Without a structured communication process, project teams can waste valuable resources and time during project life cycles while producing lackluster results. The importance of effective communication is especially apparent in distributed and hybrid teams, as diverse talents seek to contribute to shared efforts in specific ways.
As a project manager, if you want to minimize project failures, you need a project communication plan. This document ensures your stakeholders know the proper communication methods for sharing information.
In this guide, we’ll go over what a communication plan is, why it’s important to successful project management, and what you should consider when creating your own.
What is a project management communication plan, and why do you need one?
A project management communication plan is a structured document that outlines communication requirements for a team within a project’s confines. It shows which key stakeholders need to know what, how they prefer to be reached, and how often information needs to be shared with different team members.
A great plan is extremely important to the success of a project. Most of the project manager’s job is about the communication between project stakeholders. A quality plan ensures that ideas, updates, and issues get to the right people so that they can be evaluated, implemented, or solved.
Benefits of a project management communication plan
There are many advantages to having a good communication plan. Here are just a few ways your project can benefit from having a plan for your communication needs.
- Avoid confusion and delays: A loose communication structure can confuse a project team and lower productivity. Your plan ensures that information gets where it needs to go.
- Accommodate stakeholder communication preferences: Your communication plan outlines client-facing project goals and ensures everything a project team does works toward those goals.
- Clarify communication expectations for all involved: Your plan ensures all stakeholders know who to reach in any situation that may arise.
- Handle project roadblocks proactively: Your plan will give your team step-by-step instructions on who to contact in case of emergencies or problems.
How to create a project management communication plan in 6 simple steps
Now that you know what a solid communication plan is, we’ll discuss how you can create and implement one. One of your top concerns should be clarity when creating a plan. Everyone on your team should be able to read and understand it easily. A good template can help you create a clear and concise plan.
The next few sections will go over the elements involved in a great project management communication plan. Remember that there’s no set way of organizing this plan. What works for one company might not work for another. However, as long as you have some sort of system in place, you’ll greatly increase your team’s efficiency.
1. Map out your communication objectives
Before you can start thinking about how to structure communication within your project, you need to know the purpose of having it. Knowing what you have to gain from a communication plan will give your plan a direction to follow.
Communication should, in some way, move you closer to your objectives. What problems does your communication plan aim to solve? Here’s a list of common goals:
- Notifying stakeholders of project needs, including a budget, inventory, and deadline matters
- Having a clear process for decision making, dealing with roadblocks, and meeting time frames
- Giving team members and clients opportunities to give helpful feedback and share ideas
- Having a structured process for presenting deliverables to clients for approval
- Narrowing communication platforms based on preference
2. Make a list of all stakeholders and their communication preferences
This is where you decide who needs what information. Not every team member needs to be involved in every decision. Dumping too much information on everyone could affect their ability to get work done. For example, there’s no reason to involve someone who does product testing in a decision about payroll.
It’s also important to clarify when certain stakeholders need to be given updates. Your client may prefer to be given updates after specific deliverables are completed, such as designs, drafts, or prototypes.
There are also different ways for you to share information. Some particulars can be shared over email, while more complex issues could require team meetings. Take into account your stakeholders’ preferences of communication channels, as well. A team member who does graphic design might prefer to be contacted by email, while one who does marketing may prefer a phone call.
3. Outline the different kinds of communication your stakeholders will engage in
Organize the different ways you’ll touch base with everyone involved in your project. These can be anything from weekly check-in meetings to milestone meetings. Include what topics need to be addressed for all communication styles.
Here’s what part of your outline might look like for some of your communications.
Weekly status reports: In-person Monday meeting to discuss progress, sticking points, and solutions
- Budgetary concerns
- What’s completed and what’s in development
- Deliverable deadlines and approvals
- Q&A
Weekly email project status updates: Report sent out on Wednesday with timeline updates
- Finished deliverables
- Timeline changes
- Current priorities
- What’s coming up next
- Meeting notes
Daily project board updates: List any changes or pressing matters for the day
- Daily focus
- Pressing deadlines
- Project changes
- Status updates
Your final outline could also contain other types of communications. Your team might use tools like Slack to send direct messages to each other or collaboration tools like Google Docs to share ideas. Sometimes, workers may need to communicate in real-time.
4. Plan accommodations for remote team members
If you have a distributed team, some team members might work remotely. You’ll have to make special accommodations so that they can collaborate with the rest of your team and participate in discussions. If they’re located too far away, they won’t be able to attend in-person meetings and might have to call in using a communication tool like Zoom. Be prepared.
Sometimes, you might have team members located in another country. They likely live in different time zones. Try to schedule meetings when it’s convenient for them. For example, a 4 p.m. meeting in New York City would be a midnight meeting for a worker in Moscow. In this case, you’d want to schedule the meeting much earlier.
5. Decide how to handle sensitive information
Some projects might require you to keep track of sensitive information that shouldn’t be shared with the entire team. For example, you might be the project lead of a development team that’s designing new software that could greatly increase a company’s market share. You need to take every precaution to ensure the particulars of your project don’t get out.
Make a list of what constitutes sensitive information and write down all the workers who are allowed to receive updates about it. This can vary depending on what type of sensitive information you’re dealing with. Then, make a plan on how that information should be shared between authorized team members to ensure confidentiality.
Here’s one way you could document a plan for communication about a sensitive software project.
Project X (Authorized Personnel)
- Makato Y.
- Diego S.
- Sarah W.
“Development updates are highly confidential and must be shared only by Gmail. Emails must be sent using the confidential mode, have a passcode, and expiration date.”
Other types of sensitive information may require escalation to get it to the right people. Some examples of confidential information might include:
- Financial information
- Company layoffs
- Medical information
- Personal records
6. Choose a platform and share your plan with your stakeholders
When you’ve got all your information, you can choose how you want to share it. You can make it into a spreadsheet using a program like Microsoft Excel and email it out, organize it using Google Sheets and send everyone a link, or write it out in a Microsoft Word document. If you use project management software like Asana or Trello, you can use them to share your plan. Some sites have helpful templates for making communication plans.
How you organize your communication plan is up to you. The important thing is that you share it with all stakeholders so that there’s no confusion about communication in the future. You can even add a place for them to sign off, so you know they’ve read and understand it.
Communicate and collaborate with the best folks in their fields
Solid communication is the backbone of project management. Team members need to know how to share information and clients to meet project objectives efficiently.
By putting together a great communication plan for your project, you can maximize the productivity of your team. Communication quality is a major factor in predicting the quality of your project results.
