

This table is the core of the communications management plan. Finally, Sandra adds infrastructure and organizational details to the plan:

All documents required for a meeting, including invitation and meeting agenda, must be distributed to all attendees at least one week ahead of the meeting.
The project review meeting protocols and target/actual comparisons will also be accessible to management over the Internet (stored on a Web server).

The executive committee approves Sandra's communications management plan.

	Wasting resources on unnecessary information or inappropriate communications means.
	Not providing goal-oriented stakeholder information (too much, insufficient, inappropriate)
	Not informing external stakeholders.
	Failing to update the communications management plan when the project environment changes.

Here you are able to test your knowledge.
This test is confidential; its results will not be transmitted to anyone.
You may repeat the test as often as you wish.

BE ADVISED: the tests are optional! They do not change the advancement percentage. They represent simply a means at your disposal of verifying that you have assimilated the lesson concepts well.

Upon completion of the test, you will know how many right answers you gave; if you gave inaccurate answers the system will indicate which areas you need to review.

Good luck!

Test: Communications Planning

		Version 6
		Communications Planning
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