Understanding weekly progress reports, budgets and statuses

This article dives into the progress reports, what each section refers to and more

Overall status

The top section of your weekly progress report displays the following information:

• Reporting period: details the exact start and due dates, which the report is focusing on. Typically this is the current sprint period.
• The project is: this is a quick indicator of the project status and is set by the Project Manager. This can be:
  • Green - ON TRACK/UNDER
  • Red - DELAYED, BLOCKED, ON HOLD
  • Amber - PROJECT IS AT RISK

If the status is anything other than ON TRACK, your report will contain information and reasons as to why the project is not on track and issue-free.

• Sprint Goals: This line describes what the key focus is for our delivery team, on your project this week.
• Project Objective: This area provides the key project objectives from your project kick of.f
• Executive Summary: Highlights the key points, findings, decisions, and next steps so that senior stakeholders can quickly understand the essential information.

Understanding the Summary Table

The summary will display only sections that contain relevant project data. Sections without current actions, changes, or tasks will be automatically hidden from view.

Sample Progress Report

• Your Actions & Approvals - this section will outline any changes or approvals required, on your project. The Due Date and Status fields will outline when the action is required by. Each Change and Approval is linked to a detailed register in our project management platform.
• Status by Stream - this is the name of each stream of work that the overall project is split into. More often than not, each stream will be managed and executed by separate delivery teams, with the project manager taking an overview and managing them. 
• Budget - This column details the exact budget available for each stream of work, as well as the overall project. This budget is set at the start of the project and the values change ONLY if there is a change request added later on. These change requests can be external for the client, or they can be internal - if the commercial stakeholder assigns additional budget. The values in this column rarely change, if ever.
• Delivered - This column details the exact budget used to the current date, from the Budget column. This is a sum of budget on all completed tasks within the Project or the respective stream.
• Estimate at Completion (EAC) - forecasts the total projected cost of the project based on current progress and actual expenses. EAC updates as the project moves forward and highlights any budget overruns, indicating areas that may require scope adjustments with your PM to keep costs and timelines under control.

• Progress - this column calculates the budget progress on each stream of work. This is calculated by dividing the Completed Budget by the Sum of all budgeted tasks within the project.
• Status - each stream has its own status marked -
  • Projects can be: Green, Amber, RED, or On Hold
  • Streams can be: To Do, In Progress, Completed, Blocked, Deferred or Cancelled

• Milestones -The milestones table provides a snapshot of how the project is progressing against each agreed milestone, with baseline dates established during the Kick Off session. These initial milestones are entered at the start of the project, and current due dates are updated in line with data captured in our project management platform.
• Tasks Planned This Week - this section will display all the tasks our team will be working on in the current sprint.

• Tasks Completed Last Week - the bottom section of your weekly progress report will display all of the individual tasks our delivery team has worked on in the previous sprint.
• Invoices - will show any overdue invoices.

Reach out to your PM directly with any questions regarding your progress reports.