Hello Everyone, In this blog we will what is best way to prepare the Status Report?
Yes, Status Report is prepared to see , how the project is going on, it is one such report which gives the complete present view or the real picture of the project. So let’s see What is the Best way to prepare a Status Report?
First Let’s see what is the Purpose of the Project Status Report.
Project status report is mainly prepared to share the progress of the project ,
The Status report is shared with all Project Stakeholders in regular intervals, this helps to keep the stakeholders informed and maintain their active interest in the project, which again helps to brings extra attention on any high priority impediment to be addressed.
Preparation of Status Report is also an event of looking back to see, How much progress is been made on activities, are the pending issues / dependencies resolved and what overall progress is been made to achieve the very next milestone.
Project Status report is the present Snapshot of the project, and Sending it regularly, helps to build a historical data about the progress made in past intervals. This historical data helps to back track any ongoing issue to be resolved
Receiving project Status report also brings a positive impact to Project Team members, as they feel engaged when they receive their own project’s report were the progress made by them is showcased in front of entire project team.
Let’s see what are the 8 building blocks to prepare The Best Project Status Report
1. The Project Information, it is the demographic information about the project such as Project Name, Project Manager Name, Team size, location, etc…
2. The Reporting Period, The Status Report can be prepared as daily, weekly or Monthly. This means, the report is prepared either at End of day, End of Week or End of Month. For example, if we are sending a weekly status report on Friday, then the reporting period will be that week’s Monday to Friday.
3. The Stakeholders, this is to whom the project status report is shared on regular intervals. Project Stakeholders are Project Team, Leadership team, customer, vendor, support team, etc.
4. The Overall Summary, this includes what has happened on the project so far, which milestones have been achieved and which are due in future. Also, states if the project is blocked or on hold due to some important decision is pending to make further progress on the project
5. The Project Health, Looking the project parameter I hope by now you know what are Project parameters if not watch Episode no. 1. coming out with RAG Status for Overall project and individual parameters. If you don’t know, What is RAG Status watch Episode no. 2.
5. The Highlights, this section states what activities are competed in the reporting period and what are the upcoming activities which are planned for next reporting period.
7. The Lowlights, this section covers if there is any attention needed from the stakeholders. It also covers any impediments which needs to be addressed.
8. The Top Risks and Issues. This sections list the top risks and issues are High priority to be addressed and what measures have been taken to resolve it.
I assume you have understood the Thought process behind publishing the status report, it is one of most important communication tool which project manager use to bring everyone in the project in alignment.
Now, Just think about, how do you cover all the 8 building blocks in one status report. You definitely need a template for that, and here it goes.
Let’s see how the Project Status Report Template looks like. This is one of simplest and easy to use template.
The Template covers all building blocks and cover all details such a Project Information, Reporting Period, Overall Status, RAG Status which can be shown as traingle as we have seen in other episodes or in a tabular format. The tehmplae also covers highlights, low lights , Top Risks and Issues.
Now, it’s time for the action item,
Prepare a project status report for any 1 project from your dash board. You can use the template to prepare a status report. Fill all the details and share it with all stakeholders.
And try to receive feedback on your report, Having feedback will help to get what exactly the stakeholder wants to see in the report and you can so improve on it on the go.
So folks, Making Project Status report will make you more aware about the project, helps you to stay involved and focus on the right thing, which is nothing but the Goal of the project.
Thank you all. That’s all for this Blog, Have a Great day, Bye Bye.
