Project Status Reports are essential tools of communicating project status in terms of issues, events, progress, risks, change requests and so on.. As a project manager or PMO it’s your duty to stay on top of all projects' issues and activities, and report these updates in real-time to key project stakeholders and sponsors in a comprehensive but most importantly readable manner. The catch here is how do you define "readable"?
The format of your status report can be an existing controlled form in your PMO list of documents, a form from the hundreds of templates available on the internet, or a readymade Excel sheet you got from the CD of the last book you read on project management; they all work! But the problem happens when most project managers (including me) take these “ready-made” forms for granted and consider that their job is done just by presenting the project status report in the "standard" way that their clients in the previous projects accepted or did not object to.
I faced the same situation with one of my latest clients. I managed the PMO and implementation of a full scale HIT project comprised of HIMS, ERP, and full technology and network infrastructure for a new hospital. I and my team were generating a weekly status report to send to key project stakeholders due the first working day of each week. This report was to be discussed on the afternoon of the same day. In the first weeks of the project, the activities were not that involved due to phased engagements of the solution providers and delayed hospital building readiness. So in the beginning we had a 3-4 page WSR. But later, the WSR number of pages and tables and site pictures increased due to the increase in project activities, people, solutions, and therefore... issues, risks, and problems.
We kept issuing the WSR in the same format but with more pages of issues, risks, activity delays, etc. And we couldn't swallow our pride and admit that we have a more comprehensive WSR that exceeded 8 pages sometimes. Until we were struck with the bitter truth in one of the project update meetings, that the clients' don't read it!! We just found out that our clients want to hear everything from the beginning in the project update meeting simply because they did not have the time or the will to read an 8 page report. We tried to argue this in the beginning that it’s our duty to create a comprehensive report for such a big project. But when we sat back and listened carefully; it was our ego trying to outcry the real sound of a desperate client.
If your client does not read your project reports, this means that they don't know exactly what is happening. That means you never get their support and timely decision on actions regarding issues, changes, and risks. If that happened then you are at high risk of failure.
The format of your status report can be an existing controlled form in your PMO list of documents, a form from the hundreds of templates available on the internet, or a readymade Excel sheet you got from the CD of the last book you read on project management; they all work! But the problem happens when most project managers (including me) take these “ready-made” forms for granted and consider that their job is done just by presenting the project status report in the "standard" way that their clients in the previous projects accepted or did not object to.
I faced the same situation with one of my latest clients. I managed the PMO and implementation of a full scale HIT project comprised of HIMS, ERP, and full technology and network infrastructure for a new hospital. I and my team were generating a weekly status report to send to key project stakeholders due the first working day of each week. This report was to be discussed on the afternoon of the same day. In the first weeks of the project, the activities were not that involved due to phased engagements of the solution providers and delayed hospital building readiness. So in the beginning we had a 3-4 page WSR. But later, the WSR number of pages and tables and site pictures increased due to the increase in project activities, people, solutions, and therefore... issues, risks, and problems.
We kept issuing the WSR in the same format but with more pages of issues, risks, activity delays, etc. And we couldn't swallow our pride and admit that we have a more comprehensive WSR that exceeded 8 pages sometimes. Until we were struck with the bitter truth in one of the project update meetings, that the clients' don't read it!! We just found out that our clients want to hear everything from the beginning in the project update meeting simply because they did not have the time or the will to read an 8 page report. We tried to argue this in the beginning that it’s our duty to create a comprehensive report for such a big project. But when we sat back and listened carefully; it was our ego trying to outcry the real sound of a desperate client.
If your client does not read your project reports, this means that they don't know exactly what is happening. That means you never get their support and timely decision on actions regarding issues, changes, and risks. If that happened then you are at high risk of failure.
Luckily, in no time I went back and listened to what experience taught me. Shut up and listen! The target here is to deliver our message to the client as a team, not to produce nicely formatted sheets just because our PMO say so. The target here is to deliver our message and to make sure it’s received as we want it to be heard. So we listened and learned that the client wants a brief report! How could you make a brief report out of 10 pages report of a project running three big implementations in the same time? And the answer was a report dash board.
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| WSR Dashboard |
Don’t be scared now! A dash board does not have to be created by a BI or sophisticated tool that most probably you might have; a dash board can be as simple as an Excel sheet. I must say that I I was enlightened by some of the project management sites and blogs out there that gave me some great ideas. The one that I recommend most for you to see is Chando.org, he has some very nice examples of how could you make a great project status report dash board using MS Excel. I read a couple of lessons and started working my reports. I created an Excel document with a summary sheet in the beginning that shows “brief” graphs and lists of the most important issues, risks, activities, tasks, CRs, and progress, with a project time line in the bottom. Then I added more sheets with more detailed information from my old status report. This way the client will only need 5 minutes to know what’s going on. If they get interested or concerned by any item in the summary sheet, they just click on it and it will take them to the sheet with more detail and history on it. On the next project update meeting… Man you could tell the difference. The client liked the new report and it was obvious that they read it.
So to conclude this exciting story, the message is not to take your PMO documents and procedures for granted and think that they will deliver their objectives just because they are standard or you tried them before. Listen to your audience and take their feedback. Do your best to find creative ways to deliver your messages because that’s the only way to get the necessary attention from your client. That attention is crucial, because you need your clients to move quickly so your cost-time-quality triangle remains balanced.
