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Your project communication plan is the blueprint
to success for any project. They cite that
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most projects fail because they have a really
poor communication plan or none at all. And in
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this video, I'm going to share with you how to
create an excellent project communication plan.
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And if you want to be a Project Ninja, I need you
to stay tuned to the end of this video, because I
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have something really cool for you; an amazing
checklist and download as to why projects fail.
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Hi, if you're new here, welcome, my name
is Adriana Girdler. And on this channel,
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you're going to get the best project
management and career advice.
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Please consider subscribing as it
helps us grow this awesome community.
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So if you're excited about learning how to create
an awesome project communication plan, like this
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video is it tells YouTube that we're giving you
great content and let's get to it. Communication
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plan 101. Okay, what is a project communication
plan? It actually is a document that lays out
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all the types of communication that you're going
to have within your project. And it also lays out
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who are the stakeholders who are going to receive
that type of communication. Now stakeholders,
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don't forget, range from anyone within your team,
all the way out to, let's say, senior executives
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who just on the peripheral edge, it could also
be the end user of that project deliverable.
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Now, why is this so important? You're probably
saying to yourself, "Adriana, I am so busy.
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Seriously? You want me to do a communication
plan on top of all the other plans I have to do?"
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The answer is yes, absolutely. I'm telling
you, it's going to save a lot of headaches
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and heartaches within your project. Now, good
communication really does equate to good project
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success. How many times have you been on a project
that people assume stuff? It really does hurt the
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project. So that is why it is so critical for you
as a project manager or a project lead to ensure
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you have a really good, strong communication
plan. What's in a communication plan?
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Good news for you, I actually have an example for
you and we're going to walk through it. Let's go.
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So here's your project communication plan. It
really is a summary document of all the types
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of communications you are going to be doing
within your project during the execution phase
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of everything. So this is a little summary. It's
a matrix. I do mine in a PowerPoint. You can do
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it in a Word document, whatever is going to suit
your needs. There's no right or wrong. It really
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is just summarizing how you're going to do your
communication to all of your project stakeholders.
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So let's talk about each section here, so
you understand what exactly you do in it.
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So communication method. This is a
type of communication. You really
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have to think it through. How am I going to
communicate with people? And not everybody
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deserves the same type of communication.
You're definitely going to be talking to
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your project team a lot differently than you're
going to be talking to your steering committee,
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than to senior executives, even to the department
or manager, who's going to be receiving
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your deliverable, and how you're going to
communicate to them is so much different.
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Your communication purpose is why is
this type of communication being sent?
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You really need to have an understanding of this
as this is going to help you understand a whole
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bunch of other aspects like content
and frequency and stuff like that.
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You're going to also say who's going to create
the content, so this is content creation. A lot of
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times when it comes to communication, it usually
falls on the shoulders of the project manager,
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but sometimes it has to be other individuals,
so this is where you're going to really lay it.
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Content confirmation. Who's going to check it? So
how do you know that the information has gone out
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is correct? Now, for some instances, it doesn't
matter about content creation because it's
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staying within the project team and it's not
being distributed or disseminated to anybody
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else. But if it is, you want to make sure that
those things are checked and everything is okay
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from a standpoint of acceptability, from
communication standards, company standards,
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things of that nature. Content distribution, and
recipients. So who's going to send it out, and who
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will receive it? Again, not all communication
is going to be sent from the same individual.
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I may have an announcement that I created and
that I need the president of the organization to
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send on my behalf from a project communication
standpoint. If I want to give an announcement
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to an organization of what's going on.
Again, it really is dependent on your type
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of communication. Additional comments, so those
are your attachments, who needs to be CC'd and
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method to check understanding. How do you know
that your communication was read and understood?
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This does not have to be detailed.
This does not have to be complex.
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Just a simple outline summary sheet can make a
huge world of a difference as to how successful
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you're going to be with your project. Because I've
said this before, communication is the heartbeat
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to a really good successful project. So now
what I want to show you is I want to share
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with you some types of communication. This is
not an exhaustive list, all right? It's not.
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It's just an example so you can have an
understanding as to what are some of the things.
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So let's look at some of this in a little bit
more detail. So we have a project SharePoint
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site, Microsoft Teams, we have a work breakdown,
structure and action plan. We have core team
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meetings, project status update. So you can have
a lot more stuff in here. You can actually lay
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out every type of meeting you're going to
have. You can actually lay out even change
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management aspects as to how are you going to make
announcements to end users depending on what your
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project is. But again, for sake of simplicity, I
just want to share with you a few so I can explain
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how you fill the rest out. So let's take a look at
project SharePoint site and go into a little more
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detail, because again, I do mine in a PowerPoint.
I slip it into my charter and as a project
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manager, this is my job to decide
how is communication going to be
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unfolding in this project? And there may be some
instances where you want to bring in your team to
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ask them for some feedback, particularly if you're
going into a lot of in-depth change management
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aspects, which are talking about end users and the
communication and training that you need for them.
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But if you take my Slay Project Management course,
which I've put the link underneath this video,
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I actually talk about all of that in great
detail, so I'm not going to go into it here.
