5.4: Preparing Progress Reports
Learning Objectives
- Identify when progress reports are used
- Examine the various sections of progress reports
When Are Progress Reports Used?
You write a progress report to inform a supervisor, associate, or client about the progress you have made on a project over a specific period of time. Periodic progress reports are common on projects that go on for several months (or more). Whoever is paying for this project wants to know whether tasks are being completed on schedule and on budget. If the project is not on schedule or on budget, they want to know why and what additional costs and time will be needed.
Progress reports answer the following questions for the reader:
- How much of the work is complete?
- What part of the work is currently in progress?
- What work remains to be done?
- When and how will the remaining work be completed?
- What changes, problems or unexpected issues, if any, have arisen?
- How is the project going in general?
The main function of a progress report is persuasive: to reassure clients and supervisors that you are making progress, that the project is going smoothly, and that it will be completed by the expected date, or to give reasons why any of those might not be the case. They also do the following:
- provide a brief look at preliminary findings or in-progress work on the project,
- give your clients or supervisors a chance to evaluate your work on the project and to suggest or request changes,
- give you a chance to discuss problems in the project and thus to forewarn the recipients, and
- force you to establish a work schedule, so that you will complete the project on time.
What Is the Format of a Progress Report?
Depending on the size of the progress report, the length and importance of the project, and the recipient, a progress report can take forms ranging from a short informal conversation to a detailed, multi-paged report. Most commonly, progress reports are delivered in the following forms:
- Memo report: a short, semi-formal report to someone within your organization (can range in length from 1-4 pages)
- Letter report: a short, semi-formal report sent to someone outside your organization
- Formal report: a long, formal report sent to someone within or outside of your organization
- Presentation: an oral presentation given directly to the target audience
What Are the Organizational Patterns for Progress Reports?
The recipient of a progress report wants to see what you’ve accomplished on the project, what you are working on now, what you plan to work on next, and how the project is going in general. The information is usually arranged with a focus either on time or on task, or a combination of the two:
- Focus on time: shows time period (previous, current, and future) and tasks completed or scheduled to be completed in each period
- Focus on specific tasks: shows the order of tasks (defined milestones) and progress made in each time period
- Focus on larger goals: focuses on the overall effect of what has been accomplished
Information can also be arranged by report topic. You should refer to established milestones or deliverables outlined in your original proposal or job specifications. Whichever organizational strategy you choose, your report will likely contain the elements described below. To view examples of progress reports, visit David McMurrey’s Online Technical Writing.
Elements of Progress Reports
1. Introduction
Review the details of your project’s purpose, scope, and activities. The introduction may also contain the following:
- date the project began; date the project is scheduled to be completed
- people or organization working on the project
- people or organization for whom the project is being done
- overview of the contents of the progress report
2. Project status
This section (which could have sub-sections) should give the reader a clear idea of the current status of your project. It should review the work completed, work in progress, and work remaining to be done on the project, organized into sub-sections by time, task, or topic. These sections might include the following:
- direct reference to milestones or deliverables established in previous documents related to the project
- timeline for when remaining work will be completed
- any problems encountered or issues that have arisen that might affect completion, direction, requirements, or scope
3. Conclusion
The final section provides an overall assessment of the current state of the project and its expected completion, usually reassuring the reader that work will progress (even if you have encountered some challenges). It can also alert recipients to unexpected changes in direction or scope, or problems in the project that may require intervention.
4. References section if required.
TRY IT
Exercise 5.4.A: Examine an Approach to Writing Progress Reports
Watch this video, How to Write a Status Report – PPP methodology (Plans, Progress, Problems) with Weekdone, and answer the following questions:
- What is the most effective status reporting method?
- What is the best timeline for completing progress/status reports?
- Which section should include incomplete tasks and reasons for this challenge?
References & Attributions
References
Weekdone. (2018). How to write a status report: PPP methodology (plans, progress, problems) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a77p1Dx0JHQ
Attributions
Content on this page is adapted from Technical Writing Essentials by Suzan Last, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Content on this page is adapted from David Murrey’s “Recommendation and Feasibility Reports,” in Online technical writing, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
