Project reporting

Overview

Project reporting ensures governing, management and oversight bodies are informed of the progress and performance of a project in order to support effective decision making, direction and leadership.

Project reporting communicates project progress updates and information to the project team and stakeholders.

Project reporting is a monitoring and controlling function performed throughout a project.

The format and frequency will vary based on project size, duration, risk and complexity.

Project monitoring typically includes:

• schedule – the estimated effort and duration versus the actual effort and duration
• budget – the estimated cost versus the actual costs
• deliverables – what products or components have been delivered and plan to be delivered
• quality – how well are the deliverables being completed and
• risks and issues – their status and actions being taken.

Key reports

The below lists some common project reporting types:

• Highlight report – Communicates project status to the Project Board. This report is brief and exception based, clearly confirming progress against the plan.
• Exception report – Informs the Project Board when there is deviation from the approved project or stage plan tolerances.
• Risk reporting – Risk reporting should follow the risk management plan. The highlight report will include risks identified that require escalation to the Project Board.
• Issue reporting – Issue reporting should follow the issue management plan. The highlight report will include issues being escalated to the Project Board.
• End stage report – Provides a summary of progress to date, the overall project situation to allow the Project Board to make a decision on what to do with the project either:
  • approve or revise the next stage
  • amend the project scope or
  • stop the project.
• End project report – Reports on how the project performed against the Project Initiation Document. It provides the Project Board with sufficient information to support a decision to close the project.
• Lessons learned report – Records lessons that might be applied to other projects. Lessons learned reporting is included in end stage and end project reports.