“If you get health, then you have opportunity for literacy. Health first, then literacy. Once you have literacy, then you have a chance to bring in the new tools of communication. Let people reach out and have access to the latest advances.” Bill Gates
“The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting.” Dave Barry
The purpose of the Communications Management Plan is to provide key stakeholders the information they need, and these needs are as varied as the stakeholders. In some instances, the communication will tell stakeholders and members of the project team what to do, and in other instances it will report out on the progress of the project as compared to the approved project baseline.
Because the plan must meet the needs of both senior executives and technicians, the project manager first analyzes the project and determines all the stakeholders. Those stakeholders are then assessed and placed on the RACI matrix.
The matrix makes the following distinctions in project stakeholder roles:
Responsible – These are people who do work to complete the task.
Accountable – These are the people that the responsible people report to for a given group of tasks. This is where the expression “you can delegate responsibility, not accountability” comes from.
Consult - These are usually subject matter experts (either real or appointed to a governance role) and by definition require two way communication.
Informed – Those who are kept up to date on the work of the project. The level of information and the trigger for communication is determined by the role of the stakeholder.
The stakeholders are now identified and their role in project communications determined. The next step is to determine the type of communication best suited to their roles (push, pull, interactive, combo) and the cadence for the communication. Part of the determination for the frequency of the communication is based on whether the communication should occur based on a trigger (for example, variance from baseline) or on a predetermined schedule.
The final Communication Plan is then reviewed by the appropriate stakeholders and approved. Once it is approved, it is now a Project Artifact and can’t be modified without stakeholder approval through the designated change control process.
That is it! I hope you enjoyed this series on Project Communications! The entire series is available on my blog. I haven’t determined what the next series will be on, but I have a backlog of disparate topics that I may tackle.
Coda
My daughter got married this weekend! She married a very high quality and nice young man and I am very proud of her! It was a lot of work (and money), but the wedding was perfect and the bridal party was very happy. Enjoy your honeymoon! Love you!