Streamline Communication of Projects within MS Teams

MS Teams, if you’re unfamiliar with it, is a collaboration platform that facilitates communication within your company, department, process, or project. It’s popular because it’s included in most MS licensing packages, allows users to share large files, and continually receives new features. Since communication comprises 90% of what a project manager does, let’s explore what MS Teams can offer from this perspective.

Channels

In MS Teams, you can create channels, which function similarly to folders in Outlook. Channels help organize conversations, and, unlike in Outlook, they are accessible to all users and must be selected before starting a message. Within each channel, you can host multiple conversations.

One challenge in coordinating projects in Teams is that some topics can become scattered across multiple conversations, channels, emails, and chats. So, here’s my first recommendation:

What happens in the project stays in the channels—nowhere else. Even if you’re talking to just one person, there’s likely a conversation thread that covers that topic (or you can create one).

Now, let’s assume you have a team for your department and that the project is relatively simple, small, and requires minimal discussion. In this case, I recommend creating a dedicated "shared channel" with a name like “202411 New Invoicing App.” Since channels are sorted alphabetically, adding the project’s start date at the beginning provides chronological organization at a glance.

In this channel, I would add all required members and post an overview of what will happen, explaining the purpose and objectives (Initiation). I’d also outline that I will create the following main conversations and encourage everyone to reply within those conversations. By default, these might include:

• Initiation – Discuss requirements, desired outcomes, and similar topics.
• Planning – Define activities and preparation steps.
• Progress – Share updates on our status and check if everything is on track.
• Testing – Run tests from start to finish.
• Training – If required, designate who will prepare training or materials, and for whom.

These conversations/milestones can vary depending on the project. As the project progresses, you may need to create new conversations for specific topics that arise. For example, during testing, you might add conversations like “Testing – User Site” and “Testing – Admin Site,” linking them as needed. This approach provides a structured foundation.

For a more complex project with more discussions, more people involved, and potentially a longer timeline, I recommend creating a dedicated Team for the project, with the main project phases or “chapters” as individual channels. As each milestone is reached, you can start the relevant conversation in its channel. This organization helps keep new conversations within their corresponding channels. However, it’s essential to announce and explain each to avoid content ending up in the General channel or mixed inappropriately.

If there are many people on the team, consider using TAGs to organize them. TAGs help manage notifications and reduce the volume of messages individuals receive, making communication more focused and efficient.

Hint: Avoid private channels. I know it's tempting to create a small group of Illuminati within a project, but it's rarely necessary. Eventually, you’ll end up with most of the team included, and topics will be duplicated in other channels because everyone needs to be informed anyway.

Meetings

When hosting meetings, use a channel meeting. This ensures that the meeting recording and chat history remain accessible in the channel, allowing even new team members to catch up easily. While the meeting is running, there’s a small camera icon on the channel, signaling that it’s live—even to those not required to participate. Members can also see how long the meeting has been running and who is attending.

Tasks

For tasks that involve multiple iterations, like adding features or solving bugs, you can use Planner or SharePoint Lists to provide a clear overview of what needs to be done. Both can be added as a tab in a channel, so users don’t need to leave the Teams environment. With the help of Power Automate, you can add flows, such as setting reminders for when a task is added or completed. Some notification is even available by default. Regular meetings to review tasks can help keep everything on track and address any delays. Over time, people will take a more proactive approach, but this system may take some weeks to implement fully. One limitation of Teams Planner or Lists is that they don’t provide a view of dependencies, unlike MS Project.

Files

As with conversations and meetings, all files should be stored within the designated channels and nowhere else. There are two main approaches to file management. First, you can create folders based on topics, milestones, etc., and use these folders to organize your files. Files can be linked to conversations or replies. The second approach is simply attaching files to whatever you’re writing, which places them in the root folder without any structure. You can combine these approaches to see what works best. Ensure that files have short, clear names. Don’t overdo the folder structure, and if you have a new version, simply overwrite the previous file. SharePoint, which operates in the background of Teams, will keep all versions. If needed, add columns for additional information (metadata).

Finally, communication within Teams is efficient and certainly better than email, but if the team doesn’t fully understand the platform or hasn’t received training, cover the basics first.

Hope this helps!