A communication plan in project management is a crucial document that helps project managers maintain better communication with stakeholders throughout the project life cycle. So, in this article, we’ll discuss 7 tips for creating an effective communication plan.
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What Is a Communication Plan in Project Management?
As a project manager, you have many responsibilities to fulfill throughout the project life cycle, including (according to the PMBOK) initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and closing. During these phases, you must have proper ways to communicate among senior management, team members, and other relevant parties because effective communication helps you share the project’s big picture and discuss other details related to the project.
Accordingly, every project manager should create a better communication plan because it is used to define crucial project information disseminated to the team members and stakeholders. Typically, a project communication plan defines recipients, frequency, delivery method, key dates, sender/owner, type of communication, and goals. By using project management software, you can schedule communication more efficiently. For example, Monday.com and Asana help you create the schedule for your communication plan.
Related Post: Why important project communication management when managing a project
However, the following key points you should include when creating your project communication plan.
- The goals or purpose of the communication plan
- Relevant resources link
- Relevant information regarding primary and secondary stakeholders and their roles
- The delivery method of communication
- The types of information that need to be shared with primary and secondary stakeholders
- The frequency that each stakeholder would like to receive project information
Why Is Important Communication Plan
A communication plan in project management will help you keep your project on track because it gives the following features to your stakeholders.
- Creates written documentation as a reference
- Sets relevant expectations of when stakeholders will receive updates
- Enhances stakeholders’ visibility into the project and its status
- Improves productivity during meetings or eliminates them altogether
- It provides the opportunity for stakeholders to give feedback, which can help you identify issues early on and minimize them, and it also supports you in staying within project triple constraints
As a project manager, if you want your project to be completed successfully with the project triple constraint, ensure you know how to create an effective communication plan because poor communication may be a reason for the project’s failure.
7 Tips for Creating a Communication Plan
- Understand the project culture
To create an effective communication plan, know the context of the communication because it will help you understand your organization’s culture. Furthermore, the following aspects you can understand from it.
- How have communications been managed in the past?
- Have those communications been successful?
Knowing these things will help you create an effective project communication plan.
- Identify relevant information needed for creating a communication plan
After understanding your communication culture, you can identify relevant information needed for creating a communication plan. Accordingly, you should focus on the following key aspects to ensure you have all the relevant information.
As a project manager, you should focus on your project stakeholders before you create a communication plan. So this is the first key aspect. Accordingly, you can ask questions yourself as follows.
- Have you created a RACI chart or stakeholder map of your stakeholders?
- Who is the audience of your project?
- Who will need you to be informed at different points during the project life cycle?
The second key aspect is communication frequency and method. Accordingly, you can ask questions yourself as follows.
- When and how often should you check in with your primary and secondary stakeholders
- What methods of communication do they prefer?
- How much detail does each stakeholder need?
The third key aspect is goals. Accordingly, you can ask questions yourself as follows.
- What is the goal of your communication?
- Do you need a response?
- Are you trying to encourage engagement or provide an update?
The fourth key aspect is barriers. Before creating a communication plan, you can identify communication barriers when you answer the following questions.
- Language barriers?
- Are they (primary and secondary stakeholders) any time zone limitations?
- Do some project stakeholders require time to reply or respond?
- Are there any privacy or internet access issues?
- Choose a tool or template
As discussed above, once you understand the key aspects ( project stakeholders, communication methods, goals, and barriers) it’s time to work out the details. So, you can choose a tool or template to document your communication needs and begin developing your plan.
- Add a column for notes
Adding a column for notes is crucial because it will help your stakeholders to avoid confusion. Therefore, add notes to set reminders and any additional relevant details.
- Use formatting features to highlight key details in the communication plan
If you have any urgent decision needed for the project to move forward, highlight such elements in a different font color or size to remind their importance.
- Ensure that the team members can access your communication plan
After creating a communication plan, you can share it with your team members and allow them to review the document. Through that, they can give their feedback, and it also serves as an extra check to ensure you aren’t missing any crucial pieces.
- Test your communication plan
Before sending your communication plan to your stakeholders, send a test email to yourself or a friend because it will help you ensure its success or failure. On the other hand, if you’re planning a virtual presentation, you’re responsible for testing the visual, audio, and other technical aspects to minimize any technical problems. Furthermore, if you’re including any resources link in the plan, you should ensure that they work or not.
- Double-check your communication plan
Once you officially deliver your communication plan, remember to check in with your audience about the effectiveness of your plan because it will help you understand what is and is not working. Through that, you can improve your communication plan the next time. However, you can evaluate your plan by ensuring the right information to the relevant stakeholders at the right time. So you can do this through,
- Polls or open feedback sessions during team meetings
- Anonymous survey forms.
Benefits of the Communication Plan
By creating an effective communication plan, you can achieve many benefits for your project. The following are some vital benefits of creating an effective communication plan.
- An effective communication plan will help your team members set clear expectations for what will happen throughout the project.
- By creating an effective communication plan, project managers can save time on project planning.
- An effective communication plan project management will help project managers to enhance communication with stakeholders and clients.
- By creating an effective communication plan, project managers can increase stakeholders’ visibility into the project and its status and keep them updated.
Conclusion
Creating an effective communication plan in project management will help managers increase the chances of the project’s success because it allows you to maintain better communication with your stakeholders. So, project managers can use these 7 tips for creating an effective communication plan, including understanding the project culture, identifying relevant information, choosing a tool or template, adding a column for notes, using formatting features to highlight key details, testing your plan, and checking your plan.
