Project Status Report Template

Project Status Summary                   Percent Complete:    xx%

This section of the project status report provides a quick executive overview of the status of the project. It is intended for high level management so it should not get too much into the details of the project. However, it should highlight anything specific which should be brought to their attention. The Scope/Schedule/Cost/Quality table above is a quick way to present a color coded dashboard for the status report. Typically a variance of +/- 5% will warrant a yellow cautionary color and +/- 10% will warrant a red warning color. For a project which needs tighter control +/- 2% and +/- 5% are used for these thresholds; whereas, other projects with less strict control may use 10% and 20% variances. The percent complete here should be the percent completion of the entire project. For any constraint which is yellow or red this section should contain brief explanation the reason why.

The project schedule is 7% behind schedule due to inclement weather which has affected the installation of the fiber optics throughout the campus. This should not affect the project completion date as crews are planning to make up the time by working weekends and extended hours next month.

The project risks is red due to the inclement weather and servers which were delivered last month weren’t configured with the correct hardware specifications. The impact of the inclement weather on the schedule will be mitigated by having crews make up the time by working weekends and extended hours next month. Currently we are working with the server vendor to resolve the server hardware configuration problem. The configuration delivered will not handle the work load of going live in two months; however, it is sufficient for development and testing activities scheduled prior to going live.

Worked Planned Last Week

For this section of the project status report you can copy the “Worked Planned for Next Week” section from last week’s status report and paste it into this section.

Work Completed Last Week

In this section you should provide a highlight of work performed and milestones and/or deliverables met during the past week.

Work Planned for Next Week

Provide an overview of the work being performed during the next week and any milestones or deliverables you expect to meet.

Open Issues

This part of the project status report should contain a list of open issues along with their status.

Open Risks

This section should contain a list of all open risks (risks which have occurred, or are on the verge of occurring).

Deliverables and Milestones

This section is a quick table which shows the status of the project milestones and deliverables.

The first column is for the name of the Milestone or Deliverable as it’s in the project plan. The next column is the WBS number, this makes it easier to find the milestone/deliverable in the project plan. Planned is the planned date according to the approved project plan, the forecasted is the date you expect and actual is the actual date the milestone was met or deliverable was delivered. The status is a simple one or two word status such as; completed, on schedule, behind schedule, accepted, etc.

Open Change Requests

Use this section of the project status report to track all changes to the project and report the status of those changes. Tracking of changes starts with the request for the change, tracks the approval status and ends when the change is added to the project, the project plan and schedule update and it has become a part of the project.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

Many managers turn right to this section as it provide a clear view of the status of the project according the earned value metrics. In your project you need to decide which metrics to monitor, but be sure not to include too many as you may end up providing the same information but in different forms. We like to track SV, SPI, CV and CPI in the layout below. Next to the schedule and cost headings you should state whether the project is ahead of or behind schedule and over or under budget. Notice we left out the word on – it is highly unlikely that you. If you like you can also include a paragraph at the beginning of this section of the project status report presenting the earned value results in verbose.

Schedule – Project is Ahead/Behind Schedule
Schedule Variance (SV): $xxxx
Schedule Performance Index (SPI): x.xx

Cost – Project is Over/Under Budget
Cost Variance (CV): $xxxx
Cost Performance Index (CPI): x.xx