The Communication Management Strategy addresses both internal and external communications. It should contain details of how the project management team will send information to, and receive information from, the wider organization(s) involved with, or affected by, the project. In particular, where the project is part of a programme, details should be given on how information is to be fed to the programme.
If a formal stakeholder engagement procedure is needed, this should also be documented as part of the Communication Management Strategy and should record the types of stakeholder, desired relationships and key messages, strategies for communication, and methods for evaluating the success of communications.
PRINCE2 recommends the following:
✔Review the Project Brief to understand whether any corporate or programme management strategies, standards or practices relating to communication management need to be applied by the project
✔ Seek lessons from similar previous projects, corporate or programme management, and external organizations related to communication management. Some may already have been captured in the Lessons Log
✔ Review the Risk Register and Issue Register for risks and issues associated with communication management
✔ Identify and/or review stakeholders, and consult them for their information needs:
✔ Identify desired relationships
✔ Clarify key communication messages
✔ Determine desired outcomes from successful communications
✔ Establish the information needs associated with the Quality Management Strategy, the Risk Management Strategy and the Configuration Management Strategy
Define the Communication Management Strategy, including:
✔ The communication management procedure
✔ Tools and techniques that will be used
✔ Records that will be kept
✔ How the performance of the communication management procedure will be reported
✔ Timing of communication activities
✔ The roles and responsibilities for communication activities
✔ Stakeholder analysis
✔ Consult with Project Assurance to check that the proposed Communication Management Strategy meets the needs of the Project Board and/or corporate or programme management
✔ If any new risks or issues are identified (or existing ones have changed), then update the Risk Register, Issue Register and/or Daily Log
✔ Seek Project Board approval for the Communication Management Strategy (although the Project Board may prefer to review it later as part of the Project Initiation Documentation).
