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Project Status Reports

By Dick Billows, PMP, GCA

Summary: An effective way to begin status reports is the tracking Gantt which displays bars for the planned and actual duration of tasks. It's the best way to get everyone up to speed quickly because it shows the ripple effect of overruns all the way through the project.

Project Variance Analysis & Status Reporting

Tier 1: Small Projects
Done within an organizational unit with your manager or your boss as the sponsor

Tier 2: Medium Projects
Cross-functional effort affects multiple departments or done for customers/clients

Tier 3: Strategic Projects
Organization-wide projects with long term effects

Team
Reporting

Team reports hours of work completed and estimates the hours of work remaining on each in-progress task. No status narrative

Team members report hours of work completed and estimates the hours of work remaining. Reports progress on major deliverables and any changes to quality metrics or configuration

Team members report hours of work completed and estimates the hours of work remaining. Also report on acceptance of deliverables by user or the

Contractors &
Material Cost Reporting

Usually no project budgeting or tracking of cost

Track materials and equipment installed tracked on both quantity and unit price. Contractors manages on hourly or fixed cost basis

Track materials and equipment installed tracked on both quantity and unit price. Contractors manages on hourly or fixed cost basis. Regular audits of contractor performance versus contract specs

Variance
Analysis

Analysis of all variances between actual and baseline schedule. Forecast and estimates to complete on duration. Tracking Gantt distributed to the team

Variance analysis of both schedule and budget with comparison to baseline and estimates at completion on both cost and schedule. Earned value comparisons and forecasts with re-optimization of the schedule on a weekly basis

Reporting to
Team & Stakeholders

Team gets tracking Gantt and updated personal schedule each week. Stakeholders get summary tracking Gantt and status narrative

Team gets tracking Gannet and updated personal schedule each week. Stakeholders get summary tracking gannet and status narrative. Functional manager lending people to the project get schedule updates for their people

Team gets tracking Gannet and updated personal schedule each week. Stakeholders get summary tracking gannet and status narrative. Influential stakeholders get weekly reports customized for their interests of concerns

Reporting to the Sponsor

Status report on all variances with recommendations for corrective action. Change requests analyzed by the PM with quantified impact documented

Status report on all variances with recommendations for corrective action. Change requests analyzed by the PM with quantified impact documented. Modeling of alternatives solutions to correct variances and forecasted overruns

The Big Picture is not About the "Split Milk"

Consistently successful project managers report on a forecast of what is going to happen. Those headed for failure report on the problems that took them by surprise and which can't be fixed. The best practice is to forecast a problem like this:

"Task #102 just started and we underestimated the work involved. If we do nothing, Task 102 will finish 30 days late. 15 days of that slippage will ripple through and the project finish date will slip 15 days, If We Do Nothing."

Then the successful project manager would propose one or several options for corrective action and ask for executive approval and act and solve the problem. How do we illustrate this?

Show the forecasted problem and how it "ripples" with a Tracking Gantt

The Tracking Gantt in MS Project® is a great tool even if the executive knows nothing about project management.

We'll use a Gantt Chart that compares the baseline  to the current schedule. This Gantt shows two bars for each task. One  runs from the baseline start to finish and the second bar runs from the currently scheduled start to finish. Thus, if the two bars for a task are on top of one another, the task is on schedule. If the task has slipped, you see the amount of slippage.

In the screen shot below, the gray task bars are the baseline (plan) and the blue or red task bars are the current schedule. We see that the 4th task on the WBS started late and is scheduled to finish more than 3 weeks later than planned. We also see how this slippage has "rippled" through the rest of the schedule, delaying other tasks. This form of Gantt chart is a clear way of illustrating schedule status to your sponsor and project team.

We get this report by clicking on FORMAT, then click on BAR STYLES (Format, Control Tower in 3.0). Next, in a blank row at the bottom of the list, type "baseline" or "plan" in the definitions column. Then TAB over one column to the right and select the bar shape for the baseline (plan). Use a smaller size bar and a different pattern than you use for your normal tasks. Skip the next column and in the "From" column type or select "Baseline Start" (or Start 1 in 3.0). Tab over one column and in the "To" column, type "Baseline Finish" or (Finish 1 in 3.0). Then click OK.

BUT! You need to build your schedule correctly

To all all this you need to build a schedule with clear assignments, work estimates, resource availability data and predecessors. In other words a professional project schedule...not a to do list. If you are uncle al how to do this take one of our project essentials courses to learn the basics.

The Hampton Group, Inc. 3547 South Ivanhoe St. Denver, CO 80237-4320 USA
© 2009 The Hampton Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be reproduced without written permission . The Microsoft Corporation owns the registered trademark Microsoft Project®. The Project Management Institute, Inc. owns the following registered trade and certification marks: PMI® PMBOK® PMP® and CAPM®. The CompTIA IT Project + certified professional logo is a registered trademark of CompTIA (the Computing Technology Industry Association). All rights reserved.2003