Being project manager, we have to keep a close eye on how the project is going. At the same time, we are working in a team, we have to let the team know what is happening and what will be happening. Status report is always a critical document that allows you and your team get aligned.
Why do we need status report
Status report is always a critical part in project management, a well created status report provides numerous benefits to the project.
- Transparency:
By regularly providing a clear view of the project’s current status, upcoming tasks, and potential risks to the stakeholders, it gives the team a better understanding on what have happened and what is happening. As a result, it would increase trusts and facilitate discussion for achieving project success. - Communication:
The status report always provide a summary, which is an easily digestible format for team members. By walking through the risks and action items, it would facilitate the effective communication among the members so that the team would raised for any impediments performing their own tasks. At the same time, the status reports also serve as a catalyst for project decision making. - Accountability:
It is not always all the team members are punctual to the agreed tasks. By sharing the tasks status to the project team, it would create an alert that individuals’ completion status would be transparent to the team and to the management. As a result, it would increase the sense of accountability among the team members. - Risk Management:
The status report also summarize the project health. When there are risks, it allows the team to react proactively in order to mitigate.
What should we include in status report
Depends on the project length, the maturity of the project team, the requests and needs from stakeholders, we may have different frequency of status reports. Here are some common elements we would include in status reports, while we may decide according to the target audience and the frequency.
- Overall project health assessment
Before we have the summary, personally I would state the overall project health so that the team and the stakeholders understand whether they need to have a closer eye on the project. Usually I use the RAG status to flag the project health, indicating Red, Amber or Green with color display as quick identification. - Executive summary
We shall always keep the executive summary short and previous, aim for less than 4 sentences. It usually includes most important key takeaways from the entire report. Be aware some stakeholders may even read this section only. - Project timeline and progress
It is common our team and our stakeholders may not involve in only one project only, so the visualize project timeline would be a great reminder on how the project was planned, as well as an indication on the stage we are at. - Key accomplishments
It is to let the team know what has been done, at the same time, we are offering complement to the team. - Upcoming tasks
It serves as a reminder to the team on the action items. And, our stakeholders would also understand what we have planned to do. - Project metrics and KPIs
We may present project metrics graphically, so that our project health is backed up by data. That could include cost performance, burn-down, resource utilization, etc. - Risks and issues
Be transparent about risks and issues, we may also trigger necessary discussion and decision making to mitigate risks and resolve issues among the project team or seek the support from management.
Final words
Be reminded you may need different status reports with different level of detail and frequency depends on your target audience. The above are just a guideline. It is also common that when we reports to senior management, we may even have a summarized status report for multiple projects with less details. And, someone may think we could goodbye to status meetings with status reports. From my point of view, status meetings are important that the team could discuss the actions and it is always important the team member has the opportunity to raise their concerns promptly based on the status update.