The various communication requirements and your decisions about them are documented in the communication management plan. The plan includes what is being communicated, how it is communicated, who is communicating, to whom is it being communicated, and how often this must happen. You should create the plan during the project planning activities. As you start execution, it might be necessary to expand the plan or adjust it.
There is a WWPMM work product description and a template to assist you in creating a communications management plan. These, like all WWPMM work product descriptions and templates, can be found at the WWPMM Web site.
Determining Project Communication Requirements
The purpose of communication planning is to be proactive, anticipating what type of information stakeholders will need and when they will need it. If you are not proactive, you will end up spending lots of time responding to ad-hoc information requests, or worse, lose commitment from key stakeholders.
Before you can create a communication management plan, you need to determine the project's communication requirements. To do this, you must first review:
Next, the information needs of the various stakeholders should be carefully analyzed to determine the information that will be provided and the sources of that information. Include the requirements of the project team, the sponsor, the suppliers, the delivery and performing organizations' management, and others who might need information regarding the project. Information for this analysis can be gathered by :
Once that is done, you must document the information requirements of each stakeholder group. Be aware that policies of the delivery organization often define the format and procedures for status meetings and project reporting.