How to plan project information and communication

Project information refers to the ideas, people, documents and other information used throughout the stages of a project.

Managing project communication includes ensuring the timely generation, collection, dissemination, storage and disposal of information to ensure the smooth running of the project.

However, before communication can be managed, you will require some knowledge of the types of information you should expect to deal with throughout the project's life cycle. Effective project management involves using this knowledge to inform your choice of project communication methods and to establish an effective communication plan.

With upfront planning, you can prevent troublesome issues down the line and ensure that internal stakeholders know what they need to do as well as when they need to do it, and they remain informed of the status of the project.

To ensure that every project runs smoothly from the start, you should be aware of project information and communication requirements in advance and plan accordingly before project work commences.

Types of project information

There is a wealth of information that you will need to gather, organise, collect, communicate and manage throughout a project. It can be helpful to think about the types of information in terms of the stage of the project management lifecycle.

These stages are:

Initiation

Scope documents: This is an agreement for the work that is to be completed. Usually, it forms part of the agreement between the project team and the client requesting the work.

Planning

• Work breakdown structure (WBS)
• Project plan
• RAID log (Risk, Actions, Issues and Decision log)

Execution

• Project status reports
• Design documents
• Meeting minutes
• E-mails
• Change requests
• Issue and challenge logs

Closure

Scope validation: Approval of project deliverables confirming that they meet the stakeholder’s needs. This includes the documents as tehy are generated and created throughout the project where relevant.

As a project manager, you have specific information and communication requirements for each stage in the project lifecycle. These are considered requirements because, once generated, they act as communication and information management tools, streamlining project work and expediting success.

As the project manager, you will determine and implement project information and communication, and these requirements will vary throughout the project lifecycle.

Lifecycle stage one: project initiation

In this stage, you must consider two aspects:

• the proposal and
• project scope

The proposal

To support the project scope, the project sponsor often receives a proposal before agreeing to a project. 

Similar to the project scope, this outlines the client’s challenge, the solution you propose to provide, the time frames and costs and the expectations of the project team and the client.

The project scope

Scope documents, or the project scope, is the written agreement, proposal or contract between the project manager and the client or project sponsor.

At a high level, the scope documents the expectations of the project team and client. It outlines what needs to be delivered, including the time frames, costs and an overview of the client’s requirements.

Lifecycle stage two: project planning

Once the proposal and scope are considered, the project moves onto the planning stage.

Work breakdown structure

The work breakdown structure (WBS) is a breakdown of various tiers of deliverables that will need to be completed throughout the project, as outlined in the scope documents. While the scope documents provide high-level deliberate deliverables, the WBS delves deeper by including sub-deliverables and is displayed in a visual flow diagram. 

Project schedule or plan

The project schedule takes the WBS one step further by including task details for each sub-deliverable while assigning resources and due dates to each high-level deliverable.

Work breakdown structures and project schedules are best created using digital project management software. There are many tools available that offer a wealth of project management benefits, including boosting, centralising and streamlining information management as well as all necessary project communications.

Before choosing a project management system, you should consider the requirements of the projects that you are likely to manage:

• Do you need to manage project teams in different places?
• Do you need to collaborate on documents?
• Do you need to share large files?
• How many users will need access to the project management system?
• What is the IT skill level of the people using the project management system?

This topic will be covered in more detail in chapter 2.

RAID Log

RAID is an acronym that standards for:

• Risks
• Assumptions
• Incidents
• Dependencies

A RAID log is commenced during the planning phase of a project to assist in identifying the factors that threaten the project’s success and the factors required for the project to succeed. As the project manager, this allows you to consider each of these factors carefully and communicate them to the project team as you see fit.

• Risks - these are any unplanned events that may affect the project’s success. A risk may affect any of the project outcomes: time, quality, cost and/or resources.
• Assumptions - this is anything you have assumed to be true so that you can put your project plan together. The Project Management Institute defines an assumption as any factor that is considered to be true, real or certain, even without empirical proof or demonstration.
• Issues - these are the problems that need to be addressed as soon as they are indentified, and may impact the project’s progression or impede its timely completion. These can arise at the start of a project or at any time during the project lifecycle.
• Dependencies - these are tasks that are interrelated. This includes run-on or dependent tasks where one task cannot be commenced until another is completed or where two tasks need to be completed simultaneously for some or other reason, etc.

Some applications of the RAID log call for substitution of the ‘D’ for Dependencies with Decisions. In such versions, every decision to be made throughout a project’s course is recorded, so that project knowledge as well as decisions and their causal reasoning are not lost.

RAID Logs are useful because they help you plan more efficiently and ensure that the project team remains aware of essential information regarding the project.

Watch

To learn more about RAID logs, watch the YouTube RAID-Log-Discussion-With-JonSobel.

Lifecycle stage three: Execution

This stage follows after planning and includes several steps.

Project status report

A project status report is a regular, formalised report that measures project progress against the project plan.

The purpose of a status report is to efficiently communicate the health of the project to stakeholders. Such regular communication helps to ensure that stakeholders and project sponsors are not left with any unexpected surprises and are aware of any project issues regarding the schedule, scope, resources or cost.

Design documents

This type of information includes the details, data and documentation generated through the course of work in delivering the final product.

What is included in this category will vary greatly depending on the type of project, but it might include:

• Conceptual drawings
• CAD drawings
• Artwork files
• Technical documents
• Flowcharts
• Procedures
• Blueprints
• Technical specifications

Change Requests

Change requests are any deviations from the initially agreed-upon project scope, timeframe and cost estimate provided at the project’s commencement. They are an amendment to the original agreement between the project team and the client.

Change requests may impact the nature of deliverables incumbent on the project or the cost of the project.

Key points

The client should sign off on any changes, and records of change requests must be kept.

A change request is an effective way to keep track of all change requests received during the lifecycle of a project. Change request logs will be covered in more detail in chapter two.

Risks, issues and challenges

You will need to keep track of risks, issues and challenges during a project’s life cycle. Issues and challenges the project may encounter may present a risk to the project’s successful completion.

Key points

Risks are potential challenges and potential issues. Whether minor or extreme, you will need to keep close track of each so that a slight roadblock at one part of the project does not snowball into an overwhelming challenge later on.

In project management, because many tasks link together, even though an issue may seem small at first, it can become a much larger problem later on if not identified and handled early on, preferably while it is still in the risk phase.

Approvals

Approvals will often come from the client and confirm that you have successfully achieved the deliverables at key milestones along the project timeline. Yet, sometimes, approval may be sought within the project team, such as from senior members with key authorities and development roles.

Example

Smaller projects may only have one approval process at the end of the project, in which the project sponsor confirms delivery and approves all project deliverables as per the project scope. However, larger projects with multiple components will likely have numerous milestones, each with a set of deliverables requiring distinct approvals.

It is essential that you track this information carefully during the project lifecycle and have a process for monitoring the information and other requirements for each milestone, including milestone due dates and reporting processes.

Lifecycle stage Four: Closure

This is the last stage and involves scope validation. According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide, scope validation is the formal review and acceptance that the deliverables of a project have been met once a project has been completed. The project sponsor must sign off on the scope validation to confirm that they are satisfied with each deliverable.

Besides the formal information and communication requirements, as discussed in the previous section, there are various effective informal methods and tools that you can apply at specific stages and, in many cases, as needed throughout the project. These are not formal requirements, but they are useful (and recommended) project communication devices.

The Project Management Institute suggests that, ideally, project managers should spend 90% of their time communicating (and doing so with both skill and understanding). This makes sense when you consider that at least one out of five projects is closed as unsuccessful due to lack or ineffective communication from leadership.

Clearly articulate the project’s vision the project’s vision

Given that work teams comprise a diverse mix of people with varying preferences, it is important to employ various communication methods that meet and effectively manage such varied requirements. Additionally, consider that, often, human resources will be spread across multiple geographical locations. There are several different types of meetings that you can use to manage project outcomes:

Kick-off meetings

This is a meeting commonly held at the start of a project to discuss the project in detail.

Depending on the type of project, you may hold this meeting with:

• Your client
• Your project team
• Key people from your project team, as well as from your client.

Use this type of meeting as an information-gathering session to ensure you have every detail you need from your client. In some situations, you may hold a client-address kick-off and then a team-address kick-off meeting afterwards, as the messages to these stakeholder groups will differ greatly.

In team-address kick-off meetings, discuss and provide the team with clarity about:

• the project goals
• the project’s vision
• the deliverables
• the key milestone dates
• what is expected of the team
• the communication tools to be used
• important information and documents to be used throughout the project

In the client address meeting, you might:

• Ask your client if they have additional questions
• Seek clarification by asking the client additional questions about the project

Stand-up meetings

Stand-up meetings are quick meetings held with the team as needed throughout a project.

Here, you can discuss important tasks that have been finalised, those in progress, and those about to start.

These meetings help people to stay on track, provide a platform for quick exchanges, questions, input on challenges, and allow you and the team to exchange essential updates.

Everyone in attendance should remain standing, as this indicates that the platform is intended to be used briefly, for quick communications before returning to the tasks at hand. More complex or lengthy exchanges can be scheduled and included in your weekly or fortnightly project meetings (to be covered in the next sub-section).

Project team meetings

Many project teams meet at least weekly or fortnightly, depending on the size of their project, to report on the progress of their tasks and discuss upcoming work.

Chat tools and discussion boards

Chat tools like Slack and HipChat are becoming increasingly popular because they offer a platform for short, less formal project discussions on a level that does not need to be documented. Such tools help your team members get answers from each other quickly, especially if they work in different locations.

In addition to direct individual messages, you can create channels related to various topics or projects and assign team members to a channel as needed. Team members can then see all messages relating to the channels in which they are involved.

image source:slack.com

Collaborative digital project management tools

Sophisticated cloud-based Project Management Information System (PMIS) tools such as Wrike, Monday and Asana allow project teams and managers to seamlessly collaborate on tasks without even leaving one’s desk.

Team members and project managers can ask questions and post comments against individual tasks while enjoying the centralising and streamlining of the upload, sharing and storage of project, deliverable and task-related documents, data, communications and more.

These tools allow high-level and high-quantity collaboration and can be used in conjunction with the other chat and discussion tools mentioned above. PMIS tools will be discussed in much greater depth in the next topic.

Watch

Watch the YouTube Wrike for Managers to learn more about collaboration tools.

Often, the requirements and your choice of tools and methods will depend on specific project objectives and/or the needs of particular stakeholders. In such cases, it is up to you to analyse and understand these requirements to make the most efficient and effective choice. Furthermore, since analysis is all about asking (and then answering) questions, it may help you to use the long-plied system of five Ws and one H.

Five W’s and one H

The five W’s and one H represent six basic questions that should be used at the start of every information-gathering process. These questions can be adjusted and used to paint a complete picture of any situation.

The five Ws and one H stand for:

What:

• What needs to be done?
• What do people need to know?
• What are the communication requirements for individual stakeholder groups?

Who: Who do we need to communicate with?

When:

• When are the project milestones due?
• When will the stakeholder groups need to be informed?
• When do you need to communicate project deliverables?

Where: Where will the information be provided?

Why: Why is the information needed?

How: How will you communicate the information?

Once you have each of these questions answered, you stand equipped with a workable knowledge of the project’s unique communication requirements. You can then proceed to the development of your project communication management plan.

The crux of any successful project is effective project communication between all stakeholders throughout the project’s course. However, such communication is highly unlikely without a communication management plan in place.

This is because projects almost always feature a range of dynamic, interacting components that must be communicated to and between project team members and managers who are equally dynamic and diverse.

Consider the following example:

Imagine that you are the project manager in charge of a corporate design project at CBSA in which deliverables include 58 unique designs for a range of new booklets for a client.

Each booklet is being written, professionally copyedited, graphically designed and published. The project involves 33 subcontractors (including writers, editors and graphic designers) and a team of seven internal project team members.

The project has five milestones, each requiring specific booklets to be submitted to the client on certain dates.

The client team includes three key contacts that regularly ask for updates to ensure that the milestones will be met. The customer service team from your company gets regular phone calls with questions regarding the scope of project work and the various milestones.

Throughout the project:

• Your company’s senior executives need to know that the project is on track and that there is no increase in project expenditure.
• The customer service team need status updates so that they can answer questions from the client about deliverables.
• You need to ask your project team questions, and they must provide you with answers regarding the details and progress of tasks.
• Your project team need to ask questions so that they can respond to any subcontractor questions.
• You need to know when tasks are completed, and that team members are progressing according to plan.
• You need to liaise with the client regularly and be ready to confirm that you are on track to deliver.

Now, imagine trying to do this without a well-considered project communication plan.

You see, without established lines of communication and a clearly thought-out plan, you, as PM in the example above, might easily get yourself and the team caught up in a state of confusion, not to mention your project bang on track to disaster.

Countless projects have failed because those and the similar points above were not strategically planned. Communication is the key to project success, and you must consider the ideas and concepts you need to communicate and provide instructions and guidance to your team.

What is a communication management plan?

The PMBOK Guide describes communications management planning as:

The process of developing an appropriate approach and plan for project communications based on stakeholders’ information needs and requirements as well as available organisational assets.

Key project communications management processes follow the steps below:

Communication is key to project success, and you must communicate using the best method of communication to provide transparent information about your ideas and concepts. A project manager must guide, listen and negotiate with others.

As PM, you must plan communication and its management based on how that communication can best be applied to reaching team project objectives and goals.

You must think strategically.

In each project, you will fill various communication roles with several stakeholder groups. Each project will involve different communication methods based on the unique project objectives, needs, client preferences, timeframes, and resources.

You can succeed in these various roles and responsibilities with the backup of your communication management plan, developed to guide you in your own communication role and agenda, as well as to map out and guide your team members through their individual communication requirements and functions.

A communication management plan should include:

1. Details of the project
2. Details of specific communication methods
3. The methods of communication to be used
4. The names and roles of those who will be involved in these communications
5. The type of information that will be shared
6. The frequency of information to be shared
7. Details of how you will manage and oversee communications throughout project lifecycle
8. Details of how you will monitor and review project communication to ensure its effectiveness

Step 1: Identify your stakeholder

Step 2: Create the communication management plan

Now that you know your stakeholders, think about what they need to know and when they need to know it. An excellent place to start is with the project kick-off meeting. In this meeting, your internal project team will need to be briefed on the overall project, including project goals, objectives, plans, tasks, roles and intended outcomes. Determine who needs to participate in the kick-off meeting and when it will be held.

After that, determine how often you will need to hold project team meetings. Ask yourself: Will they be held on a weekly or fortnightly basis? Will your team require daily stand-up meetings as well? Keep in mind that you might need to change the frequency of meetings throughout the project if something is not working.

Following on from this, you might want to ask yourself the questions below:

• How will you communicate with contractors and suppliers? Will this be through in-person or virtual meetings, via e-mail or chat tools?
• Will your client need regular updates on the project’s progress? Will this be through meetings or e-mail updates?
• How often will you meet with the project steering committee? Will there be any other meetings with the client?
• What validation, quality assurance and control processes will you employ to ensure that communication and information remain optimal and valid throughout the project? You will learn more about this aspect in the next chapter.

Also, include the chat tools and discussion boards available to your project team but ensure that your team is trained on using the available communication tools to their full potential.

Instruct your team on which communication method to use for which type of communication so that chat tools or discussion boards are not misused and communication can remain as streamlined as possible.

Once your communication frequency and channels have been decided for each stakeholder group, you might want to format your communication management plan as follows and then make it fully accessible for easy reference by your team:

Check with your organisation if a preferred style or template must be used.

Another example is:

Step 3: Communicate the plan

This plan is created to guide you and your team; therefore, it should be communicated and made accessible to your team once developed.

The ideal place to brief your team on this would be at the project kick-off meeting.

Note: Add calendar dates to your diary and invite your project team to the scheduled meetings.

Use the meeting schedule and apply features embedded in your project management software, or download a scheduler app to send digital invites, secure RSVPs and issue reminders. Proper team scheduling in line with your communication plan will help you to ensure that all your meetings are prepared for and attended as planned.