Use These 5 Easy Steps to Create a Communication Plan
Sunday, October 4, 2015, 6:00 AM | Leave Comment
Effective communication is all about distributing “the right information to the right people at the right time.” The Communications Plan describes the information that must be distributed to all project stakeholders, and the details for how and when this takes place.
You can create a Communications Plan by following these five simple steps:
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Identify the stakeholders
It all starts with stakeholders. If you have already identified the project stakeholders you can use this list. If not, identify all the stakeholders first.
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For each stakeholder, determine the communication needs
Different stakeholders need different types of information. For instance, some stakeholders may need status updates, some may need financial reports, some may need a monthly newsletter and some may need access to project management documents.
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Determine the communication medium
The medium refers to how the communication will take place. This could mean a paper report, email, meeting, teleconference, collaborative tool, etc.
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Determine the frequency
Some communication takes place daily, some weekly, some monthly, etc.
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Assign the communication activity
Nothing will get done unless someone is assigned to do the work. Some of the communication events such as status reports are likely assigned to the project manager. Others can be assigned to team members.
Communication is perhaps the most important aspect of project management. On many projects, status reporting is all that is required.
However, as projects get larger and have more stakeholders status reporting is not enough. That is the time to create the Communications Plan to ensure you provide all the stakeholders with the information they need, when they need it.
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This column is © copyright to www.Method123.com and originally appeared in their weekly project management tip newsletter.
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