Type of Project Reports

Most of the organizations have their own template for reports, in addition to that the Project Manager and your team has their own format.

Each report takes own time to collect information, write, read, maintain and act on the action items.

Based on my experience, come up with the important reports required in the project, purpose and the important aspects needs to be covered in the report.

1) Project Status Report:

What should be included in a project status report? This is a question to which there is no right answer. It depends on a number of things like size of the project, the criticality, and the organizational structure. Hopefully, this article will answer some of the questions and will give you guidance.

The project status report prepared on every week, it provides the general status of the project.

Writing project status report should be quick and easy. Keep the status concise, clear and need to ensure it provides the high level view for top management.

It should also cover the information which can be understandable by team members and other managers who is part of the program.

The status report should answer the below questions:

·       Where to things currently stand in the project?

·       What work planned for next week?

·       Are there any obstacles in the project?

·       What are the key metrics of the project? – Risks, Milestones, Productivity, Quality, Deliverable, Costs and Resources utilization

2) Risk Register:

The risk register is another important report you want to create. The risks are always blow up in your project, the risks register identifies those risks, quantifies the potential negative impact they could occur in your project and it provides the mitigation and contingency plan for the identified risks.

Refer my previous articles Risk Management and Agile Risk Management to get in-depth knowledge on Risks.

The risk register contains:

·       Risk Description

·       Category (Resource, Customer, Project, Tools, Technology and etc..)

·       Probability (High, Low, Medium) 

·       Impact (High, Low, Medium) 

·       Priority (High, Low, Medium) 

·       Root Cause

·       Anticipated Impact

·       Mitigation Plan

·       Contingency Plan

·       Status (Analysis, In-Monitoring, Occurred, Mitigated)

·       Reassess Date

The summary of the risk register could feed directly into the project status report as one of the key metrics.

3) Issue Log:

The issue log report contains the risks or unexpected event occurred.

For example, the risk “there may be a change of resource may not be recruited to replace the resource who is moving out and this will delay the deliverable”. The issue is now the project deliverables are started delay as there is no resource recruited. Or some unexpected event occurred like coding issue in the software halted the application.

The issue log contains:

·       Issue Description

·       Reference ID (Risk Reference)

·       Category (some of the examples are given below)

o   Technical – Relating to a technological problem in the project

o   Business process – Relating to the project's design

o   Change management – Relating to business, customer, or environmental changes

o   Resource – Relating to equipment, material, or people problems

o   Third party – Relating to issues with vendors, suppliers, or another outside party

·       Impact (High, Medium, Low)

·       Urgency (High, Medium, Low)

·       Responsible Party

·       Actions Taken

·       Status

·       Due Date

Use 'traffic lights' when reporting issues. This provides an easy-to-see indication of whether issues are under control. Traffic lights could be used as follows:

Red - Cannot proceed before issue is resolved.

Yellow - Resolution in process and you'll be able to proceed soon.

Green - Resolution implemented, and issue no longer exists.

4) Project Performance Report:

The project performance has to be observed and measured regularly and consistently to identify the variances from the project management plan.

The project performance report contains accomplishments for the reported period along with what accomplishments are not completed against the plan.

If any work packages are not completed identify the root cause/impact to upcoming milestones/overall project status, state in the report.

Record the identified actions needed to make up schedule variances or prevent future schedule variances.

Record funds spent this period and variance.

For cost variances, indicate impact to the overall project budget or whether contingency funds must be expended.
List all work packages or accomplishments scheduled for completion next period.

Identify any new risks that have arisen this period.  These risks should be recorded in the Risk Register as well.

Identify any new issues that have arisen this period.  These issues should be recorded in the Issue Log as well.

5) Executive Summary Report:

The executive summary report is unique and written in different way compare with other reports.

Executive summary report is the high level report that presents the status of the project, achievements, challenges faced, lesions learnt, benefits it will yield, how the project fits in the portfolio strategies and how it helps the bottom line of the organization.

Keep the objective of the project and realistic status of the project.