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