JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

OF
AGRICULTURE & TECHNOLOGY
JKUAT SODeL

SCHOOL OF OPEN, DISTANCE AND eLEARNING

P.O. Box 62000, 00200
©2014

Nairobi, Kenya
E-mail: [email protected]

HEPM 3102 Project Leadership and Communication

JJ II LAST REVISION ON November 10, 2014

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 HEPM 3102 Project Leadership and Communication
This presentation is intended to covered within one week.
The notes, examples and exercises should be supple-
mented with a good textbook. Most of the exercises have
solutions/answers appearing elsewhere and accessible by
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clicking the green Exercise tag. To move back to the same

page click the same tag appearing at the end of the solu-
tion/answer.
©2014

Errors and omissions in these notes are entirely the re-

sponsibility of the author who should only be contacted
through the Department of Curricula & Delivery
(SODeL) and suggested corrections may be e-mailed to
[email protected].
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 HEPM 3102 Project Leadership and Communication
LESSON 4
Creating a communication matrix

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Identify project stakeholders
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• Determine how to fulfill the communication needs of each

stakeholder.
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4.1. Introduction
The project manager must make sure that team members, cus-
tomers, and stakeholders have the information they need to do
their jobs. Communication is also a vital way to manage ex-
JJ II pectations about how the project is going and who needs to
J I be doing what. This can be as simple as talking to your team
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 HEPM 3102 Project Leadership and Communication
members about how they are doing on their assigned work, or
holding a regularly scheduled status meeting. However you do
it, proper communication can go a long way toward ensuring
project success.
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On smaller projects, communication is simple and does not

require much proactive effort. However, communication gets
much more complex the larger a project gets, and the more peo-
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ple that are involved. Larger projects require communication to

be planned in advance, taking into account the particular needs
of the people involved. This is where a Communication Matrix
is useful. A Communication Matrix allows you to think through
how to communicate most efficiently and effectively to the var-
JJ II ious constituents. Effective communication means that you are
J I providing information in the right format, at the right time, and
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 HEPM 3102 Project Leadership and Communication
with the right impact. Efficient communication means that we
are providing the information that is needed, and nothing more.

4.1.1. Determine Project Stakeholders

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Project stakeholders can be: customers, users, vendors, man-

agers etc. First determine what people or groups of people you
want to include in the Communication Matrix.
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4.1.2. Determine the Communication Needs of Each Stake-

holder
For each of the stakeholders identified above, determine what
their communications needs are. For instance, certain managers
JJ II have a need for ongoing status information. Steering commit-
J I tee members need ongoing status, plus a dialog on strategy and
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 HEPM 3102 Project Leadership and Communication
vision. Your users might need awareness communication, men-
toring, question-and-answer sheets, promotional information to
build enthusiasm, etc. For large projects especially, the project
team should be creative in determining how, what, to whom,
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where, and how frequently the communication takes place.

• Determine How to Fulfill the Communication Needs

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of Each Stakeholder
Project communication can take many shapes and forms. In this
step, brainstorm how you will fulfill the communication needs
for each stakeholder. When possible, look for types of commu-
nication that can cover more than one stakeholder’s needs.
Mandatory: The types of communication are required by
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your agency, or by statute. This information is pushed to recip-
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 HEPM 3102 Project Leadership and Communication
ients:
• Project Status Reports
• Regular voicemail updates (of status)
• Status meetings
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• Meetings with steering committee

• Regular conference calls and videoconferences with remote
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stakeholders
• Government-required reports and other information
• Financial reporting such as budget vs. actual, or any other
required financial information
Informational: This is information people want to know, or
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that they may need for their jobs. This information is made
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 HEPM 3102 Project Leadership and Communication
available for people to read, but requires them to take the ini-
tiative, or pull the communication.
• Awareness-building sessions that people are invited to at-
tend (These are not meant as training, just to build aware-
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ness.)
• Project paper-based deliverables placed in a common repos-
itory, directory, or library that people can access
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• Project information on a Web site

• Marketing to Service Providers or Constituent Stake-

holders:
These are designed to build buy-in and enthusiasm for the project
JJ II and its deliverables. This type of communication is also pushed
J I to the readers.
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 HEPM 3102 Project Leadership and Communication
• Project newsletters, with positive marketing spin
• Meeting one-on-one with key stakeholders on an ongoing
basis
• Traveling road shows to various locations and departments
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to explain project and benefits

• Testimonials from others where value was provided
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• Contests with simple prizes to build excitement (corny but

it works)
• Project acronyms and slogans to portray positive images
of the project
• Project countdown till live date (this is affective)
JJ II • Informal (but purposeful) walking around to talk up the
J I project to team members, users, and stakeholder
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 HEPM 3102 Project Leadership and Communication
• Celebrations to bring visibility to the completion of major
milestones
• Project memorabilia with project name or image portrayed,
such as pins, pencils, Frisbees, cups, T-shirts, etc.
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• Publicizing accomplishments

• Determine the Effort Required

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Determine how much effort is required for each of the commu-

nication ideas surfaced previously. Some of the activities might
be relatively easy to perform. Others will require more effort.
If the communication is ongoing, estimate the effort over a
one-month period. For instance, a status report might only take
JJ II one hour to create, but might be needed twice a month. The
J I total effort would be two hours.
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 HEPM 3102 Project Leadership and Communication
• Prioritize the Communication Options
Some communication activities provide more value than others.
In the previous exercise, you brainstormed lists of communica-
tion options. Now you need to prioritize the items to determine
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which provide the most value for the least cost.

If a communication activity takes a lot of time and provides
little or marginal communication value, it should be discarded.
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If a communication option takes little effort and provides a lot of

value, it should be included in the final Communication Matrix.
Of course, if a communication activity is mandatory, it should be
included no matter what the cost. If a mandatory activity is time
consuming, you may be able to negotiate with the stakeholders
JJ II to find a less-intensive alternative.
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 HEPM 3102 Project Leadership and Communication
Revision Questions

Example . Identify any five potential project stakeholders:

Solution: customers, users, vendors, managers. 
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Exercise 1.  How would you ensure that each of the stake-

holders needs is fulfilled?
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Exercise 2.  State some of the mandatory types of commu-

nication.

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