What is project communication plan explain in brief?

Download our free communication plan template, and instantly create a communication plan for your project.

Successful projects run on effective communication. That’s why a communication plan is so important.

Let’s take a closer look at what a project communication plan is and how and why you should develop one for your projects.

What is a project communication plan?

A project communication plan is a simple tool that enables you to communicate effectively on a project with your client, team, and other stakeholders. It sets clear guidelines for how information will be shared, as well as who’s responsible for and needs to be looped in on each project communication.

As the project manager, you’ve already mapped out every task and deliverable to get you across the finish line. Why not do the same for project communications? After all, your project plan needs a steady stream of communication to stay on track.

A communication plan plays an important role in every project by:

• Creating written documentation everyone can turn to
• Setting clear expectations for how and when updates will be shared
• Increasing visibility of the project and status
• Providing opportunities for feedback to be shared
• Boosting the productivity of team meetings
• Ensuring the project continues to align with goals

There’s no single right way to communicate on a project. In fact, your communication plan can and should include a variety of communication methods. Here are a few to consider:

• Email
• Meetings (in-person, phone, or video chat)
• Discussion boards
• Status reports
• Collaboration apps
• To-do lists
• Surveys

So how do you know what’s right for the project? Review past projects to see what worked well—and what didn’t. Then talk to your team, client, and other stakeholders to ensure you take their communication styles into account. After all, a weekly email’s no good if no one reads it!

How to create an effective communication plan for a project

Ready to develop a communications plan for your next project? Writing an effective project management communication plan is as simple as following these 5 steps.

Step 1: List your project’s communication needs

Every project is different, so start by determining the size of the project, the nature of work being done, and even the client’s unique preferences.

Then, make a list of which types of communication this project needs to succeed.

Step 2: Define the purpose of your communications

Bombarding people with too many emails or unnecessary meetings can interfere with their ability to get work done and cause them to overlook important updates. Be purposeful in your plan, and ensure every communication you include has a reason for being.

If you’re feeling really ambitious, go ahead and outline a basic agenda for the topics that will be covered in each meeting or report.

Step 3: Choose a communication method

Do you really need a meeting to share weekly updates, or is your project discussion board enough? Think through how your team works best, so they can stay in the loop while still being productive.

If your client prefers the personal touch of a phone call, build that into your plan too.  

Step 4: Set a cadence for your project communication

Establish a regular frequency for communication to streamline your process and set clear expectations from the get-go.

This not only frees you from fielding random requests for status updates. It also enables project members to carve out space for important meetings and reports ahead of time.

Step 5: Identify the owner and stakeholders related to each communication

As the project manager, you’ll be responsible for most communications, but there may be some you want to delegate to others. Assign ownership to create accountability so your carefully crafted plan can reach its full potential.

While you’re naming names, list the audience or stakeholders for each communication type too. That way key players come prepared to provide updates when needed.

Project communication plan examples and template

You know your team and stakeholders best, so how you organize the details is up to you. Just be sure it’s easy to understand. These examples show you 3 different options for structuring the same communication plan.

Simple matrix communications plan example

This example outlines different project communications and features basic elements every good communication plan should include.

Communication plan example by method

In this sample communication plan, we've grouped project communications by delivery method to make communication planning easier.

Project communication plan example by audience

This project management communication plan example clearly defines who should receive which communication so no one misses an important update.

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Want to use this communication plan format for your upcoming projects? Download our free communication plan template here.‍

How to incorporate a project communication plan in TeamGantt

With TeamGantt, it’s easy to put your communication plan into everyday practice. Here are just a few ways you can streamline and manage project communication using TeamGantt:

• Upload your communication plan, along with the scope document, to the project’s Files tab.
• Add major meetings or presentations as milestones to your gantt chart.
• Collaborate with team members on project tasks and share files using the comments feature.
• Check in on tasks with team members using the Request a progress update feature.
• Share a PDF or view-only URL of your project so clients and stakeholders can stay up-to-date without getting bogged down by nitty-gritty project details.

Ready to see just how quick and easy project management can be? Give TeamGantt a free try today!

Why is that? Think of a project as a complex network of inter-dependent activities. Whatever one team does (e.g. write a concept) has implications for another team (e.g. the developer or the end-user). If these people don’t talk to each other, this will lead to misunderstandings, which again can lead to delays.

