Proper documentation and reporting are vital to any project’s success; due to this, keeping stakeholders well informed of every stage’s progress is necessary. In a progress report, one would want to cover various areas to clearly identify what the project’s goal is, how far the project is, how the budget is holding up, and who all is involved in the daily activities (as well as how they are performing). Naming each report is essential to identify what the report covers, what version it is, what the date and time is, as well as show who created it. Next, one should indicate whether the project is currently on track to be completed on time, at risk of failing, or off-track; included in this information should be the reasoning behind any hold-ups.

A report summary, merely a quick background (TL;DR), should be included to provide a brief synopsis of the project’s status and the work involved. Next, each progress report should attempt to pick two or three milestones to highlight. For example, what the team has accomplished, what they are working on, and what is coming next. An excellent idea is to highlight individual group updates if teams are separated in that manner. Statistics and figures are always recommended to help stakeholders further understand the progress of the project, such as a percentage of work completed, time spent in each phase, and the allocated budget vs. cost so far (Asana, n.d.)

Finally, while we all want to look good to our stakeholders, it is vital to share what challenges we have faced, as well as what caused them. One can go further by explaining what they have learned in the process. For techniques used in making a progress report, I often hand out small surveys to each team member asking their current status of their work and mood, as well as what challenges or accomplishments they encountered or are proud of. Then, using information collected, I piece together what the current state of the project’s progress is, then, based on reviews from my team, deliver that to stakeholders.

References

Fuller, M. A., Valacich, J. S., George, J. F., & Schneider, C. (2019). Information systems project management: A process Approach, Edition 2.0. Prospect Press, Inc.

Asana. (n.d.). Project status reports: What to include, examples, and a template · Asana. Retrieved June 10, 2020, from https://asana.com/resources/how-project-status-reports.