4.

Gather the Facts and Data

Facts on the Project Progress

The status report must contain full information on accomplishments, timelines, and most
importantly, project milestones. Project milestones are the completion of highly important
tasks. They serve as a standard of project progress management. What constitutes a project
milestone should be identified during the project planning stage.

Target vs. Actual Accomplishments

It should present a comparison between what has actually been accomplished versus what
was supposed to have been achieved at this point of the project. It should tell us whether the
project is on track, if it is ahead, or if it is behind schedule.

This particular type of project report summarizes information on the project results, the
criteria used to measure the effectiveness of the project delivery process, and the feedback
from the stakeholders. Each performance metric includes an assessment and a narration of
how the team performed on such metrics.
Budget
This performance metric describes how the team utilized the budget in carrying out the
project effectively. Under this performance metric, the following aspects are measured:
Prosper forms, receive reports from your team members on autopilot. At least 100 forms and
above: reports, logbooks, requests, etc. or build your own. View and manage data on
Timeline and Dashboard screens, generate consolidated reports.

Final Cost

Indicate the total expenditures for the duration of the project.

Each category of the expenses is tracked and recorded, stating the price per category and
what percentage of the total budget was spent on each category.

Budget Variance

Show the difference between the projected budget and the actual cost and present a detailed
variance for each cost category.
Explanations for Key Variances

Briefly explain the reasons for each variation and its impact on the project’s implementation.
Schedule

Describe how the team implemented the project within the expected time frame and schedule.

Overall Project Duration

State how long it took for the completion of the entire project, including the start and end
dates. A lot of people will find it surprising to know how long they have been working on the
project.
Schedule Variance

Narrate the difference between the projected duration of the project and the actual time it
took for the project to be completed. State the details in a number of days and as a
percentage.

The explanations for Key Variances

Include an explanation for the occurrence of the variations and quantify how much each
difference accounts for the total, in days or as a percentage.
Change Management

This report refers to the team’s ability to handle and manage changes throughout the project’s
implementation effectively. It is measured through the following:

Total Number of Changes

Provide details on how many changes were requested and how many were approved and
implemented.

The impact of the Changes

State how these changes impacted the overall project in terms of project timelines and cost.
The highlight of Changes

Provide a brief description of the changes that were implemented. It is also good to mention
those changes that were requested, but were not approved—especially if the reason for
disapproval was to defer it for a future project or product release.

Quality Management

This particular metric refers to the team’s ability to observe and comply with quality
standards during the project’s implementation.

Total Number of Defects Identified

State a brief description of the errors identified during the structured walkthrough process per
stage.
The explanation for Resolved Defects
Give a narrative on how each defect identified was addressed and how it made an impact on
the project and its deliverables.
Risk and Issue Management

This metric deals with how risks and matters that occurred during project implementation
were handled and resolved by the team. Key points to include are the following:

Risks

Provide a list of risks identified and analyzed. From this list, determine which ones were
accepted, transferred, mitigated, or avoided. Also, provide a summary of how key risks were
reduced.
Issues

Provide a list of problems ranked according to priority and determine which among these
were resolved by the team, how many were escalated to a higher-level decision maker, and
how many were left unresolved.
The impact of the Risks and Issues to the Project

State how these risks and challenges affected the project timeline, budget, and scope.

Human Resource Management

Give an analysis of whether enough manpower was provided for the project and if they were
equipped with the right skills to implement the project. Also note if the team was given the
proper training to handle the project effectively.
Project Organization Structure

This report looks at how the stakeholders participated in the project.

Decision-makers

Discuss how the team’s collaboration with the primary decision-makers worked. State if they
made themselves available beyond regular working hours if needed. Also give an account of
how escalated issues were resolved and if they were delivered in a timely manner.
Communication Management

Under this metric, communication throughout the duration of the project is assessed.

Communication Management Plan

Describe how the communication management plan was implemented and if it was delivered
as expected. Give an account on which items on the communication management plan
worked well and which ones need to be improved.

Feedback
Summarize essential feedback collected. Describe the method by which these comments were
gathered and who was solicited for feedback. Also include how they responded to each
question and briefly discuss which items received great responses from the participants and
which ones got few answers.
Take note of common themes or trends of feedback gathered.
From the feedback gathered, also take note of any opportunities from this feedback and
discuss how these opportunities can be applied to future projects, or in the organization itself.
Lesson Learned
Give a brief discussion of what the team learned when carrying out the project. Among these
learnings, discuss which ones can be applied to future projects and how it will impact not
only those future projects but also the whole organization.

Duration and Effort by Project Phase

A brief account of how long it took for each phase of the project to be implemented is an
excellent addition to the report. Insights from this information may be used to plan properly
for following projects. It is also interesting to account for the percentage of effort allotted for
each phase. This will guide sufficient manpower allocation for each stage of future projects.

Benefits Realized

It is worthwhile to discuss which among the expected advantages of the plans were realized
at the time the project closure report is written.

Benchmark Comparisons
 Describe how the project performed in comparison with other projects of the same
department, company, or within the same industry. Briefly discuss the positive and negative
points of the plan as compared to others.

Keys to an effective project closure report

1. The closure report is mostly a summary of all efforts related to the project. It is important to
ensure that all highlights of the project have been properly documented so that retrieval of
these reports is easier and all efforts will be acknowledged.
2. Emphasize the high points the project delivered, how efficiently it was done, and what has
been learned from the process.
3. If there are notable variances during the project implementation, make sure to provide a fact-
based explanation on it. In addition, the impact of this difference must also be described.
4. A critical point in a project closure report is establishing the link between the project
performance, the lessons learned, and the steps that will be taken by the organization

5. for its continuous improvement. Aside from the project deliverables, another valuable output
of a project is the learnings derived from the process and how it will be translated into
concrete concepts applicable to the business processes of the organization.

Executive Summary

A little bit different from the types of project reports previously mentioned, an Executive
Summary is a distinct kind of report which uses different language. It is a high-level report
which aims to provide a bigger and deeper understanding of the project—

how it will benefit the organization and how it will fit into future business strategies. It is
written with a busy executive in mind, someone who has a lot of important things to do and
may find reading a lengthy piece of prose a waste of precious time. Factual and objective, this
particular type of project report must be able to provide a realistic status of the project, as
business executives understand that everything may not go according to the plan.
Some may confuse an executive summary with an abstract but, in reality, they are clearly
distinct from one another and serve a different purpose.

An abstract is usually written for academic or scientific papers. It is written with a topic
sentence which, generally, gives an overview of what the article is about. It is, then,
supported by two or three supporting sentences which support the main idea of the topic
sentence.