Project Management Communication Plan

The purpose of the Communications Management Plan is to define the communication requirements for the project and how information will be distributed.

COMPLETE EACH SECTION FOR SERVER SCENARIO AND REMOVE INSTRUCTIONS.

Communications Management Approach

You should give considerable thought to how you want to manage communications on this project. By having a solid communications management approach you’ll find that many project management problems can be avoided. In this section give an overview of your communications management approach.

Communications Management Constraints

All projects are subject to limitations and constraints as they must be within scope and adhere to budget, scheduling, and resource requirements. Project planning and documentation are no exception to this rule. There may also be legislative, regulatory, technology, or organizational policy requirements which must be followed as part of communications management.

Stakeholder Communication Requirements

Most projects consist of a broad range of stakeholders all of whom may have differing interests and influence on the project.

Roles

Project Team Directory

The following table presents contact information for all persons identified in this communications management plan. The email addresses and phone numbers in this table will be used to communicate with these people.

Role	Name	Title	Organization/ Department	Email	Phone
Project Sponsor	A. White	VP of Technology	IT	a.white@abc.com	(555) 555-1212
Program Manager	B. Brown	PMO Manager	PMO	b.brown@abc.com	(555) 555-1313
Project Manager	C. Black	Project Manager	PMO	c.black@abc.com	(555) 555-1414
Project Stakeholders	See Stakeholder Register	See Stakeholder Register	See Stakeholder Register	See Stakeholder Register	See Stakeholder Register
Customer	J. Doe XYZ Corp	Manager	IT	J.Doe@xyz.com	(615) 555-8121
Project Team
Technical Lead

Communication Methods and Technologies

Many times, the methods and technologies used to communicate are just as important of a consideration as the information being communicated. Imagine a large project with many stakeholders who all have different technological capabilities. Some may have access to a share drive while others do not. Some may have access to video teleconferencing and others only have telephone and email capabilities. In order to be effective, project information must be communicated to everyone involved by some method using available technology. Determining communication methods and what technologies are available should be part of determining stakeholder communication requirements.

Communications Matrix

The following table identifies the communications requirements for this project. REMOVE EXAMPLES AND ENTER YOUR OWN

Communication Type	Objective of Communication	Medium	Frequency	Audience	Owner	Deliverable	Format
Kickoff Meeting	Introduce the project team and the project. Review project objectives and management approach.	·		·		·	·
Project Team Meetings	Review status of the project with the team.	·		·		·	·
Technical Design Meetings	Discuss and develop technical design solutions for the project.	·		·		·	·
Monthly Project Status Meetings	Report on the status of the project to management.	·		·		·	·
Project Status Reports	Report the status of the project including activities, progress, costs and issues.	·		·		·	·

Communication Escalation Process

As issues or complications arise with regards to project communications it may become necessary to escalate the issue if a resolution cannot be achieved within the project team. Project stakeholders may have many different conflicting interests in a given project. While escalations are a normal part of project management, there must be a documented process that defines how those escalations will take place.

CREATE AN ESCALATION PLAN FOR THE SERVER PROJECT

Priority	Definition	Decision Authority	Timeframe for Resolution
Priority 1	Major impact to project or business operations. If not resolved quickly there will be a significant adverse impact to revenue and/or schedule.	Vice President or higher	Within 4 hours

Glossary of Communication Terminology

Term	Definition
Communication	The effective sending and receiving of information. Ideally, the information received should match the information sent. It is the responsibility of the sender to ensure this takes place.
Stakeholder	Individuals or groups involved in the project or whose interests may be affected by the project’s execution or outcome.
Communications Management Plan	Portion of the overall Project Management Plan which details how project communications will be conducted, who will participate in communications, frequency of communications, and methods of communications.
Escalation	The process which details how conflicts and issues will be passed up the management chain for resolution as well as the timeframe to achieve resolution.

Sponsor Acceptance

Approved by the Project Sponsor:

Date: