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information.

Distribution of Printed Media There are times when you may provide printed
materials as a form of communication. I generally like to print the project charter, the
project scope statement, the project schedule, the budget, meeting agendas, status
reports, and the risk register. The project charter and scope statement should each be
reviewed a few times, usually once in draft form, another when they are believed to be
final, and one more time at the approval and sign-off stage. The project schedule,
budget, risk register, and meeting agendas are nice to have in printed form at your

status meetings. These should be distributed a few days prior to the meeting so
participants have the opportunity to review them beforehand. I find two to three days
before the meeting is the ideal time to send these types of documents. If you send them
out a week ahead or more, they will likely be forgotten and won’t be read. Do keep in
mind that if you’re sending a contract document or one that’s dozens of pages or more

in length, it is better to send them a week or more in advance because a couple of days
isn’t enough time to read all the material. Use your judgment on the timing of the
distribution based on the complexity of the information.

Documents such as the project status report, meeting minutes, and action items may
have a regular distribution schedule. For example, if you hold project status meetings
every week, the schedule may call for the distribution of minutes the following day.
Distribution schedules should be discussed with your stakeholders. You’ll learn about

this topic in the next section.

Social Media Social media is a way to create and share communication to and from
your customer base or project team members in an electronic format. It enables
interaction, content sharing, and the ability for anyone connected with the project to
provide input.

The next questions are, who should get the information, what format should it be in,
and when should they get it? You’ll look at these topics next.

The Communication Plan

The communication plan can be simple, and you can easily construct a template using
a spreadsheet or table format.

You can document an overall communication plan by doing the following:

Defining who needs information on your project

Defining the types of information each person or group needs

Identifying the communications format and method of distribution

Assigning accountability for delivering the communication

Determining when the communications will occur and how often

Table 8.1 shows a sample communication plan.

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