Test a communication plan against the shape of the work, and against the number of interfaces the team actually has.
Module Home › Communication Load Curve
A recurring calendar produces a flat line of touchpoints. The work produces a curve, and the gap between the two is the coordination nobody scheduled. This tool draws the demand and the plan on the same axis, so a project manager can see where a communication plan fails before committing to it at kickoff.
Set the project, then set the plan
Move the inputs to match a project you are running, then move through the three modes in order. The third mode is the one most project managers have never tried.
Everything on the vertical axis counts interfaces. The demand curve is the channel count scaled by each month's share of planned effort, so it carries the shape of the effort curve from Modules 2 and 5 without borrowing its units.
Channels in the team
15
Sessions, quietest to busiest
4 to 4
Peak coverage
27%
Interfaces left to chance
0
This tool is a teaching instrument rather than an estimating instrument. It exists to show that communication planning should concentrate where communication is most needed rather than where it is easiest to schedule. Two of its relationships are established. The rest are chosen to make the shape legible, and they are marked below.
| Element | Basis | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Channels between parties = n(n−1)/2 | The communication channel count used in project management practice. Five parties produce 10 channels, ten produce 45, twenty produce 190. | Established |
| Effort concentrates in a single peak across the schedule | The cumulative form is the earned value S curve taught in Modules 2 and 5. Effort per month is its rate of change. | Established |
| Routing through discipline leads reduces channels to about n−1 | The hub and spoke structure the channel count implies when coordination is routed through a hierarchy rather than held open between all parties. | Established |
| Width of the effort curve | Set so the rise and fall are visible across the schedule length on screen. | Illustrative |
| Sessions one project manager can run per month | An input, defaulted to eight. Grace should replace the default with its own observed figure. | Illustrative |
| Share of channels live in a given month | Scaled by that month's effort. Real projects vary with phase and contract structure. | Illustrative |
Modes one and two both treat the number of interfaces as fixed and ask how many meetings to hold. At a high party count no achievable meeting schedule covers the load, and adding sessions stops working. Mode three changes the structure instead of the calendar, routing coordination through discipline leads so that the channel count falls from n(n−1)/2 toward n−1. Communication planning is therefore two decisions rather than one. When to talk, and who has to talk to whom.