The detailed project status update template can be used to provide a comprehensive update to the project team, business stakeholders, sponsors or project control. The detailed updated covers the project team, project health card, schedule, financials, risks and decisions. The status report can also be used for monthly project updates.
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| Project Health Card |
The detailed project status report has the following sections –
- Project Team.
- Project News and Updates.
- Project Health Card.
- Schedule & Task Status.
- Project Financials.
- Project Change Log.
- Project Risks & Issues.
- Project Actions & Decisions.
Project Team
- The purpose of this section is to introduce the project team.
- If anyone has questions about who is working on the project then they can refer to this slide.
- It can also be used to indicate any changes in the project team.
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| Project Team |
Project News and Updates
- This section should be used to publish the latest news on the project.
- Typical the news will consist of any major milestones accomplished, deadlines missed, major changes to the project scope, a brief update on task progress, mention of any major risks or issues affecting the project.
- The update should be in bullet points and should be as brief as possible.
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| Project News |
Project Health Card
- The project health card gives an overall picture for all the key parameters of the project.
- The overall project status is an indicator of the status of the entire project.
- Red means off track, Amber means needs attention, Green means all good.
- The overall status can be just the project managers call or a rule which sets out the minimum number of Amber's or Red's that the project parameter has. For example your organisation may agree that if two parameters are red then the over all is red and 3 amber then overall is amber etc.
- With the status indicator you should enter a brief note about the status.
- It is important to put a note especially when there an issue with the project.
Project Schedule and Tasks
- The schedule and tasks section has two subsections - the top section to display the schedule and the second to give an update on the tasks.
- The schedule section can have a high level schedule or a detailed task table.
- Under the tasks section you can update the task completed this month, tasks planned for next month and what tasks got delayed.
- See How to create a Project Plan.
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| Project Schedule and Tasks |
Project Financials
- The project financials section has two sub sections - first the overall budget and second a monthly tracking.
- The first section should detail the individual items with actual and planned. Any variance should be reported in the variance column.
- The monthly tracking section allows everyone a view of how the project budget is tracking on monthly basis.
- Calculate Budget using MS Excel.
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| Project Financials |
Project Change Log
- Reviewing project change log is a good practice and by including it in the status report everyone can will be informed about the change requests pending.
- The project change log section includes total change requests logged, open change requests and how many were approved.
- The section should also list all the open change requests and the list can come from the change log or change register. THIS IS A MUST.
- Download Change Log and Change Request Template.
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| Project Change Log |
Project Risks and Issues
- All the stakeholders should be aware of ALL THE OPEN risks and issues regardless of the severity or priority or impact.
- The section contains two columns for risks and issues. For both risks and issues the total number of open risks/issues, total number of medium open risks/issues and total risks/issues which were logged this month.
- The slide should also contain the list of OPEN risks and issues from the risk register.
- Learn Project Risks Management with Excel Risk Register.
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| Risks and Issues |
Project Actions and Decisions
- The actions and decision section allows a project manage to report which action are pending and which decisions were made.
- The section lists the action items and decisions open. It also lists actions and decisions which are overdue.
- The key thing to note is that actions and decisions have an overdue need to be action-ed ASAP.
- The action items and decisions can be coming from other meetings. See How to Write Effective Meeting Minutes.