Project Status Report: KEEP IT SIMPLE
- Lana Hazelton
- Oct 3, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 6, 2023
A project status report provides an overview of the current state of a project. It is a communication tool for project managers, team members, and stakeholders that helps understand how the project is progressing.
How to write an effective project status report? Ideally, you can use project management software, such as Monday or Asana, to automate report writing and make reports in a few clicks based on constantly updated project data. But this is not always the case.
One of the solutions is to use as a starting point an existing template and adjust it for your needs. Templates vary depending on the industry, project complexity, the organization's specific requirements, the level of detail needed, and many other factors. Even though there are no strict rules for these reports, there are some important components you should include to make a good report.
Let’s look at a simple example. Working in residential construction I often saw project status reports like the one below. I am sure if you work in a field somehow connected with residential construction you saw them too. This is a very simple example to work with but you can scale it to your organizational level.
This report gives an idea of what was done during the week. It outlines upcoming activities and tasks. And it tells stakeholders what they need to pay attention to. But what it does not give is the idea about the project's health. Is this project on schedule? Is this project on budget? What are the project issues if any? What are the project risks? For example, will the project still stay on the schedule if heavy rain is forecasted for the next week?
Regardless of the field, the status report has to be simple, short, and clearly structured. It has to be consistent in visual representation throughout the project, in other words, it has to be recognizable to stakeholders. And what is most important, it has to provide at-a-glance information about where the project stands. If it happens that the project is off-target, the report should list the steps that were taken to correct the situation.
The status report is not just about giving clients project updates, it is also about telling clients what the project team requires from them and when the team needs it. Keeping in mind that reports are not for the project manager but for other stakeholders, it is always a good idea to ask what information stakeholders want you to include. That helps to include in the report just the right amount of details.
Another good practice is to avoid preparing reports in isolation from stakeholders. Communicate with the project team and key stakeholders before sending a report to the clients or distributing it within a large organization.
Let’s see if we can make this simple weekly status report above more effective and easy to understand at a glance.
Conclusion: There are no strict requirements for the status report appearance. However, an effective report must include the following components:
Project details. Project name, project code if applicable
Team names. The project manager and team members if applicable
Report date. Including cadence (weekly, monthly, etc.)
Project health. Is the project on budget? - Schedule. Is the project on schedule? - Budget. Is the project under or over budget? - Scop. Is the project on scop or there were deviations?
Quality. If applicable
Dependencies. What has to be done before the team can move forward with their work
Risks or issues. What complications can happen? Or what was done to solve the complications that already happened?
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