All About Status Report

I recently read that “The art of communication is the language of leadership”. Project Status Report is one of the key artifacts in Project Management. Check out the below post which are related to Project Status Report. Hope you might find it useful. Lets unveil more about Project Status Report.

What is Status Report?

So what is Status report? A status report is a report that summarizes a progress as of a stated period of time. It is the document which shows the status of the project in terms of scope, schedule, budget, risks, issues etc. It also provides various other insights enabling the effective decision making. Status reports can be weekly or monthly period of time. Depending upon the frequency of the reports, the details can vary and you should plan your structure of the status report.

Interestingly, Project Status report is the golden source of the Project delivery information.

How Status report should be written?

Lets see what are the features of the good Status report.

1. Should provide Up to date details
2. Should be Short & Concise summary – Not too lengthy
3. Should cover the entire program not just few scope or work package
4. Should focus on outcomes and milestones
5. Should not have repetition of points
6. Should explain all variances, slippages, changes etc.
7. Should be well written and easily understandable by all
8. Should be free of acronyms and technical jargons
9. Should capture key points, decisions, escalation etc.

What should you include in Status Report?

You might interested to read this post on Project Management Terms. It has list of all the project related definitions which may be part of your status report. Let’s see few from the list:

1. Include General Project Fields – Sponsor, Project Manager, Start & End Date & Report Date
2. Include Executive Summary of the overall programme
3. Include only the critical KPI’s in terms of scope, schedule, cost, resource and not all metrics.
4. Mention the Programme RAG (Red, Amber, Green) – Previous, Current & Trending
5. Cover only key program milestones status
6. Should be precise about the achievements in the previous reporting period
7. Include the List of key activities next period
8. Include Key Open Action items due for long time that needs attention
9. Include Actions that need management attention
10. Highlight the key risks & issues
11. Highlight the challenges & roadblocks
12. Include the Path to Green if the program is Amber / Red RAG.
13. Misc. details in form of Graphs & Chart to show : Inventory status, Planned vs completed etc.

Keep it Simple ; Keep it Short; Keep it Precise