Progress Reporting
Progress Reporting
Progress reporting is a key element of project management. Reports should be issued by the Project Manager and circulated to the stakeholders on a regular basis. The following people must be included on the circulation list:
- Project Sponsor
- Budget Holder
- Senior User(s)
- Team Members
There are three major components to reporting project status:
- Overall: We need to see the overall project health. As managers, we want to be able to detect a project in trouble. We also want to help make that determination sometimes. You might not know everything we know despite our best efforts to communicate. Your project might not be as healthy as you think it is.
- Milestones: Your project has major accomplishments which must be completed by specific dates. We managers want to see which milestones are complete, which ones are in progress, and which ones are coming up next. This allows us to analyse the schedule and decide to either feel comfortable with it or challenge it.
- Issues: Your project also probably has one or more obstacles to completion which have been discovered. We'd like to see brief details about each issue so that we can make a decision about whether or not to step in and help if necessary.
The report should be kept brief and sum up the key points in the project. The following simple format is recommended on a maximum of 1-2 pages:
- Report Date
- Project Status
- Project Summary
- Key Issues
- Identified Risks
- Tasks and Next Steps
- Decisions Required
- Key Future Dates
- Budgeted Amount
- Spend to Date
This ensures that people are kept informed, involved and committed. Regular communication is essential to the well being of any project. Common failings in this area are:
- Poor communication channels
- Lack of honest communication
- Unwillingness to communicate bad news
Regular progress reporting creates a valuable written record of the projects life. This can be used later to look back and decide how the running of future projects can be improved.
