Importance of Project Status Reports

The June 2014 issue of PM Network included an article on the project status report and provided some good advice on what to do and what not to do when preparing a status report. The article noted that status reports should consider the needs of the audience, provide the content and content structure to meet the audience's information needs, and be delivered in a manner (timing and media) to provide the information where and when the audience needs it. The article also included some useful examples and advice for this project deliverable.

The project status report is a critical project deliverable. When we think of project deliverables we typically think about the physical or electronic products that are produced at the end of a project. These primary outputs are indeed important but may not be realized if the project is not properly executed.

Project communications is an important contributor to project success. According to the 2013 PMI Pulse of the Profession report, 20% of projects fail as a result of poor communications. Successful project teams communicate within the team as well as with the project stakeholders. Without sufficient communications, it becomes difficult to coordinate work and ensure the project deliverables meet the stakeholder expectations.

Improving project communications is where the status report contributes to project success. The project status report provides an opportunity for the project team to engage the project stakeholders in the project and stakeholder engagement results in stakeholders that both support and collaborate with the project team. The status report provides the opportunity to remind the stakeholders of the project and its importance to the organization which in turn allows them to continue to provide the needed support and resources to the project team. Additionally, engaged stakeholders are also prepared to collaborate with the project team to coordinate the needed inputs into the project and receive the scheduled outputs from the project team.

The project status report may seem like another administrative task for the project manager but this form of communications is essential to increasing the success of the project. The status report offers an opportunity to frequently engage the project stakeholders throughout the life of the project. Given the importance of this project document, project managers must carefully design these reports to provide the most meaningful and timely information to the project stakeholders. Engaged project stakeholders increase the likelihood of meeting the project objectives.