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individual preferences for communication styles. Get to know your key stakeholders

and ask them what method of communication they prefer, the frequency they want to
receive it, and how they want you to update them on general project information
versus critical or emergency type information.

Let’s take another look at the communication plan with specific stakeholder needs in
mind. Table 8.1 listed the following column headers in the communication plan:

Stakeholder name

Communication type

Format of communication

Distribution method

Responsible party

Frequency

You could add additional columns to describe the level of report detail needed and
perhaps use a designator such as high, medium, and low to see at a glance if an
executive summary level of information will work or if you need to explain items in
detail. Table 8.2 shows a sample communication plan with the additional information
noted earlier.

TABLE 8.2 Sample expanded communication plan

Stakeholder Communi- Format of Distribution Responsible Frequency
Name cation Communi- Method Party
Type cation

Sponsor Project Written and Email Project Weekly
status verbal notification/project manager status
reports, repository meetings,
monthly monthly
executive executive
status meetings

meeting
Stakeholder A Project Written Reports written Project Weekly
plan, and stored in manager

project project repository
status
reports

Engaging Stakeholders

Remember that a stakeholder is anyone who has a vested interest in the outcome of a
project. In Chapter 2, I identified some of the typical project stakeholders: project

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