What should be reported in Weekly/Monthly reports!

 

It always remains an art to report the current health of your project to your stakeholders. If this is done carefully and diligently, it helps a lot and reduces the follow-up questions.

Few tips from practices following/followed:

Try to include the status of last week's target and you have any unplanned tasks accomplished. No one likes to postpone the planned tasks for unplanned tasks but if it adds value in any form, which can be shown in report, justifies everything.

Define the next week's targets with risks and expectations. Do not give warnings as these items are planned by you!

Most important part of any status report are incomplete items, which could not be completed due to any reasons. You must highlight these with clear reasons and do not forget to give the next target date for each of these item.

Do not forget to include summary or comments for each of these items.

It is always beneficial to include occurrences of formal discussions/meetings happened with Stakeholders with dates. I used to provide duration but that could be optional. 

<<Week Summary>> <<Week#>>

<<Activities Planned, Completed/Progressed>>

      <<Activities Planned, Not Done>>

       << Activities – Unplanned, Completed>>

<<Activities Planned for Next Week>>

<< Issues/Comments>>

<< Meetings and discussions>>

Hope this is useful. Share your experiences as well.