Planning stakeholder communication includes identifying what needs to be communicated, to whom it needs to be communicated, how it needs to be communicated, and when it needs to be communicated. Planning stakeholder communication for an analytics initiative is like most other initiative-level communication planning. It requires analysts to know and understand who the stakeholders are and the communication preferences of individual stakeholders and stakeholder groups.

When planning stakeholder communication, analysts consider:

• that stakeholder communications can involve an intermediate or final result since analytics initiatives are inherently iterative.
• the formality and the level of detail may vary amongst stakeholders
• the level of expertise required by stakeholders to interpret analytics results
• the level of privacy and confidentiality to be maintained
• keeping stakeholders informed about the progress and the approaches taken throughout the course of the initiative
• maintaining an appropriate level of communication during the initiative
• recording the responses and feedback from stakeholders for further action and follow-up