Status Reports

“Do I have your attention?” — Alec Baldwin, Glengarry Glen Ross

Is anyone reading my status report? These reports are meant to communicate the health of the project, cost, progress to date, relevant risks and issues that require stakeholder involvement and/or decisions. But if your communication is not widely received, that can create risks to the success of the project.

What does status mean to your audience?

Rather than starting with an existing template, begin thinking about the communication from the audience’s perspective. What do they need to know about the project status? What makes them a stakeholder and what are their expectations of the project (e.g. deliverables, resources used, and timeline)? What changes impact them or these expectations? These motivations and the audience’s style should dictate what content you deliver and in what format. It might be beneficial to have multiple communication channels and levels of detail that suit different stakeholders.

Content & Format

With your audience in mind, create content that is relevant and actionable. Understanding how your report will be consumed and the action that will be taken will help create a message that is useful. It is important to highlight changes and direction of issues to add context without requiring the person to read through old reports. You may need involvement from stakeholders, so making that clear and creating asks that are persuasive will help get the outcomes you want.

The format should be clear and simple to make information accessible. In addition to focusing on written conciseness, consider whether short in-person meetings are a better channel (written communication can always supplement meetings). Grabbing coffee with a busy stakeholder and giving her a quick summary might be the best way to engage. Again, this should be tailored to the culture and personal style of your audience, but don’t miss an opportunity to seek their feedback on better ways to communicate.

Cadence is another important element and should be driven by the pace of change on the project. Setting the right frequency is a balance between overcommunicating without much change in content and undercommunicating allowing issues to worsen from inaction. It is a good practice to reassess and adjust the frequency if the project activity ebbs or surges but be thoughtful about how often you make these types of changes to avoid confusion.

The Bottom Line

The primary objective should be purposeful communication tailored to your audience. Focus on the outcomes you want and craft your report to enable those. Solicit feedback on your report and be proactive about changing what is not working.

From more resources on status reports, check out the Project Delivery Framework for high level guidance/template and this article on crafting compelling messages.

Written by: Matthew Vallorano, Consultant