Serge Thorn wrote an excellent post called “Development of an Enterprise Architecture Communication Plan“. I really enjoyed the read and completely agree that communication is a key success factor for the success of any enterprise architecture practice.
In the post, Serge set the stage by making a case for why a communication plan is key:
“Communication significantly impacts how IT is perceived by the organization, and therefore it plays a crucial role in the successful positioning of IT as an internal partner.”
“Effective communication is part of the overall plan for management of an Enterprise Architecture Program.”
Next, Serge lays out the key steps in developing an EA Communication Plan with supporting artefacts:
- Stakeholder General Communication
- General Information Needs
- General Communication Tools
- Communication Matrix
- Communication Planning
- Implementation Steps
Building on Serge’s post, let’s explore how we create communication plans in IT Services at BCIT. My colleague, Dave Cresswell developed a template for project communication plans that we use for communication planning for large projects and our ongoing strategic practices like enterprise architecture, project/program management and business analysis. I will explore the steps to creating the plan next.
The communication plan template considers the following categories:
- Audience
- Communication Channel
- Message Type
- Time (calendar)
Think about the audience for your communication plan first; some examples are:
- Executive/Project Sponsors
- Institutional Leadership and Management
- Project Team
- Institutional Stakeholders – students, faculty, staff, alumni, employers
- Industry Peer Organizations
Now list the message types like:
- general communication
- project status reporting and completion
- milestone achieved announcement
- request for information
- service standards
- policies
- procedures
Third, list the communication channels. Here are some examples:
- email – announcements
- meetings – 1 on 1 conversations, department & information
- presentations
- reports/white papers / publications
- website
- workshops – focus groups
Time is the last category and the most intuitive tool is to simply use a calendar. You need to decide if this is an ongoing communication plan or one built for a project with a start and an end.
Now that you have populated items into each category, its time to match them up to form the plan. Let’s use a simple example for project status reporting.
- Match communication channels to message types. An example would be (message type) Project Status reporting could be delivered via (communication channels) email and websites.
- Next match message types to audiences. An example would be Project Status reporting should be delivered to (audience) the Executive/Project Sponsor and the Project Team via email and to stakeholders via a website.
- Next identify when the audiences need to be communicated to over time. Project Status reports are communicated (time) bi-weekly to all audience members.
- To build out a full plan, you would need to address all the communication channels, message types and audiences to ensure that a complete communication strategy is in place.
If anyone is interested, please email me or send me a tweet @leodesousa and I can send you the template in PDF and/or Excel format. The example I have is a 3 month project to Create a Functioning EA Office.
Wrapping up, communication is a key success factor to any project and particularly if you want to build a successful Enterprise Architecture practice. Good luck to all of you!
Related posts:
Leo de Sousa
[...] seems to be the topic of the week with excellent posts on the subject from both Leo de Sousa and Serge Thorn. This has been on my to-do list since a meeting with Bruce Robertson where we [...]
[...] seems to be the topic of the week with excellent posts on the subject from both Leo de Sousa and Serge Thorn. This has been on my to-do list since a meeting with Bruce Robertson where we [...]
I would appreciate a copy of the template you mentionned in excel format. I am in the process of putting together a similar project and would appreciate any insight you have.
Jean, I will put the documents together and email them to you. Thanks for your interest, Leo
I would also like an excel format of the template. Thank you in advance.
Penny, I will email you the template tomorrow. Cheers! Leo
Hi Leo, I’m working on a similar project and would appreciate having a look at your Excel template. Thanks Much!
Maggie
Maggie, I will send you the template via email. Thanks for reading my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions about how it works. Leo
Hi Leo, I really enjoyed reading your article. Can you please send me your Excel template.
Thanks!
Shri
Shri,
I emailed you the template. Did you get it? Let me know if you have any questions about how to use it. Thanks, Leo
Hello Leo, can I also get a copy of the template in Excel format? I am in the process of kicking off a new EA program and I’m sure this communications plan template will come in handy.
Gartner also includes the communications plan as one of the items needed to jump-start an EA program. Its good to see other opinions on this topic. One question I have is how formal does this plan need to be? Is a one-page communications plan good enough?
We use SharePoint at my company and I was thinking of creating a team site to make the EA program more visible while also serving as a communication and collaboration tool. What do you think? Any experience with this?
Thanks, Leo!!
Josef
Josef, Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. The start of the New Year has been very busy. I am interested how you will use SharePoint for your EA program. My team is just putting SP 2010 in place and I would like to move our EA artifacts and documents to a site. Can you let me know what type of SP site you plan on using and what if any extra webparts you will be adding?
I will email you the template over the weekend. Regards, Leo
Leo,
I enjoyed the article by Serge Thorn you referenced and your article/comments as well. Is it still possible to get a copy in Excel format of the template?
Thanks, David
David,
I have been on vacation for the past week. I will email you the template over the weekend. Thank you for reading my blog, Leo
Hi Leo – Call me a fan and I would love your template in excel. Could you send via email! Many thanks, Lynn
Lynn, Thank you! I really appreciate the feedback. I will send you the template via email. All the best, Leo
Just wondering how to get a copy of the EA Communications template
Cheers and thanks….
James thanks for reading my blog. I will email you the template. All the best, Leo
Hi – Can I also get a copy of the templates in Excel format please? Many thanks!
Just emailed you the template … Looking forward to your feedback, Leo
Hi Leo,
Me too please. (You know where to find me).
It’s good to see you punching this point. In my experience everyone puts a cons plan together, far fewer actually execute. Seems to always go to the bottom of the todo list.
Cheers.
Ric. Looking forward to getting your feedback once you are back from holidays. Cheers, Leo
Hi Leo,
I would also appreciate a copy of the templates you are referring to, please?
Many thanks,
Silvia
Silvia, I just sent you the templates. Leo