Creating Status Reports for Software Projects: Use MS Word

In a nutshell, your status report should include the following:

• your name, the name of the project and the date
• name of main contact or team members, if any
• how much work you completed during the week
• if you passed any milestones
• if you ran across any unsolvable problems or time-consuming delays
• if you are closer to completing the project than you were in the last report
• if you have the necessary resources to meet the deadline
• your plans for next week (just the highlights)
• and if, heaven forbid, you want to request a scope change

The main goal of status reporting is three-fold:

1. To ease the manager’s mind when everything is going well, and
2. To pat yourself on the back when you are doing well, and
3. To facilitate the delivery of bad news in sufficient time that the situation can be easily rectified.

Even if your supervisor, manager or client (let’s just use ‘manager’) only asks for an oral report, it is a good practice to create a written status report anyway, if only for your records. You never know when you are going to be asked a question about what you did and when or when you spoke with so-and-so or when you requested something. Since everything that happens on a project doesn’t make it into your electronic calendar, a status report is as good a place as any to document project activities.

Preparing a hard copy of your weekly status report:

1. Keeps you focused on your progress as well as project deadline
2. Creates a written record of what you reported for the week, in case you need to refer to it later
3. Helps you stay on track in the status meeting

To help you remember what you did, make quick notes during the week regarding your production, any unscheduled meetings you attended, the problems you solved, the new issues you uncovered, and the people who helped you.

I designed this status report form when I worked for a company that didn’t ask for status reports, neither written or verbal. For six months I worked by myself as a lone writer and Web designer. I created these reports and filled them out because I wanted to document what I was doing week after week. Even though no one asked for them, I attached a hard copy of the status report to my monthly invoice.

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Name Reporting Date

Project Name / Number Project Due Date

Project Deliverable Description

Main Contact Secondary Contact

____________ number of pages written or revised

____________ number of screenshots taken, revised, resized and placed

____________ number of HTML pages created

SME input received from ________________________

SME input needed from _________________________

Highlights of work accomplished this week

Highlights of work to be accomplished next week

Any complications or setbacks dealt with this week?

Challenges? 1. 2.

Select the statement that best describes the current status of my work on this project:

a. I am right where I’m expected to be at this point

b. I am slightly behind, but expect to make up the time by

c. I am ahead of schedule

d. I am behind schedule and need help with _________________________

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Most of the time I could get this report onto one page, sometimes one and a half.

To go from one to the other extreme, check out this government status report:

http://www.opm.gov/demos/2007StatusReport_on_DemonstrationProjects_and_OtherPerformance-BasedPaySystems.pdf

Here is another one. Click the link below and then click Weekly Petroleum Status Report.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/weekly_petroleum_status_report/wpsr.html

Now, aren’t you glad you only need to write a one-page report?