Engagement Planning
Planning is no longer a single document screen. It is now the workflow hub for two related planning surfaces:
- the Engagement Canvas: a one-page plan for moving quickly from context to strategy
- the Formal Engagement Plan: an optional fuller document for approval, compliance, reporting, or more detailed planning needs
From the project sidebar, navigate to Planning (step 1 in the project workflow).
Planning hub
The top of the Planning page is the Canvas hero. It makes the current state of planning clear at a glance:
- whether a Canvas already exists
- whether the Context Brief foundations are complete enough to support planning
- a direct action to start or continue the Canvas
- a secondary path into the Formal Engagement Plan when the project needs a longer document
Below that, the Context foundations strip reminds the team what still needs attention in the Context Brief. If the foundations are incomplete, Planning pushes the team back toward Context before they over-design the engagement.
The Engagement Canvas
The Engagement Canvas is now the main planning surface for most projects. It is intended as the compact strategy view that teams can build, refine, and share quickly.
Use the Canvas when you need to:
- turn Context Brief foundations into a usable planning frame
- shape the project purpose, stakeholders, methods, timing, and risks in one place
- move quickly from early thinking into delivery setup
- maintain a planning artefact that stays lightweight and editable
The Canvas is the default path from the Planning page, and the primary button will read Start Canvas, Continue Canvas, or View Canvas depending on the project state.
The Formal Engagement Plan
If the project needs a more detailed written document, use the Formal Engagement Plan from the same Planning page.
The Formal Engagement Plan is a structured document that expands the higher-level thinking from Context and Canvas into a fuller planning artefact.
When you open the Formal Engagement Plan for the first time, you will be prompted to set it up:
- Choose a document template — select from a standard Engagement Plan template
- AI-assisted document drafting — EVA uses your Canvas content and project context to draft sections automatically
- Already have a formal plan? — upload an existing PDF or Word document to use as the starting point
Once created, the document editor includes:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Edit | Active editing mode — fields are editable inline |
| Design | Preview and adjust the document layout and theme |
| Quick Preview | See the formatted document as it would appear exported |
| Draft My Document | EVA drafts incomplete sections using the available project context and planning content |
Section groups in the Formal Engagement Plan
The Formal Engagement Plan is organised into four groups. Work through them in order, because later sections depend on earlier context and design decisions.
| Group | Sections | What to capture |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation & Planning | Introduction, Engagement Objectives, Negotiables / Non-Negotiables | The project context, what engagement needs to achieve, and what is or isn’t open to community influence |
| Scoping & Assessment | 2 sections | Stakeholder landscape and participation barriers |
| Engagement Design | 6 sections | Methods, communication channels, accessibility, timeline, and budget |
| Evaluation & Closure | 3 sections | How success is measured and how the feedback loop will be closed |
Working with sections
Each section displays:
- A status badge — In Progress, Ready, or Excluded — showing where the section sits in your workflow
- Mark as Ready — signals to the team that the section content is complete and reviewed
- Exclude Section — removes the section from the document if it doesn’t apply to this project
- Field guidance — each field includes a prompt describing what to capture; fields show a word count and minimum target
Content saves automatically as you type.
How Context, Canvas, and Formal Plan work together
- Context establishes the decision foundations
- Planning hub points the team to the Canvas first and surfaces any missing foundations
- Canvas gives the team a concise one-page strategy
- Formal Engagement Plan expands that strategy into a fuller document when needed
This means not every project needs to start with the Formal Engagement Plan. For many projects, the right sequence is:
- complete enough of the Context foundations to support honest planning
- build or refine the Engagement Canvas
- open the Formal Engagement Plan only if the project needs a more detailed document
Using EVA to draft sections
Within the Formal Engagement Plan, Draft My Document works through incomplete sections and creates a first draft from the project context and planning material already available.
Ask EVA remains available from the main app navigation for section-specific refinement and planning support.
EVA output is a starting point. The team still needs to confirm objectives, negotiables, influence boundaries, and closure commitments against the real project context.
Exporting the plan
Use Quick Preview to review the formatted document, then export from the Design view. Exports are available as PDF or Word.
Next steps
- Context — complete the foundations that Planning depends on
- Engagement Canvas — the primary planning surface for most projects
- Engagement Delivery — schedule methods, milestones, and activities once the plan is ready