I think that weekly status reports for IT projects are a great idea. They inform the client what is going on and (just as important) keep the project manager honest about the true status of the project.
Having a simple template makes this process simple. The following is one we have used on many projects:
Overall Status: Brief description of where the project is as of that date. Should include information about whether the project is on or behind schedule. Are things going well or not so well? This may be all that a manager reads, so keep it short and to the point. If this is all they read, make sure you tell them everything that really needs to be said in this section. It does not have to contain unique content. You can restate the same information below in the relevant sections in more detail. Think of it as being the “Executive Summary” of the status report.
Planned activities from last week: In this section, list the activities that you planned to work on during the past week. This is a copy of the tasks that were planned for this week from last week’s status report. Next to each task, assess its status (i.e., complete, 50% complete, not worked on, etc.) For each task that is not complete, provide a note explaining why things did not go according to plan.
Additional activities that were not planned: List the things that got done that were not planned. For each task, provide a note as why an unplanned task was done. Next to each task provide a status.
Activities planned for upcoming week: List the tasks that you plan to work on. Try to keep the tasks to things that can be accomplished in a week. If impossible, state what the expected status will be by the end of the week.
If relevant, indicate the responsible party for each task.
Issues: This is where you disclose the problems that may interfere with task completion. These may be repeats of the planned activities. For example: “We have been waiting 3 weeks for report specifications. If we do not have them within the next week, the schedule will be impacted.”
A project status report is a support for a subsequent status meeting. You need to always keep in touch with clients and understand where they are coming from. Do not let them not read the reports. Make sure they understand the issues and change the format of the report so it will be useful to the client and to an honest discussion about how the project is going.
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