I am tracking and controlling a rollout project which consists of other 50 tasks and each task was divided into 40 different milestones. All those 50 tasks are not dependencies, and either of them could be able to start first if the PO is approved. However, the tasks might need to be halted at the certain milestones if problems occurred. I also have to report this to the management
I rely on Ms Excel to help me monitoring all the information and milestones of this project and all the information that I have is up to date because I keep tracking and monitoring them daily.
Even though I have all those information, I still have doubt of creating the perfect report for the management.
Could you please kindly advice what kind/format of reports should I produce.
Your guidance will be very much appreciated
Best regards,
sanlen
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Rakesh TrivediSenior Project Manager| IT CompanyIndore, Mp, India
Hi Kimsan,
My advice would be to have two things in place -
- Use Microsoft project plan for proper tracking and Monitoring purpose as it will provide you status of all the tasks and manage tasks.
- In Status report just indicate status of the tasks (tabular format) which are already running & reflect on time or delay ( leave completed tasks as that will overburden the report) . Add all the tasks which have started for the current week ( assuming weekly status reporting )
This will allow stakeholders to know tasks status in more seeable form
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I am actually very young with Microsoft Project that why i like to go to excel to monitor and track this project.
Yes, i have to report this on the weekly basis. I want to add some graph to the report, is this the idea? since i have to many milestones, then what kind of graph should i use?
Thanks you very for your advice.
Best regards,
sanlen Saving Changes...
Bruce LoflandSoftware Developer| SprintLenexa, Ks, United States
I suggest using a bar chart that show the number of tasks at each milestone. This will give a quck picture on one page where everything is at. A comparison to a previous status might be useful to show progress over time.
Stuart DixonProject Office Manager| Xl CatlinCrowbrough, United Kingdom
If in doubt, I would always ask the customer, in your case the management, what they want from the report, and what decisions they are trying to make based on the report you are giving them.
If you involve the recipient in the development of the report, then the happier they tend to be with the report, as they understand what the report is trying to do for them.
Whilst doing this keep in mind that most reports have more impact if they are only one page, and the best way of achieving that is to report by exception, which means that a page with not much on it is a good reflection on project status.
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Thanks you very much for all the advice, they are very useful. I now have come out the status report which is showing the progress of each milestone in one graph.
I also need to have another report on weekly basis by comparing the progress of this week to previouse week. I have come out a line chart which is showing all milestones and its values from the first week of project started till now. However, i found that this design look very messi because i have too many milestones.
Please advice.
Best regards,
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Michael LemiskiSenior Consultant| Project Principles IncMississauga, Ontario, Canada
It may be appropriate to use a Workdown Curve. That is number of tasks on the Y axis, and time on the X axis. At the beginning of the project 100% (= number of tasks) is outstanding and the end 0% (zero tasks) is outstanding. Baseline the plan, and plot actuals against the plan. Saving Changes...
Jeff ArmstrongAgile Programme & Portfolio Consultant| business-docs.co.ukLondon, United Kingdom
I'd agree with Michael - use some form of workdown (aka "Burndown") graph with tasks on y, time on x.
This will give a sense of progress, and could also help you see whether you are destined to hit your target or not.
