Create a Simple Communications Plan

In this knowby, we'll learn how to complete a simple communications plan template.

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In this knowby, we'll learn how to complete a simple communications plan template. You can start by downloading the template here: Simple_Communications_Plan_Template.xlsx

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In this example, the template is ordered by the phases in the project life cycle.

We can see planning phase, execution and finalisation.

While this communication plan has three distinct project phases you can choose to add more phases as required or simply have a general communications plan without phases.

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In the first column is Stakeholder. You would have already completed an analysis and identification of different stakeholders and how important they are to the project in the Business Change Impact Assessment.

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The next column is Type of Information Required.

This could be the information that you need to gather from the stakeholders or information you need to give to different stakeholders.

You might consider these the key messages. In some instances, it will be interactive, such as a discussion where there's two-way communication occurring.

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The Method of Communication is how communication will take place.

So it could be email, face-to-face, phone, video conference.

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Frequency of Communication is how often, for example, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly.

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The When column is for the specific day or date that the communication needs to occur.

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Who is Responsible, is the person on the project team responsible for leading that particular communication.

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Let's give an example in the Project Planning Phase.

The activities in project planning are all around planning and getting ready to execute or implement in the next phase.

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The first stakeholder is a project team.

The key information we will need to gain, which is also to pull from these stakeholders, could be information on costs, as they may have worked on a similar project in the past.

It could also be certain technical information on how to get things done, risks, etc.

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The first Stakeholder is a project team.

The Type of Information Required could be information on costs, as they may have worked on a similar project in the past.

It could also be certain technical information on how to get things done, risks, anything that the project team can provide you in that planning phase.

What you need to provide to the project team could be scheduling information, deadlines, constraints, or stakeholder information.

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The Method of Communication, for this example lets assume that the project team is co-located in the same area.

So we're going to have face to face communication with the project team.

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The Frequency of Communication could be, for example, a weekly team meeting or it could even be ad hoc type of meeting.

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For When, input the specific weekly date, for example, Monday mornings at 9am.

For the ad hoc meeting, this could be any time, so as required.

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For Who is Responsible, in this instance, the Project Manager is going to lead those communications.

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Other Stakeholders in the planning phase could be the client or suppliers, or anyone that's critical to the project in that planning phase.

You will likely need gather information from theses stakeholders or provide them with key information.

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The Project Execution Phase is where the work gets done, so the communication is going to roll out a little bit differently.

For example, with the project team, in this instance, the Type of Information Required could be;

To gain:

Progress
Risks or issues that have emerged
Budget

To provide:

Change updates
Scope changes
Deadlines

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In the Method of Communication column, we've assumed that they're co-located, so it would be face to face.

But you might also, for example, follow up with an email.

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The Frequency of Communication for this example may be daily meetings to discuss progress and any other meetings or frequencies that you would like to add.

When in this example could be mornings at 8.30 am.

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For Who is Responsible, again, in this example we have the project manager leading those communications, but it could be someone else.

If there's a technical expert or a subject matter expert on the team, they may be in charge of certain items also.

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In Project Finalisation, the communications are usually reduced as the project is wrapping up and would require different communication needs, for example how the project will team will disband and the company will continue to adopt its new ways of working.