Project Management
How to report project status without hiding the truth
Green, amber and red only work if people are allowed to use amber. A simple format for honest status updates.
Most status reports are green until the week they turn red. Everyone involved knows the amber weeks were there; they just never made it onto the page.
Honest reporting is less about courage than about format. If the report makes it easy to describe risk plainly, people will.
A simple structure
- Where we are: one sentence on progress against the next milestone.
- What changed: anything that moved since the last report, good or bad.
- What worries us: the top two or three risks, with what we are doing about each.
- What we need: the decisions or support required from the reader, with a date.
Make amber normal
Amber should mean “we see a problem and we have a plan”, not “we are in trouble”. When sponsors respond to amber with help instead of blame, it becomes the most useful colour on the report.
Bad news does not improve with age.
Common project saying
The goal of a status report is not to look good. It is to give the people who can help enough time to do it.
