4.10 Status Report

Preface

A clear understanding of what work has been accomplished at any point in time and of what resources of time and money have been consumed in its accomplishment is essential to effective project management.  The Project Status Report, when prepared by each team member on a regular basis, addresses this need and also provides a consistent, economical means of reporting project progress to the project sponsor and other key stakeholders.

Inputs

Project Plan

Workplan

Project Work / Task Assignment

Outputs

A Project Status Report

Rationale

Unless project progress is regularly assessed and reported a project is left, essentially, rudderless.  There is no way to tell if it is headed in the right direction, or any direction at all, and no way to assess its progress towards its ultimate destination.  Sponsors and stakeholders in such a progress sense the drift and lose confidence in the project manager and the project.  Ultimately project resources drift away and the project will suffer a more or less explicit early termination, having delivered nothing of value.

Procedures

1.    Establish a status reporting schedule as part of the communication planning process.

2.    Set and enforce clear team expectations regarding status reporting.

3.    Issue Work / Task Assignments at the start of each new assignment.

4.    Regularly collect team member Status Reports; review individually and summarize with team as appropriate.

5.    Consolidate team member Status Reports for upward reporting and review in accordance with the schedule established as part of the communication planning process.