What is a communication matrix and how to create it?

The communication matrix is an assessment tool designed to pinpoint exactly how an individual is communicating and to provide a framework for determining logical communication goals. It  allows you to think through how to communicate most efficiently and effectively to the various constituents. 

There can be many types of customers, users, vendors, managers, and stakeholders.  First determine what people or groups of people you want to include in the Communication Matrix.

For each of the stakeholders identified above, determine what their communications needs are. For instance, certain managers have a need for ongoing status information.  Steering committee members need ongoing status, plus a dialog on strategy and vision.  Your users might need awareness communication, mentoring, 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, where, and how frequently the communication takes place.

·         Determine How to Fulfill the Communication Needs of Each Stakeholder

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 communication that can cover more than one stakeholder’s needs.

·         Determine the Effort Required

Determine how much effort is required for each of the communication 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 one hour to create, but might be needed twice a month. The total effort would be two hours.

·         Prioritize the Communication Options

Some communication activities provide more value than others.  You brainstormed lists of communication options.  Now you need to prioritize the items to determine 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.  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 to find a less-intensive alternative.

Let me try to put it in another (practical) way and not necessarily in the academic view 

If I am in charge of project communication, then I would prepare q document, table or matrix that I will use it as a reference and guideline in keeping good and effective communications with the project stakeholders.

The way I would do that would be to talk to the stakeholders first, understand their needs and expectations regarding what they need to know, in what format, at what frequency, and how it would be delivered, .. and othe things (!!) Then, I would map this to the communications matrix reflecting this in the feedback and reporting process that goes from the projet management (blackbox) back to the stakeholders.  The end result would be the effective and successful communications matrix as long as it reflects what the stakeholoders need, and that the communication itself (formal/informal, written/verbal, regular/ad-hoc meetings, ..) is done in a timely and regular fashion per agreement, and as long as the content of the communication delivers that is needed.  

Communication matrx is a useful outlines the relationship between project tasks and stakeholders. it can be more useful where the numer of tasks and stakeholders are high.

Proactive communication is important on all projects, and the communication matrix is a must have project management and communication planning tool.   It allows you to think through how to communicate most efficiently and effectively to the various stakeholders, and if it is developed and used appropriately, it can adequately communicate information needed to whom it is needed in the way it is needed and when it is needed.  The communication matrix is needed when communication gets much more complex as project gets larger, and more people are involved.  It is showing the information to be communicated and stakeholders involved on vertical and horizontal columns.

In  simple words , a plan on how to communicate.

agreed by mr.taib

It is a tool to plan communication. It can be created by putting all the stakeholders/concerned in along one axis and information to be communicated along the other axis 

Agreed to all 

Drop me a private message and I'll share across the Comm Matrix we used to use in our previous project.

Good answers given by people above...

A communications matrix can be a tool to facilitate your communications plan or it can be your entire communications plan. The matrix is a simple concept that lists the team members/stakeholders names on one side of a spreadsheet and the communication documents/mode of communication on the other. Then, you mark which team member/stakeholder needs to be part of each communication (reports/meetings)..

Communication Matrix is a portion of the communication Plan deliverable. It is simply a table that lays out the list of stakeholders and details the type of project communications  that will be used and the frequency they will be delivered. it also lays out the format of the delivery.