Reporting

Reporting is all about communication, which is a fundamental part of stakeholder engagement and management. This is an essential part of a Project Manager's role throughout the project life cycle.

The goal is to keep everyone involved with the project informed and aware of what is happening. Bear in mind that your project is most likely not the only project they are involved with at any one time. The chances are that you are managing multiple projects at once, too! So, it'd be unreasonable to expect your project team to go out of their way to hunt for the latest information on your project.

Proactively reporting on your project ensures the information they need to know is available for them, when they need it or when the project needs them.

To achieve this, it's the Project Manager's responsibility to establish an engaging and consistent reporting structure.

Reporting methods vary from the mundane tried and tested, to the clever and dynamic.

Most frequently, project status reports follow the same pattern:

• Cadence: A report every 1-2 weeks
• Summary: Executive and project team level synopsis of the latest updates
• RAG status: The useful and often contentious Red/Amber/Green status of the project overall, as well as individual risks and issues
• Progress against the plan: Usually a diagrammatic view of the project plan, including the most important information illustrated by the Gantt chart

While it's sensible to be consistent and conform to standards normally set by the Project Management Office (PMO), I would always advise that a Project Manager thinks seriously about the reaction they are looking to achieve with each update.

The level of engagement and impact that a standard format update achieves is expected to be exactly that standard. So, if there is a significant announcement that you want everyone to sit up and notice, then consider using an extraordinary, or at least, less standard approach.

For example, if the project has reached a milestone, whether it is ahead or behind schedule, the update should reflect the excitement and significance of the event! Again, in today's busy environment, it's important to differentiate your project from any number of others. A little thought to make working on your project more interesting goes a long way to ensure people stay engaged and motivated to do their best work.