One of the most effective ways to successfully monitor project progress is to develop quality project reports. You do this by identifying the type of reporting that tracks quantitative metrics as well as the qualitative aspects that indicate the health of the project.

The type of reports to be developed may depend on the goals of your organization; however, there are a few typical reports that you want to develop for every project. These reports are in addition to any high-level project reporting intended for an executive board.

Essential Project Tracking Reports

When setting up your project plan, ensure that you have included all the data points (columns) that will be pulled in to develop the reports. It’s also important to include the resource allocation for each task in the reports for easy accountability tracking.

You want to have an overall project status report displayed on a dashboard or some sort of one-pager that includes all of the following reports as well as metrics that determine overall project health. The health of a project can be determined by the pre-defined metrics in the project governance documents. You could also create a formula based health status calculated by the number of tasks on track, overdue and completed.

Project Milestones by Status Report

Milestones in a project mark significant project events. Think of a milestone as a checkpoint that indicates the project is on the right track or off track. Tracking milestones is also a great way to prep for calls with key project stakeholders. Because high level milestones are often outlined on the project charter, developing a milestone report is the perfect way to show alignment on the original project scope. 

Upcoming Tasks Report

Simply put, you want to stay ahead of the game by proactively communicating the upcoming tasks to your resources. Tracking upcoming tasks gives you a chance to ensure no roadblocks are present and resources have all they need to successfully complete tasks.

Overdue Tasks Report

Tracking your overdue tasks gives you the opportunity to identify project turbulence and determine the best way to get back on track. Getting back on track could look like optimizing resource allocation, adjusting the timeline through change management, or identifying a potential risk and coming up with a mitigation strategy.

Risks/Issues Status Report

RAID reports are a great way to monitor additional project information outside of the project plan. RAID is an acronym for risk, actions, issues and decisions.

While it’s important to track every item on this log, pay particular attention to any issues or risks. This report should have columns for date identified, assigned resources, and escalation contact.

A highly likely scenario in the project management world is being on a status call with key stakeholders and having to answer critical project questions on the spot, it’s best to not have to search through a list of project documents to find the answer. Have any risks or risks or issues with their mitigation plan readily available in a report.

Project Reports: Monitor Project Progress

All of these reports are important to develop for quick access to critical project information. It saves time and effort from searching through each project plan for this information. Having reports that gather and display this data dynamically are key for successfully monitoring project progress. 

By, Airess Rembert, PMP, Member of Women Of Project Management & Blogger at The Nerd Bae

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