Once all of your planning has been complete and your project is underway, it is highly recommended to create a weekly Project Status Report with your team. Communication between the project team, the project client and project stakeholders is critical to project success. The Project Status Report provides a regular, simple project update that is easy to create (should take no more than 10 minutes) and easy to read (should take no longer than 3 minutes).
Project status reports are widely used in industry and many different formats are used. Using a common format within an organisation makes it easy to monitor progress in multiple projects and easily identify areas that may need attention. It is therefore essential that the simplicity of the format is maintained by everyone using it. Any ambitious attempts to make it more complicated should be firmly rejected.
In your project, you can create and use status reports. The frequency of its creation will depend on the nature of your project, but it should be at least weekly. It is recommended that it be sent to your project client and any other relevant stakeholders each week and/or it should be given to the client 24 hours before your meeting(s) with them.
The report can enable your project team to highlight issues that they wish to discuss. The report can help to create an agenda for a weekly project team meeting. This meeting could be led by the project team leader who would guide the meeting participants through the report content and focus on issues that need to be resolved.
Project Status Report Example
Project Title: Fast Food Automated Ordering System
1Colour Code: Green
Date: July 24, 2030
2Main Activities For the Past Seven Days:
- Held 2 briefing meetings for employees to explain the project, understand and address concerns
- Reviewed plans with construction contractors and signed contracts
- Provided software specifications to software developer
- Held two project team meetings
3Activities For The Next Seven Days:
- Meet with store manager to explain the system and understand management requirements
- Construction contractors will commence work
- Meeting scheduled to review and direct software development
- Two project team meetings are scheduled
- Car parking impact of contractor vehicle parking will be monitored to assess impact on restaurant sales
4Issues For Discussion in the Client Meeting:
The employee briefing meetings revealed a high level of anxiety about the new working arrangements as a result of the new system. We would like to discuss the response that should be made to their concerns.
1. Colour coding can be used to indicate the project’s overall status. Green indicates that the project is making good progress and that no issues exist that need to be resolved. Yellow indicates that there are some minor issues that need to be resolved but that the project is on track. Red indicates that the project has serious issues that need to be resolved for the project to be completed successfully. Failing to resolve these issues will result in project failure.
2. Main activities this week: Indicate here the main activities that the team has been engaged in, including milestones achieved, events that have occurred and tasks that have been completed.
3. Activities for the next week: Indicate here the activities that are planned for the next week, including milestones that will be achieved, events that are taking place and tasks that will be completed.
4. Issues: Indicate here any issues that exist in the project that the team needs to resolve with the client. Include all items that may threaten the progress of the project, opportunities that may exist to complete the project more quickly or economically and any other significant issues that the team requires assistance with.
The report should be professionally presented and no more than one page long.