PM Excellence AcademyGrace Design Studios · Module 6 of 12 · Practice tool
The work creates a curve of coordination demand. A recurring calendar supplies a flat line. This draws both on one axis, so you can see the gap before you commit to a cadence.
Module Home › Additional Materials › Communication Load Curve
The values open on Oakhaven Design Development. 13 weeks, effort peaking in Week 9, 6 parties. Run the 3 tests in order, then change the numbers to a project you are running.
Everything on the vertical axis counts interfaces. The pale bars are the channels live in that week, which is the team's channel count scaled by that week's share of planned effort. The dark bars are the sessions the calendar supplies. The white space between them is coordination the work asked for and nobody scheduled.
Test 1 and Test 2 both treat the number of interfaces as fixed and ask how many meetings will cover it. At a high party count no achievable meeting schedule covers the load. Test 3 changes the structure instead of the calendar, so the channel count falls from n(n−1)/2 toward n−1. That is why communication planning is 2 decisions rather than one. When to talk, and who has to talk to whom.
The session ceiling is fixed at 5 a week, which is one working session a day at the peak. What counts as grounded in this model, and what is set only to make the shape legible, is listed in Additional Materials.