BUSI 415 Week 4 Project: Communication Plan Example

Communications Management Plan: Fairmont Hills Community Recreation Center

Purpose and Scope

This plan describes how information about the Fairmont Hills Community Recreation Center project will be planned, distributed, monitored and updated over the project's fourteen months. It follows the PMBOK Guide's Plan Communications Management process (Project Management Institute, 2013) and uses the roles defined in the project's resource management plan. Dinsmore and Cabanis-Brewin (2014) describe communication as the means by which a project manager integrates the work of people who do not report to the project, which is the situation of a city project staffed from five departments with an outside contractor. The plan covers internal team communication, reporting to the sponsor and council, coordination with the general contractor and information for residents.

Three constraints shape it. First, the city's open records law means that project email and reports may be requested by the public, so status reports are written to be accurate and courteous even when they describe problems. Second, five of the eight city roles are part-time, so the plan cannot assume people will read long messages; reports are limited to two pages, and decisions are made in meetings rather than by email chains. Third, the council meets on fixed dates, so any decision that needs a vote must be prepared at least three weeks ahead, and the sponsor's updates are scheduled around the council calendar.

Communication Technology

The project uses the city's existing tools rather than adding new ones, because Dinsmore and Cabanis-Brewin (2014) caution that unfamiliar technology adds a learning burden at the start of a project, when the team has the least time. The project site on the city intranet holds all reference documents, with a single folder structure that mirrors the work breakdown structure. Email is used for notices and records, not for decisions. The contractor's daily reports and photographs are uploaded to a shared folder that the construction manager reviews each morning. Video calls are used for the weekly coordination meeting when site work keeps the construction manager away from city hall, and every meeting has a call-in option so that part-time members can attend from their own departments.

Stakeholder Communication Requirements

The table below lists the project's stakeholders and what each needs from the project.

The eight city roles in the resource plan, the contractor's project manager and superintendent, and two council liaisons make twelve people who exchange information regularly. Using the PMBOK Guide's formula of n(n-1)/2, those twelve people have 66 potential communication channels. No project manager can personally maintain 66 channels, so the plan assigns owners for each flow of information and uses pull methods for routine reference material.

Communication Methods

The Project Management Institute (2013) distinguishes three methods. Push communication, such as reports and email, is used for records that must be sent and kept. Pull communication, a project site on the city's intranet, holds the schedule, drawings, meeting minutes, the change log and the risk register, so that team members can retrieve current information without asking. Interactive communication, in meetings and walk-throughs, is used whenever people must make a decision or change how they work.

The plan relies on interactive methods more than many city projects do, for a reason supported by research. Henderson (2008) found that a project manager's competence in decoding messages, listening and confirming understanding, along with encoding clear messages, was related to team members' satisfaction and productivity. A report that arrives on time but is misunderstood has not communicated anything, so every decision meeting in this plan ends with a confirmation step. The person most affected by each decision states what it means for their work before the meeting moves on.

Communication Matrix

Escalation Path

Issues are resolved at the lowest level that has authority. A team member raises an issue at the weekly coordination meeting or, if urgent, directly with the project manager. The project manager resolves issues within the approved baseline and any change below $25,000. Issues that affect another department's staff, or changes above $25,000, go to the steering committee, and the sponsor may call a special meeting within three working days. Changes to the total budget or the opening date go to the city council. Every escalated issue is entered in the issue log on the project site with an owner and a due date.

Meeting Rules

Meetings start on time, have a written agenda circulated a day ahead, and end with decisions and action items read back aloud. Minutes are posted to the project site within one working day. The weekly coordination meeting is limited to thirty minutes; topics needing more time are taken to a separate working session with only the people concerned.

Communicating With Residents

Residents have no formal role in the project but strong influence, since they speak to council members. The communications officer will hold two public information sessions, one before construction and one before opening, and will answer questions submitted through the city's website within five working days. Disruptive work, such as a road closure for utility connections, will be announced at least two weeks ahead.

Biblical Integration

Proverbs warns that the person who answers before the matter has been heard out ends in folly and disgrace (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Proverbs 18:13). The plan applies that warning in two places. The confirmation step in meetings requires the project manager to hear how a decision is understood before treating it as communicated, and the public sessions are scheduled before construction begins, so residents' concerns can still shape traffic and noise plans rather than being answered after the fact.

Updating the Plan

The project manager will review this plan at each phase gate and whenever a stakeholder is added or a communication proves ineffective, recording changes in the change log. Its effectiveness will be checked through a three-question survey of team members and steering committee members at the end of Months 3, 8 and 13. The survey asks whether people received the information they needed, whether it arrived in time to act on, and whether any meeting or report could be dropped. Results are reported to the steering committee, and the plan is revised within two weeks of each survey. If a stakeholder group repeatedly reports surprises, the project manager will add an interactive method for that group, following the plan's principle that information has been communicated only when it has been understood.

References

Dinsmore, P. C., & Cabanis-Brewin, J. (Eds.). (2014). The AMA handbook of project management (4th ed.). AMACOM.

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Henderson, L. S. (2008). The impact of project managers' communication competencies: Validation and extension of a research model for virtuality, satisfaction, and productivity on project teams. Project Management Journal, 39(2), 48-59. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20044

Project Management Institute. (2013). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (5th ed.). Project Management Institute.