Reporting Status

Reporting Status

Project status reports are one of the nuisances of the trade. Few people enjoy preparing them; it is unpleasant to have to document your problems, and, too often, the reports are ignored or, worse, used as weapons against you. For many project managers, one characteristic of the ideal project is no status reporting. However, if you find yourself in such a project, search for someone to report to or leave.

Managers who do not insist on status reports are saying, in effect,"Don't bother us with trivia (into which category your project clearly falls)." Such "managers" will not be available when you need help, nor will they be prepared to accept any responsibility if the project slips or fails. Organizations that do not require status reporting may have project management, but they do not have project control: the management of project managers. If you find yourself in such a company, make up status reports anyway and issue them to whoever you think should get them.

Status reports will vary according to company requirements, but the simplest include the following:

1. Accomplishments last period. This is a list of the project's major achievements in the status reporting period. Note that these are major achievements. If you report each tiny piece of work, you may end up with a lengthy list, but your management will probably assume that you are covering up a lack of significant progress with a lot of noise.

When you report a piece of work as complete, make sure it truly is complete. Few things will undermine management's confidence in you as much as seeing the same work reported as a current achievement for two or three periods running.

2. Planned for next period. This is a list of the major achievements that you intend to complete in the next status reporting period. Be conservative. It is better to overachieve than to miss the target.

3. Issues. This is a list of current issues: those from previous periods that are still unresolved, and issues that are new this period. Issues should be listed with expected resolution dates and the name of the person who is responsible.

In addition to these sections, some status reports ask for other items that are valuable in assessing progress.

1. Achievement against plan. This is a list of deliverables with scheduled and actual delivery dates and an indication of variances from the plan. Since achievement against plan shows all project deliverables, it provides a snapshot of overall progress.

2. Performance against budget. This section reports whether you are under or over budget. Budgetary performance is difficult to assess. You may be under budget, but if you are also behind schedule, do you have enough budget to make up the lost time?

Because of these and other complexities, project management has developed a series of measurements to help determine how the project is performing relative to its budget. Measurements such as budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS), budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP), and actual cost of work performed (ACWP), along with the variances they provide, such as cost variance (CV), schedule variance (SV), and earned value variance (EV), give project managers more precise accounting tools for managing budgets. However, they are complicated to calculate and report. Companies that require them must also be prepared to provide the project management support needed to generate them. Otherwise, project managers become little more than highly paid clerks.

The frequency of project status reports can be an issue in some companies. For most management or steering committee purposes, monthly is adequate, but managing the project requires tighter controla lot can happen in a month. If your company requires monthly status reporting, produce a report each week and use it to generate the monthly report. You will find that reporting weekly keeps you better able to discuss project progress on short notice. It will also reduce the effort required to produce the month-end tome that your managers require.

The Issues Log

The issues log is a listing of all outstanding issues: those that have not been resolved. Each issue requires no more than a line or two describing it, along with an issue number, the name of the person who raised the issue, the name of the person responsible for resolving it, its status (open, deferred, or resolved), and a due date. It is also valuable to include a ''concern indicator" that gives the importance (high, medium, or low) with which you regard the issue. Include the issues log with your status report, and in tracking the progress of issues, add dated comments directly to the log. Exhibit 5.8 is an example of an entry in an issues log.

The main purpose of the issues log is to keep track of the problems that arise and must be addressed. Regardless of who is responsible for resolving any given issue, you need to be relentless in ensuring that people act. The reason you include the issues log with your status report is to bring client issues to the client's constant attention. By numbering them, you identify those that remain outstanding over time. Clients become uncomfortable when issue 17 is still open when issue 156 has just been closed.

The issues that you should consider include anything that affects the project's benefits. When you identify actions or events that you believe jeopardize or reduce benefits, raise an issue. The issues log ensures that the issue will remain active and visible as long as it is unresolved.

The Status Meeting

In most projects, you will need to report status to the steering committee. The meeting is a presentation of your status report and will follow its format. However, the status meeting is also your opportunity to help ensure that the project stays on track from the client's point of view. The most effective tool for accomplishing this is the issues log. When you have concerns about project decisions or actions, enter them in the log and make sure that you review the log during the meeting. Be aware that if the members of the client's team have consistently failed to meet their required dates, you could embarrass the client's project manager if the review of the log is improperly handled. Discuss the log with the client's project manager so that he or she will be aware of the issues before the meeting and can work with you to formulate a position. If you do not, you risk creating an opponent.

What If?

Management Ignores Your Status Reports.

When problems arise in the project, even though they are described in the status reports or issues log, management will not be aware of them and will be surprised and annoyed when they affect the project. Furthermore, management will not be able to intervene to help out when necessary.

Actions

Early in the project, identify the degree of attention that your status reports receive from management. Casually mention an issue that you have reported and observe whether or not your managers know what you are talking about.

If you conclude that nobody is attending to your reports, make a point of meeting with one of your managers periodically to review the issues and the status.

Document critical issues in separate memos and follow up face to face to ensure that management has received them.

A Major Problem Has Occurred And Teh Next Status Report Will be Bad.

If management have been receiving positive reports, the sudden appearance of a negative one may reflect badly on you. They will want to know why this surprise has appeared and why they were not forewarned.

Action

Forewarn them. Call each member of the steering committee and your management and let them know what has happened (see "Bearing Bad News" in Chapter 6). A useful phrase to start the conversation is, "We have a problem." The advantage of this approach is that when you call a meeting or issue your status report, each person will have the equivalent of inside information, which usually creates allies. Furthermore, everyone will have had the chance to think about the problem and will be able to bring you suggestions rather than recriminations.

Client Staff Members consistently Fail to Resolbe Teir Actions on The Issues Log.

Issues that do not get resolved are dangerous to the project and could develop into serious problems if they are not dealt with quickly.

Actions

Consult with the client project manager either to create a sense of urgency in the client team or to determine if the issues can be reassigned.

If you do not get satisfaction, ask the steering committee for guidance. Client members may be able to influence the offenders more easily than you can.

If the problem persists, announce that the issue is unresolved, that the project requires an answer, that you have made an assumption that resolves the issue, and that, if the assumption proves to be invalid, correcting it will be a scope change.