Project Management Guide

Copyright 2005 Lindsay Sherwin

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Lindsay Sherwin Tel: 01491 577079 e-mail: FredSherwin@lindsay-sherwin.co.uk   

Developing a Strategy   

As a result, a project communications strategy often has three elements:

  1. Communications to the Project Organisation

  2. Communications to Stakeholders of the project

  3. General Communication Channels

1.       Communications to the Project Organisation  

Communications to those directly involved in the project, to ensure that all involved in the project know what is going on, what their role is, and what they should be working on. In particular this needs to cover the Project Sponsor, Project Team, and Key Contributors such as contractors and specialist groups such as Finance and Legal.

This element of the project communication strategy should simply include the project manager's proposals regarding:

  • Project Meetings

What review meetings with Sponsor/Project Board, what project team meetings are planned, and any meetings with advisory or reference groups etc. Often best if linked to an end-of-stage or a key milestone, rather than simply at regular intervals.

  • Project Progress Reporting - Written Reports

What regular written progress reports can people expect. These are often Highlight Reports using a format along the following lines:

Highlight Report Layout

  1. Project Title:                                               Report for period  xxx to  xxx
  2. Activities planned for the next period:
  3. Changes to plan/difficulties experienced or anticipated:
  4. Risks identified/issues raised:
  5. Resources used/required
  6. Comments:

 

Prepared by:                                                                Date:

 

 

  • Progress Control - Project Plans and updates

What updating of the project plan to reflect changes should people expect.

  • Progress Control - Cost Budgets and Updates

Similarly, what updates of the expenditures will take place.

2.     Communications to Stakeholders of the project   

Stakeholders tend to have differing needs and the key to success in this area is to tailor the communications to these differing needs. A typical format for this element would be:

i)    Summary

An overall summary of:

  • who the key stakeholders are,
  • the key main communication issues of the project,
  • the overall communication objectives including key messages,
  • the main elements of the stakeholder communication strategy including the communication approaches to be used.
ii)    Key Stakeholders Communications Analysis

An identification of the key stakeholders. Then for each stakeholder a statement covering:

  • their general view of the project - including which aspects they are likely to support and which they are likely to feel uncomfortable about.
  • what will need to be communicated - what information they are likely to need and what information/contribution/involvement the project manager may need from them,
  • when should communication take place - at which stages of the project do we need to communicate to them and what should be the goals of that communication (announcing, gaining interest, educating, etc)
  • how should we do that - the best channel/media to use to communicate with them (e-mail, conferences, face-to-face, meetings, consultation, etc).
iii)    A Communication Plan

Summarising from the above analysis, plotted against the Project Timeline Plan, an overall plan for what communications activities will be carried out, when, by whom, and what costs/resources will be involved.

3.    General Communication Channels

Aside from the above, it is also important to ensure that some general communication channels exist so that as situations develop, anyone who wishes to can get a general understanding of the project and can also communicate any issues they face or identify to the project manager.