10.4 Progress Reports
Progress reports are useful documents for informing project leads, managers, and clients on the status of your work on a project over a specific period of time. “It is generated at timed intervals (for example, once a month) or on completion of key stages. It records accomplishments to date and identifies any challenges or concerns. It is usually written by the project lead and is one to two pages long” (Cruthers, 2020). Whoever is paying for the project wants to know whether tasks are being completed on schedule and on budget. With the information contained in progress reports, the readers can make important decisions regarding staffing, financing, equipment or tools, along with time allocation depending on whether a project is on schedule or not. 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?
(Progress Report: How to Write, Structure and Make it Visually Attractive, 2021)
Knowledge Check
Purpose of a Progress Report
The main function of a progress report is informative; however, such reports may also be persuasive when reassuring 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 when giving 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
- Force you to establish a work schedule, so that you will complete the project on time
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, to an infographic. 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
- Infographic: a visual narrative of your progress created with charts and graphs
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. T