The Project Communication Plan Template

First, let me apologize for the way this document copied into the blog…it’s not the most readable, but I think get the idea of the layout.  What I’m providing here is a Communication Plan template that I created and have used on several projects in the past.

I discussed this specific plan tempate in an earlier article entitled “The Project Communications Plan.”  I also offered a Word doc version to anyone who wanted one and many copies off to readers over the past few months.  The offer still stands – I’m happy to send both the Word doc template as well as an actual plan I’ve created for a past client with detailed information in the document which might provide you with a more concrete working example.

And as always, if you have your own version or versions of other templates you’d like to share with our readers, please send them to me and I’ll do my best to post them here.  Thanks.

PROJECT COMMUNICATION PLAN

[Save file name as: client name COMMUNICATION PLAN yyyymmdd]

INTRODUCTION

Overview

Overview

Assumptions and Constraints

Assumptions and constraints

Definitions and Acronyms

Definitions and acronyms

Reference Materials

Reference materials

Stakeholders

Project Sponsor

Customers

External Stakeholders

Internal Stakeholders

Project Manager

Project Team Members

Consultants/Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

REVIEWS AND APPROVALS

Identifies milestones and deliverables that must be reviewed and/or approved during project execution. If the milestones are subject to any targeted date constraints, these are listed as well.

COMMUNICATION AND CONTROLS

Communication Requirements

Describes the primary communication requirements between the core project team and the project sponsor and stakeholders. This section may include recurring meetings, one-time presentations, on-going reports and metrics, or other communication requirements being made of the project team. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will be used to monitor the project health may be listed.

Collection and Filing Structure

Methods used to gather and store various types of information.

Accessing Information

Methods for accessing information between scheduled communications

Escalation Threshold

A graphic representation of the project team’s discretion on managing the project cost and schedule variances. The area drawn by the sponsor indicates the variance from the project baseline that can be encountered and managed independently by the project team without report to the project sponsor.

APPROVALS

We, the undersigned, accept the Communication Management Plan, as a stable work product to be placed under formal change control.

CLIENT APPROVAL

________________________________

Client Signature

VENDOR APPROVAL

________________________________

Vendor Signature

Related posts:

1. The Project Procurement Plan
2. More on Project Communications Plans
3. What is PESTLE?
4. Managing stakeholders: 6 steps to success
5. The Project Disaster Recovery Plan