Project Planning, Part 2 – The Communications Plan

The communications plan is contained within the project management plan.  It establishes who will be talking, reporting, e-mailing, meeting; how often; and with whom.  This is the chance for the project manager on a large job to delegate some of the communication responsibility to task managers and/or other key employees.

The Project Communications Plan

Stakeholder Interactions

Explain how often the various stakeholders expect to receive project communications, and for each stakeholder what the communications will contain and how they will be transmitted and acknowledged.

Project Team Assignments and Progress Reporting

For employees and subcontractors, how often will specific assignments be updated and how will they be transmitted and acknowledged?  How often will team members report progress to the project manager; how will these reports be transmitted?

Meetings

List the meetings that are expected to occur, the specific reason and expected timing for each, who is expected to attend, who is to provide what input prior to each meeting.   Specify when and if telephone conferences and/or video conferences will be used.

Communicating With Remote Locations

Specify if encryption will be necessary for e-mails, attachments, file transfer protocol (FTP) sites.  If yes, include the necessary procedures.  For telephone conferences and/or video conferences when time differences are great, specify preferred times and days of the week to conduct them.

Documents and Reports

Depending on your project these could include the project plan itself, meeting minutes, specifications, permits, drawings, databases, work products, quality assurance records, status reports, warranties, certifications, training manuals, and invoices.  We’ll address these in more detail in future articles, but the communications plan should state who is responsible for publishing the draft of each, who receives each, and how corrections or additions will be accomplished and circulated in a controlled manner.

Delegation of Communication Authorities

If the project manager has delegated portions of the communication to others, state exactly how the others will keep the project manager informed so he/she can actually remain up to date and in control.

Proposed Changes

Change can occur for many reasons, some of which are false assumptions, unexpected conditions, improved technology, and revised customer needs.  We’ll address this issue in more detail in a future article, but the communications plan should state who is responsible for beginning the change order process, and who should be informed at the outset.

Next Article in This Series:  The Work Breakdown Structure.

About the Author

An engineer by training, Randy Klein has 30 years of consulting experience, 20 of which have included project management duties.  His project management curriculum has been used by a variety of university continuing education departments and private resellers.  He invites your questions and comments related to project management, quality assurance, and organizational improvement.  Contact Randy at (801) 451-7872 or projects@streamlineut.com.

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