Read also: What are stakeholders?

How you can avoid embarrassing project delays.

The best way how you can ensure communication is to set up a communication plan right from the start. If you do that, you’ve already eliminated a big risk from your project. (Perform a project risk analysis to identify other risks.)

What’s a project communication plan?

A communication plan defines how information and updates are shared within a project. To be more precise, it sets out how often stakeholders and the project team meet or communicate with each other to resolve issues or to get status updates.

A good project plan must define the communication inside the project, but it must also address the information flow to stakeholders not directly involved in the project.

Examples of what could be defined in communication plan

• Your software team should meet with key users once per week for some testing of the user interface.
• You want to have a weekly status meeting with your core team to share updates.
• Internal accounting would like to get monthly updates from you on project costs.
• The supervisors of the people in your team often come to you asking for status updates. You propose to send out a weekly email update.

These are all examples of “planned” communication happening in a project. And this is exactly what you want.

You don’t want to worry “Uuh, I hope the developers will speak to key users soon. Maybe I should set up a meeting.”

You want to be able to say: “No worries. The issue will be discussed in the key user meeting next Thursday.”

See the benefit of a communication plan?

Creating your project communication plan

Step 1: Identify the stakeholders of your project

What are the different sub-teams in the project? What are the stakeholders — both internally and outside the project? Make a list of all the teams/stakeholders.

Hint: It’s useful to look at your project org chart.

Some groups you may want to consider:

• the project team
• different sub-teams (e.g. development, accounting, sales and others)
• supervisors
• the steering committee (Read more about steering committees)
• management (usually the Head of people)
• your CEO and other C-level guys
• customers
• suppliers

Step 2: Create the project communication plan

Take one hour and make yourself comfortable in a quiet meeting room.

Next, open a blank Excel spreadsheet or download my template below.

Start with the easy stuff: How often do you want to hold a project team meeting? Every two weeks? Great, put it into your project communication plan.

What about steering committee meetings? They have already been agreed to be held once every 2 months. Boom, put it in the communication plan.

Note: A good communication plan shouldn’t just be a list of meetings. Communication can also be done via email in the form of a status update.

Now we have to look closer:

• What further meetings make sense for your project?
• What email updates are required to share information in about the project?
• What people have specifically asked to be informed on a regular basis?

Some tips to guide you:

OVERCOMING DISTANCE: Teams may be based in different locations. Example: IT is based in Nevada but the project is based in Minnesota. Instead of hoping that collaboration will work out well, you can simply schedule a bi-weekly meeting with IT to get an update or to discuss current IT issues.

BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER: Some departments in a company may be more used to working with each other than with others. In a manufacturing business, engineers are usually used to working closely with designers. Communication happens organically.

With engineers and marketing people the situation is completely different. The tech guys have very different personalities than marketing people. The groups won’t communicate as well with each other. A great reason for setting up a common meeting to facilitate communication.

RISK: As a PM you can’t care about everything. That’s why I like to put my focus on the areas with the biggest risk. If team A doesn’t communicate with team B, what could happen in the worst case? Am I willing to accept that risk or will it fuck up my project? For high risk I definitely set up a meeting in order to funnel and manage the communication.

KEEP IT FLEXIBLE: A communication plan isn’t written in stone. It can be changed according the needs of a project. You can either reduce or increase the frequency of meetings. Or you can add further meetings to the plan if you notice communication isn’t happening in the way it should.

Here’s our finished communication plan:

Step 3: Send out meeting invites and book conference rooms:

For all recurring meetings I like to book meeting rooms in advance. It’s just such as hassle to find meeting space on a short term.

Next, send out meeting invites for the meetings in the communication plan.

Step 4: Share the plan with the project team and stakeholders

Send the communication plan to all concerned people.

It shows that you’ve considered their role in the project. It’s a way of saying: “Hey, I know you’ve got some stake in the project, so here’s how we plan to involve you.”

Also, people see that there’s a place (i.e. a meeting) where they can ask questions about the project and share their concerns.

A simple project communication plan template

Here’s a simple communication plan template for Excel. It’s the one I use for my projects.

Download the communication plan for Excel