Management Status Update

As you get yourself situated in the morning, you open your email to see three different requests for status updates on one of your projects. Your manager wants to know when the budget will be finalized. One of your team members is wondering how much time she should plan to devote to the project. The CMO is asking how the project’s most recent delay will impact first-quarter goals.

Frequent status requests from all directions can feel overwhelming, but there’s a better way to inform stakeholders on project updates: project status reports.

What is a project status report, and why does it matter?

Project status reports are timely updates (we’ll discuss how often you should be doing them later) on the progress of your projects. They answer the questions everyone seems to be asking (before they actually ask them). Written concisely, they offer high-level information about a project, rather than every detail.

Doing project status reports regularly is important because they help you keep all stakeholders in the loop and aligned on how your project is progressing. You’ll get considerably fewer questions about project status because you’re already ahead of the game. They show and tell that you’re on track, making you (and everyone else) feel confident.

And if your project isn’t on track, your status report will let others know what the delay is and what you’re doing to resolve any blockers, allowing you to show off your proactive approach to getting things back to where they should be. (A project timeline is another excellent addition to managing your projects).

How to write a great project status report

So, how do you go about doing project status reports? Be sure to create a clear structure for your update, and be consistent in using it with future status reports and updates. You should also make sure it matches with your project brief to keep your report on the topic.

Follow this guide to understand what to include in your project status report, and watch as we put each step into practice with an example of an Employee Satisfaction project.

1. Name your report

A great option is to simply use the name of the project for clarity. If you’re reporting on this project regularly, you might also want to include a date or timestamp.

2. Indicate whether the project is currently on track, at risk, or off track

Find a project management tool that allows you to communicate the project’s status and whether or not it’s on track. One way to do this is to use a colour-coding system (green = on track, yellow = at risk, red = off track).

3. Give a quick summary of the status report

Your project status report summary should be brief—about 2-3 sentences. The goal here is to give readers who may not have time to read the entire report a quick TL;DR of the most important facts.

4. Pick two to three key areas or milestones to highlight in your report

Choose what you’ve been working on the most since your last update. For example, you might bucket things out chronologically—what we’ve done, what we’re working on, and what’s coming up next—in a calendar. It can be broken out into weekly, monthly, and quarterly segments. Another option is to group updates by role—design, copy, web developer. Project milestones—conduct engagement survey, survey results, implement feedback—are another bucketing method.

5. Add a high-level overview of each key area

For each key area in the status report, add a few bullet points that give an update on progress, accomplishments, and upcoming work.

Results are being reviewed by the executive team before the engagement committee meets again

6. Add links to other documents or resources

While you won’t want to include every little detail about how your project is going, some people will want to know more. For stakeholders who are looking for more in-depth information, provide links to documents or resources, like the project portfolio.

7. Give attention to any issues or challenges the project has run into

All projects run into roadblocks. Keeping stakeholders in the loop when issues arise will help everyone adjust accordingly to stay on track.

8. Include additional notes or highlights

These could be a list of next steps, kudos you want to give someone or anything else you want to highlight.

Attached Milestones

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