Planning Project Communications

Why Communication Is the Project Manager's Primary Job

Research consistently reports a staggering figure: project managers spend approximately 90% of their time communicating — in conferences, meetings, memos, reports, conversations with senior management, clients, team members, and contractors. Yet despite this overwhelming time investment, communication failures remain among the most frequently cited causes of project failure.

The reason for this paradox is that most project communication is reactive and unstructured. Messages are sent without considering whether the audience needs them. Meetings are held without clear agendas. Reports are distributed to everyone when only a few stakeholders need the information. The volume of communication is high, but its effectiveness is low.

Derek Lidow identified Communication as his fifth and final Duck — and in his experience, the most difficult to align. His critique of traditional corporate communication tools is sharp: memos, newsletters, and one-way broadcasts are fundamentally data deliveries rather than true communications. They are one-way, one-size-fits-all, and often alienate the very audiences they were designed to inform. Recipients may understand that changes are happening, but until they can appreciate how those changes will affect them personally — will it make their job easier? Will it save them time? — they cannot be expected to lend their support.

Graham Winch's gap analysis model adds a structural dimension to this challenge. His concept of the line of visibility — the boundary between what the client can see of the project process and what remains internal to the project coalition — is fundamentally a communication design problem. Where you place that line, and what information flows across it, determines the client's perception of project performance.

---

What Is Project Communications Management?

The Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) provides a comprehensive definition:

Project communications management provides a critical link between people, ideas and information at all stages in the project life cycle. It ensures the timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, storage and disposition of project information via formal structures and processes to aid in decision making. It also allows the control of informal communication networks which also assist in the achievement of project objectives.

The PMBOK structures communications management into three processes:

Communication in projects operates across four levels:

Project Manager

Project Team — (Subordinates)

Support & Related Projects — (Peers)

Corporate Managers & Clients — (Internal Stakeholders)

External Clients & Stakeholders — (External Parties)

Relationship details

From	Relationship	To
Project Manager	leads to	Project Team — (Subordinates)
Project Manager	leads to	Support & Related Projects — (Peers)
Project Manager	leads to	Corporate Managers & Clients — (Internal Stakeholders)
Project Manager	leads to	External Clients & Stakeholders — (External Parties)

Each level demands different content, different formats, different frequencies, and different levels of detail. A communication plan that fails to differentiate between these audiences will either overwhelm some stakeholders or under-inform others — both of which erode trust.

---

How It Works: Building the Communications Management Plan

The Communications Management Plan

The Communications Management Plan sits within — or as a subsidiary to — the Project Management Plan. Its purpose is to ensure an efficient, appropriate, and adequate flow of information throughout the project.

The Plan must achieve three objectives:

1. Ensure stakeholders understand the process for communicating information
2. Ensure appropriate information is distributed to all stakeholders
3. Ensure documentation is consistent, current, and accessible

Essential Components

At minimum, the Communications Management Plan must address:

• Stakeholder communication requirements — who needs what?
• Information to be communicated — content, format, level of detail
• Person responsible for each communication
• Methods to be used (meetings, reports, email, formal documents)
• Frequency of communication
• Guidelines for meetings — agendas, minutes, attendees
• Guidelines for email — when to use, response expectations
• Methods for updating the plan as the project evolves

The Stakeholder Communication Matrix

A practical tool for mapping stakeholders to communication methods:

VerbalMeetingEmailFormal DocNewsletterWebsiteetc

Sponsor✓✓✓✓

Steering Committee✓✓

Client Personnel✓✓

External Authorities✓

General Public✓

Design Principle: Senior management require broad detail — overall financial, technical, and schedule progress with high-level risk analysis. The project manager and contractors require full detail — task-level progress, variance reports, and issue registers. Sending detailed technical reports to executives wastes their time; sending executive summaries to contractors leaves them uninformed.

Structuring Meetings

The Communications Management Plan should define every recurring meeting:

Meeting Discipline:

• The person calling the meeting is responsible for issuing an agenda beforehand
• Minutes must be taken, reviewed, and distributed
• The venue must be organised in advance
• Coordination meetings can be called at any time for urgent issues — but ad hoc meetings must not replace the structured rhythm

Project Reporting

Two standard reporting streams flow through most projects:

1. Contractor's Report — A written monthly report covering progress of works, contractual matters (variations, time claims), and a photographic record. Submitted to the Principal within 7 calendar days of the reporting period.

2. Project Management Report — A written monthly report covering project status, budget issues, client issues, design issues, approvals, programme, contract issues, quality, public relations, asset management, and project risks. Distributed to governance group members before the PCG meeting.

