Anatomy of a Status Report

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Anatomy of a Status Report
Andrew Makar, PMP (October 4, 2007)

Status reports come in many forms, but all of them should communicate the project’s progress, critical issues and overall health. Effective reports are easy to interpret and mix subjective and objective metrics for a balanced view of the project. And the best do it all in one page.

What are the critical characteristics of an effective status report? We generate them each week as a tool to communicate project progress, report critical issues, and state the overall health of the project. As project managers deliver different projects within an organization or across different organizations, the project status templates vary in format, length and detail. Low process maturity organizations may or may not have a project report template. In some organizations, a verbal update is all that is required to provide status. In other organizations, stringent metrics and project progress reporting is required. Mature project organizations have standard reporting templates that are used across projects and programs. However, these same project organizations may have a different reporting format for the project team, their PMO, and executive management.

After 12-plus years of generating status reports, I’ve gleaned a few useful tips and critical elements that every project status report should contain.

Content

Effective project status reports communicate status information correctly and are easy to interpret.

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