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So if you want more information, definitely
check out that link. So let's talk about this
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project SharePoint site. I'm a big believer
in having a central location and for us,
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why is this communication even being done?
Because it is the central place of our project.
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It's where we have all our documentation. We track
everything, we even communicate in it. And so,
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who's going to create this content for the
SharePoint site? Well, this document uploads,
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and it's the manager, the project manager
and the project team who's going to do this.
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And who's going to check the content? Well
WBS, which is my action plan, I check that
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content and for documents, everybody else does.
Now under content distribution and recipients,
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there's no content to be sent, only uploaded and
updated by everybody, and that the recipients is
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just the project team. Remember what I said
earlier, every single piece of communication
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doesn't necessarily have to be distributed to
every single stakeholder. You can have specific
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pieces or types of communications for specific
stakeholders. That's absolutely acceptable.
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And then we're not having any attachments and
how do we know that everyone read and understood
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is we're having an assumption that people
are actually following our ways of working,
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so that's one type of communication method.
It's not your traditional communication method,
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but it definitely is how this project
is communicating. We're really using it
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as a point of reference and information. So
let's talk about Microsoft teams. This here,
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if we take a look over at this column is for
every single stakeholder. This is where we're
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communicating and we're tracking status, and we're
having conversations and video screen sharing,
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and we're doing this to keep everyone in the
loop, so everyone can have the ability to do it.
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No one necessarily has to manage it.
It's the conversation you start
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in the posts and with chats, and it's a lovely way
to ensure that everyone is really kept in the loop
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in real time, so that's something else we're doing
as part of our project communication plan. Now
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your action plan. Some people may not think to
put the action plan, because a lot of times when
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we think of communication plans, we're thinking
outside of our project team, we're thinking of
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the end users. And yes, you can definitely do
this. What I'm showing you here really is more of
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internal project communication, ways of working.
But it's just as important as our external ones,
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which is usually to the end user or the individual
department who is receiving the deliverable.
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So why do I put my action plan here? Well, as
I said before, I have a course, Slay Project
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Management and I use a WBS very heavily.
It is the heartbeat of the project
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and I not only use it to track tasks, but
I use it to communicate as well on status.
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I do not hold status update meetings. We
actually use a WBS to be monitoring all of that,
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and that's why this is part of our communication
is because we have to have an idea as to how we
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are going to go about using it. And we use it
with a color coding system and a comment column,
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where based on those tasks, updates can be given,
I can ask questions and then mark my comments in
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green so that my team now knows that I've just
spoken to them and vice versa. They can speak to
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me by making their comments orange, and it
really is an amazing tool and a simple tool,
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actually. You don't need software or anything
like that just Excel spreadsheet that everyone
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can utilize and use and be involved with.
It's a really great accountability tool. But it
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is part of my project communication. We have core
team meetings. Now you can have as many meetings
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as you want here, but you can see exactly who
I've included in on the meetings, the expectations
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of them. And just for the last example I
want to show you is project status updates,
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frequency monthly. So this, again, if you
take a look at our content distribution
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column and recipients, every stakeholder can get
this. I'm the one, as a project manager creating
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the content with some of my team leads. I'm
confirming it. We're giving them monthly updates,
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and I am assuming people have read it. I'm
not going to follow-up with them in it,
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but they have access through emails, and
SharePoint sites, and things like that,
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depending on how I'm going to house my update.
But here is a project communication plan,
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very simple, very straightforward.
You as a project manager create this,
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but it's so worthwhile because it lets
everybody know how things are going to unfold.
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How to use your communication plan. Like I
said in the example, you're going to slip it
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into your charter and you're going to present
it at your project kickoff meeting. Now, if you
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want more information on charters and project
kickoff meetings, just go to YouTube search
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Adriana Girdler, Project Kickoff because I have
a video specifically on that or Adriana Girdler,
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Charters because I have a video on that. Now it's
really imperative that by doing it at this point
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in time, you're basically setting everything up
from scratch and actually at the start in a very
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positive way, you're communicating already.
You can set up all your meetings. You can
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already direct people to the SharePoint site,
all of that amazing stuff, which is just
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going to ensure your success. Remember, project
communication or just communication in general
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is what is going to ensure that everyone is
on board, no assumptions are being made and
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you're actually going to deliver really well
on that project goal. Now, if you want even
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more tips on how to be a Project Ninja like
I told you at the beginning of this video
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here for you is chocked full of information, and I
put it in the link underneath this YouTube video.
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So I promise you, please go get it, and I promise
you, it's just filled with amazing stuff. Whether
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you do projects or not, this is just really good
for business in general, so please check it out.
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If you learn something new in this video, please
give this video a thumbs up, share it with
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everyone. We really appreciate it because it helps
our community grow, giving you more great content.
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On that note, if you have any comments,
do you do project communication plans?
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Have you seen some really good ones? Maybe some
bad ones? Do you have any other suggestions that
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you would put in it? Let me know in the comments
below. Until the next video, see you later.
