5 Keys to Effective Status Reporting

Long before the prime-time police drama Law and Order, there was Dragnet.  As a kid, I used to watch Dragnet's Joe Friday interview people, investigate crime scenes, and catch the bad guy every week.  Every episode started with, "The story you are about to see is true, the names have been changed to protect the innocent." 

When interviewing witnesses, Friday was famous for his deadpan, "Just the facts, ma'am."  He didn't have the time to waste with superfluous information, if he had the "facts" he could solve the crime.

In reality, reporting the status of all project-based work to stakeholders isn't much different.  Here are five suggestions that will make your project-status reporting run smoother:

1. When you do your reporting is often as important as what you report.  Make sure the timing of your report will provide the most benefit to the stakeholders involved.  For example, reporting on a problem when there is still time to do something about it is valuable—waiting until it's too late, isn't.
2. Make sure the information you are reporting is accurate and trustworthy before your presentation.  Out-of-date or inaccurate information is of no value for making decisions.  Validating that status information is timely and up to date is critical for making well-informed decisions.
3. Present information that is relevant to your audience.  Different information is important to different individuals and job roles.  For example, information that would be important to share with the project team would probably not be relevant to the CEO.
4. Ensure that the information presented is in the medium best suited for the audience.  A PowerPoint presentation might not be necessary for a team meeting, but could be important when presenting to the executive team.
5. Make sure you have all the details of what you're presenting.  There's nothing worse than sitting in front of a room full of stakeholders not knowing the answer to your CEO's questions.  If you don't have the full details of what you're presenting, make sure you have someone there who does to help with the presentation.

Leveraging your project and portfolio management software to capture status information as tasks are completed is valuable, particularly if your project software provides the reports and dashboards stakeholders need to review information and make decisions.  However, taking a little time to consider each of these elements before your next status meeting will help make your presentations more effective.