Download Project Communications Management Plan Template PMBOK®6

Project Communications Management includes the processes necessary to ensure that the information needs of the project and its stakeholders are met through development of artifacts and implementation of activities designed to achieve effective information exchange. Project Communications Management consists of two parts. The first part is developing a strategy to ensure communication is effective for stakeholders. The second part is carrying out the activities necessary to implement the communication strategy. (PMBOK^® Guide)

Plan Communications Management

Plan communications management is the process of developing an appropriate approach and plan for project communication activities based on the information needs of each stakeholder group, available organizational assets, and the needs of the project.

Manage Communications

Manage communications is the process of timely and appropriate collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information.

Monitor Communications

Monitor communications is the process of ensuring the information needs of the project and its stakeholders are met.

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How can the Communication Plan Template help?

It is said that a project manager spends the vast majority of his time communicating. This explains why sufficient attention should be paid to this component of the Project Management Plan.

As mentioned elsewhere on this site, my main focus is on construction projects, but of course you can use all templates for a variety of projects. In a typical construction project, however, communication can be divided into

• Various regular meetings,
• Reporting at different intervals, with different content tailored to specific audiences,
• Notifications on different occasions,
• Different sort of requests,
• Various submission/transmission of technical documents, and
• Other correspondences.

Dropping meetings, forgetting to send reports, or similar omissions can have different consequences. On the one hand it damages the reputation in reliability, on the other hand it can have considerable time impacts and also cost-intensive consequences if certain information is not provided or provided too late. This may be the case, in particular, when documents have to be submitted for examination and approval and, if necessary, re-submitted in revised version. The details of who, when, how, how often and what content is communicated must be therefore evaluated in time and set out in the Project Communications Management Plan.

Understand the Parameters

A Project Communications Management Plan should be a written document for your own reference.

Each client, each project management team and each type of stakeholder usually has their own communication needs. While some prefer to solve things quickly and easily on the phone, the other prefers something in writing. While one needs a daily progress report, the next one needs a monthly status. Often, additional meetings are required in which often weekly and monthly reports are discussed. What else?

Once you have an understanding of the team and clients you’re working with, you can start to apply this direction to a Project Communications Management Plan of action.

Define the Communication Goals

Think about what successful project communication will look to not just your client and stakeholders, but your team as well. This list will remind you throughout the project of your ultimate goals, and will guide communication-related decisions accordingly.

Make A Communication Plan

Define your approach to the communications you’ll have throughout your project. Knowing the goals of your project, consider how frequently you’ll communicate with your client and other stakeholders, what method of communication to use, and what information to include. You might have to use multiple approaches, like weekly and monthly face-to-face meetings, daily, weekly and monthly reports etc.

Whatever you decide, keep your parameters and goals in mind—these should really help you identify what types of communication will be most beneficial to bringing your project to success, and how detailed or thorough certain parts of your communications will need to be.