6 Key Components of Successful Project Communications



In the context of organizational project and program management, communications is a core competency that, when properly executed, connects every member of a project team to a common set of strategies, goals and actions.

Project Management Institute, May 2013


Project communications involves planning and delivering information to all project stakeholders. This includes:

  • Actions needed to best handle timely and appropriate gathering, reproduction, distribution, storage, administration, and control of project content.
  • Critical connections between people, thoughts, and content required for success.


The underlying need and core capability required for a well lubricated and functioning project team is effective and efficient communications among team members, and all project stakeholders.

A critical risk to project management is to assume that all communication are functioning properly just because people are talking to one another. Delivering a message doesn't make sure that it's received.

The responsibility for building and maintaining real communication links falls on the project manager. Recognizing that the communication needs of projects varies widely, the project manager can focus on a some areas to enhance project communications.

The project manager owns building, maintaining and handling critical project connections. Understanding the communication requirements of projects varies broadly, the project manager can focus on six key areas to make sure project communications works like a “well-oiled machine”.


1. Successful communication of information.

Many project managers spend about 90% of their time engaged in some sort of communication, 50% of which is generally with the team. Team communication gets enhanced when the project manager:

  • Focuses on the “interpersonal communication network” within the project team and then encourages communication to take place informally. Do not prevent it.
  • Focuses on the dynamics and interactions among stakeholders, and team members to the success of flowing information and team development. Trust and harmony are essential elements for effective communication.
  • Recognizes, and accepts that communication is a two-way channel. All team members are responsible for both sending and receiving communication about the project.
  • Recognizes, accepts, and applies effective communication practices to include: brevity, clarity, simplicity, and humanity.

2. Efficient movement of communications.

Project managers enable and ease formal and informal communication channels. They bring together and start relationships which become the communication connections and conduit for information flow.


3. Adequate communications across boundaries.

Working remotely, across time zones, organizational boundaries is the norm. While the effectiveness of teams in a single place (co-located) has been proven successful, it’s no longer practical and has mostly become irrelevant. Distributed and dispersed teams make it more challenging for the project manager as it is just more difficult to communicate across distance, departments, and cultures. To handle the specific challenges, develop unique strategies for “extended or dispersed or project teams”.


4. Proper use of technology.

Due to the rapid change in technology, and availability of cloud technologies to support project communications. Selecting and utilizing the technology is an increasingly important factor in enabling project communications. This is especially important in projects that cross cultures, and geographic boundaries.


5. Application of a virtual office.

An important consideration useful in strengthening project communications is having a single virtual project office where the team or any stakeholder can get together for any purpose. It is the place where stakeholders of the project can meet to discuss and exchange ideas and thoughts on their common problems. The virtual project office can also be used for managing, and maintaining real-time current information about the project such as status, requirements, designs, risks, issues, and so forth.


6. Carry out effective meetings.

The most important project communication activity is meetings. Effective meetings don’t happen by accident. They demand preparation and leadership skills to enable and ease them efficiently and effectively. Due to today’s technology, meetings get conducted with the participants just about anywhere to include the same physical space or in many locations.

Project communications, and the skill of communicating is similar, but not the same. Communicating is the broader topic and relates to a massive body of knowledge that is not specific to the project context, and not detailed in this paper. For instance:

  • Meeting management techniques. Selecting participants, developing agendas, opening the meeting, establishing rules, time management, etc.
  • Communication models. Linear, interactive, transactional, etc.
  • Writing styles. Using active versus passive voice, using proper sentence structure, making the proper choice of words, etc.
  • Types of media. Determining when to talk informally, versus when to communicate orally, when to write an informal memo compared to write a formal report, etc.
  • Presentation methods. For example, videotaping, Interviews, debates, flyer or a brochure, an advice column, a cartoon around the theme etc.