Contractor's Report — (Monthly, 7 days after period)

Project Management Report — (Monthly, before PCG meeting)

Superintendent / Principal

Project Control Group

Relationship details

From	Relationship	To
Contractor's Report — (Monthly, 7 days after period)	leads to	Superintendent / Principal
Project Management Report — (Monthly, before PCG meeting)	leads to	Project Control Group
Project Management Report — (Monthly, before PCG meeting)	leads to	Superintendent / Principal

---

Lidow's Communication Duck: Lessons from the Factory Floor

Lidow's approach to project communication is built on a marketing metaphor. Just as companies segment their customers and tailor messages to each segment, project leaders must segment their constituencies — all the people who will be affected by the project's outcome — and develop targeted communications for each group.

His process follows three steps:

Step 1 — Identify the constituencies. Group people who will be similarly affected by the project (including those affected negatively) so that discrete strategies can be developed for winning each segment's support.

Step 2 — Develop a segment-targeted communications plan. For each constituency, determine the content, type, and frequency of the messages, the delivery vehicle, and a feedback mechanism. Always provide for multiple deliveries — a single message is almost never sufficient.

Step 3 — Monitor and modify. Conduct regular "market research" — test constituent comprehension and support at frequent intervals and adjust the plan accordingly.

Lidow's Communications Matrix illustrates this in practice:

Lidow's Warning: "Traditional corporate communications tools — memos and newsletters — can't be relied upon to convince anybody of anything, not only because they may not be read, but also because they are essentially data deliveries rather than true communications."

---

The Pitfalls: Where Communications Management Fails

1. Communicating without a plan. Effective project communications do not happen organically. They must be planned, structured, and formally documented. Without a Communications Management Plan, information flow is haphazard and gaps are inevitable.

2. One-size-fits-all messaging. Different stakeholders need different information at different levels of detail. The executive sponsor does not need the task-level schedule; the site contractor does not need the strategic risk profile. Tailoring is not optional — it is a core requirement.

3. Information without feedback loops. Communication is a two-way street. The project manager does not simply issue instructions — the team must understand, participate, and agree before teamwork is achieved. Feedback in both directions is necessary for team building and vital for sustaining effort.

4. Neglecting informal networks. The Communications Management Plan governs formal communication, but informal networks — corridor conversations, coffee-machine discussions, group chats — carry enormous influence. Effective project managers recognise and nurture these informal channels rather than attempting to suppress them.

5. Failing to update the plan. A communications plan written during initiation and never revised becomes obsolete as stakeholders change, the project evolves, and new issues emerge. The plan must include a method for its own updating and refinement.

6. Confusing activity with effectiveness. Sending more emails does not mean communicating better. Holding more meetings does not mean decisions are being made. The test of communication effectiveness is whether the right people have the right information at the right time to make the right decisions.

---

The Communication Competence of the Project Manager

The study notes emphasise that project managers must be good communicators — but this does not require oratory or charisma. It requires:

• Recognising the importance of interpersonal networks within the project team and encouraging — not inhibiting — informal communication
• Recognising that communication is two-directional — orders alone do not build teams; feedback in both directions is essential
• Accepting responsibility for ensuring all stakeholders participate in developing the communications plan itself
• Ensuring all stakeholders are included in the communication process — nobody should be surprised by information they should have received

Segil's leadership matrix adds that dynamic leaders demonstrate constant visibility and accessibility. The organisational environment should provide free information exchange, communication, and benchmarking across the organisation. This is not a soft aspiration — it is a management process for implementation.

---

Key Takeaways

• Communications management spans three PMBOK processes: Plan, Manage, and Control Communications.
• Project managers spend roughly 90% of their time communicating — making communication planning the highest-leverage activity in the PM toolkit.
• The Communications Management Plan must define stakeholder requirements, information content, methods, frequencies, responsibilities, and update procedures.
• Tailor messages to audiences. Senior management needs broad summaries; project teams need granular detail. Lidow's constituency-based approach brings marketing discipline to project communication.
• Communication is two-way. Feedback loops are not optional — they are how the project manager detects misunderstanding, resistance, and emerging risk.
• The line of visibility (Winch) is a communication design decision. Where you place it determines the client's perception of the project — and therefore their satisfaction with the outcome.
• Formal structures (meetings, reports, plans) must coexist with informal networks — both channels carry information that the project manager needs.

---

This concludes the Lifecycle Planning Masterclass series. The four knowledge areas — Cost, Quality, Human Resources, and Communications — are not independent silos. They are deeply interdependent: quality requires skilled people (HR), skilled people require motivation and clear direction (Communications), and all three are constrained by budget (Cost). Mastering their integration is the hallmark of the mature project manager.