VIT Project Management: Communication Plan Analysis Report

This report analyzes a project communication plan, assessing its strengths and weaknesses based on standard project management principles. The analysis identifies key stakeholders, communication media, and frequency, as well as responsible parties. The report critiques the existing plan, highlighting areas needing improvement, such as the lack of a clear communication sequence and feedback mechanisms. It then proposes a revised communication plan that addresses these shortcomings, offering a structured approach to stakeholder communication, including detailed communication schedules for various stakeholders. The justification for the recommended plan emphasizes the importance of clear, timely, and structured communication for resolving conflicts and ensuring project success. The report concludes by underscoring the need for a well-defined communication strategy to manage stakeholder expectations and facilitate effective project execution.

Running head: COMMUNICATION PLAN ANALYSIS
COMMUNICATION PLAN ANALYSIS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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COMMUNICATION PLAN ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
Introduction:.........................................................................................................................................2
Assessment of the current project communication plan:......................................................................2
Communication Plan analysis:.............................................................................................................3
Recommended communication plan:...................................................................................................4
Justification:.........................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:...........................................................................................................................................5
References:...........................................................................................................................................7

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COMMUNICATION PLAN ANALYSIS
Introduction:
Communication plan is the detailed overview about procedure, which instruct about delivery
of information to project stakeholders regarding project progress. Sharing information about
project is seen as an important characteristic of effective project execution [1]. It helps to involve
stakeholders with the project and allows them to share their overview and concern with the project
authority. However, not every communication process is efficient and it requires proper planning
for designing an effective communication plan for the project [2]. In this context, a communication
plan is provided in the case study is analyzed with standard communication requirements to identify
issues and along with that, an improved communication plan is provided with proper justification
for this new and improved communication process.
Assessment of the current project communication plan:
Proper and efficient communication plan has some important characteristics[3]. Details
about the following information is required:
 first what are the stakeholders that need to be considered in the project
 what should be the message that is communicated with the stakeholders
 how this message should be communicated that is the communication media
 when should the message be delivered
 What should be the frequency of delivering message and most importantly, who manages
this communication process.
If we analyses this provides its communication plan in this context based on these
characteristics it is identified that while some of these characteristics have been considered in
preparing the communication plan but some other important characteristics also missing from the
communication plan [5]. Things that have been incorporated are the type of stakeholders in the

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COMMUNICATION PLAN ANALYSIS
communication key message that will be delivered to the stakeholder's communication media to
communicate that information.
Now this information about communication sequence and responsible person to manage the
communication is not provided efficiently [4]. Now this makes it difficult for project teams and for
anyone who is instructed to communicate with stakeholders.
Communication Plan analysis:
Here in this context, communication plan in the case study is analysed with standard
communication principles recommended in project management knowledge documents. This
comparison specially looks for similarities of the provide communication plan with standards
project management recommendations and identifies opportunities for improvement for developing
an effective communication plan.
Project management recommendations Communication plan of case study
Clarity about important stakeholders for the
project
this feature has been identified in this
communication plan and integrated as well
Definition of key deliverables in the
communication process is well defined
This recommendation is properly
acknowledged
Communication medium is clear to project
team
Well defined in the communication plan
information about how frequently
communication needs to be done with
various stakeholders is clear
not identified and described in the
communication plan
Communication format is properly designed This feature is defined properly
Scope for feedback is provided There is no scope in the communication
plan which allows stakeholders to provide

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COMMUNICATION PLAN ANALYSIS
feedback in the communication process
Recommended communication plan:
Audience Document Frequency Content Responsible party
Senior
executives
PM status
reports
Monthly Project status,
project plan,
issues, and risks
updates.
Project manager
Steering
committee
PM status
reports
Monthly Project status,
project plan,
issues, and risks
updates.
Project manager
Executive
sponsors
PM status report,
steering
committee report
Quarterly, or
as needed
Project status,
project plan,
issues, and risks
updates.
Project manager or
steering committee
Alliance
partners
PM status
reports
Monthly Project status Project manager
Chief
Information
Officer of the
state
PM status report Quarterly Project status,
plan, issues, and
risks updates.
Project manager
Legislative
Fiscal Office
(LFO)
Executive
briefing
As needed Project status
and plan.
Executive sponsor chair
and vice-chair, and
steering committee co-
chairs
Audience Document Frequency Content Responsible
party
Collaborating
agencies,
Email/
newsletter
Monthly Project status Project manager,
other project

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COMMUNICATION PLAN ANALYSIS
monitoring
agencies
leaders as needed
Trades
associations
Email/
newsletter
As required Project status Project manager
Justification:
The communication plan makes it is available to project team what message should be
communicated but they does not have a clear idea in which sequence this communication will be
conducted. This makes the communication process less structured. Hence, there is a chance of this
communication being less effective, and as a result, stakeholder conflicts might arise in the project
because resolving conflicts with stakeholders requires efficient communication throughout the
project and for this timing of communication is extremely important. This is not possible to decide
the communication timing without proper analysis of communication frequency. Hence, an
improved communication plan is provided in this context for resolving the issues identified in this
analysis.
Conclusion:
While communicating with the stakeholders there might be an issue in the communication
process. Now if there is an issue in the communication process there should be someone who
manages the issues so that the communication is conducted in an efficient manner. Now this
communication plan does not provide any information on this aspect in case dispute crisis in the
communication who should be the responsible person that the project team should contact and
having and perfect idea about this process makes it easier to resolve these issues. However, in this
context, it is seen that there is no detailed information provided about the responsible person who

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COMMUNICATION PLAN ANALYSIS
manages the overall communication process. Hence, this communication plan is not feasible for a
project where stakeholder communication has an important role in project success.

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COMMUNICATION PLAN ANALYSIS
References:
[1]G. Ponnappa, "Project Stakeholder Management", Project Management Journal, vol. 45, no. 2,
pp. e3-e3, 2014. Available: 10.1002/pmj.21400.
[2]J. Davidson Frame, "Reconstructing Project Management", Project Management Journal, vol. 45,
no. 1, pp. e2-e2, 2014. Available: 10.1002/pmj.21387.
[3]A. Butt, M. Naaranoja and J. Savolainen, "Project change stakeholder communication",
International Journal of Project Management, vol. 34, no. 8, pp. 1579-1595, 2016. Available:
10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.08.010.
[4]J. Cobb, "When Principals Conflict: Stakeholder Power, Executive Decision-Making, and the
Manipulation of Pension Assumptions", SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016. Available:
10.2139/ssrn.2763825.
[5]A. Botchkarev and P. Finnigan, "Complexity in the Context of Information Systems Project
Management", Organisational Project Management, vol. 2, no. 1, p. 15, 2015. Available:
10.5130/opm.v2i1.4272.