Example Project Report Format for Project Status
Project Reporting Tells Project Progress and Key Project Risks
Jan 9, 2009
This project report example is based on this report format that suggests the following sections: summary of project status and key risks, project metrics, work finished, about to finish, started and due to start. The target audience for this example is senior management who are following a project to implement a new SOP management system.
Project Status
Project is on-track. Slight delay to sign-off of system requirements will not impact the project schedule. The project will now move into development and solution design. The development system has been installed and the software will be deployed and configured next week. No new risks have emerged.
Key Risks
- Software installation and key configuration is risky due to this being a new vendor product. Mitigation has been to engage vendor consultants during this two-week phase and to have them on call during the test phase
- Lack of test resource to write business test cases for acceptance testing. Mitigation is to backfill two key business resources for the next four weeks. This will be paid from project's 10% contingency fund
- Decommission existing SOP management system. Maintaining a watching brief on project tasks
Project Metrics
- Project schedule is on target with 0 days time delay, 24% of schedule is complete
- Project cost is 500% of target spend with forecast budget due to paying vendor earlier than predicted but this has no impact to overall cost of project. Total project cost is on target with 0% cost variance. 40% of total budget has been spent
Project Tasks Finished Since Last Report
- Completion of requirements workshops
- Approval of quality plan and training plan
- Development environment installed in preparation for deployment of software
- Business information cascade on new SOP management system and its benefits
Project Tasks Still in Progress and Finishing
- Technical installation and configuration plan to be approved
- Design documentation being circulated for final review and approval
- Creation of accounts for development environment
Project Tasks Continuing
- Business process redesign to use SOP system
- Business conventions for using the system such as title and author
Project Tasks Starting
- Installation and configuration of system according to system requirements design
- Training of business users to use new SOP system to confirm design detail and help to develop correct test cases
- Communication pack to cascade information about schedule and key system features
Example Project Report Format
This audience requires high level information, not detailed project planning information, and information needs to be succinct and focus on the few things that matter rather than everything that can be reported. In particular, the audience will want to know if the project is on track and whether it needs any help with any risks or issues. In the final analysis the presentation, content and level of detail needs to be determined for the audiences. However, a project will want to "standardise" on a report format to simplify the production and delivery of project information and in particular to not have multiple reports, report formats and potentially giving different or confusing information dependent on which report is read. Following a single report format and adjusting the level of detail for the audience will help to achieve consistency and clarity for all concerned. A similar report example is here.
