Project Status Report Template (DOCX) (last revised July 18, 2017)
Program Status Report Template (DOCX) (last revised July 18, 2017)
Purpose of Project Status Report
Project status reporting is the creation of regular reports against the project's constraints (schedule, resources, budget) to project governance, team members, and stakeholders. The reports provide visibility into progress/performance of the project in a summarized, concise format.
Regular project status reporting is one of the most important sources of information for project governance and team members. Appropriate status reports enable informed decision making and risk management for the project, and can be used as a tool to keep stakeholders (including team members) engaged and informed.
Project Status Report Participants
Project status reports are usually created by the Project Manager, after gathering updated information from the project team. The status reports should be shared with the sponsor, governance, the project team, and other stakeholders, where required. The format and details within the status report may vary, depending on the audience.
Project status reporting is an iterative process throughout project execution and should be done on a regular basis (no less than monthly).
Instructions
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Determine the health of the project, using the legend in the template, to determine if the project's overall status and resource status is red, yellow, or green. Health should be determined by comparing actual status to expected on the project's schedule and milestones.
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If the project is red, inform the sponsor with the reasons before this is communicated to other audience(s). It is not advisable to catch the sponsor by surprise with this news.
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If updates are not already available, collect task status updates from team members
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Fill out the template (instructions in green italic text)
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Distribute to intended audiences
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File status report on project repository
Next Steps
If project is yellow or red, initiate the appropriate conversations and subsequent actions required to bring the project back to a healthy state. These conversations involve an understanding of the project's triple constraints and possible changes pertaining to these constraints as well as risk mitigations.
Continue with regular project status reporting cycle throughout execution.