1. Welcome back, all! I hope everyone had a restful and rejuvenating holiday. Now that your projects are back in full swing here is
something to consider: How do you best communicate progress, successes, or problem points to primary stakeholders? Here are a few
tips on managing communication in this regard.
The project monitoring process involves reporting accuratestatus ofyour project, measuring progress toward your target end goal and
forecasting budget and schedule. Creating performance reports are a key part ofyour duties as project managerand will he lp you to
keep a close eye on scope, schedule,cost, resources, quality, risk, etc. Information in each one ofthese categories help yo u do your job
better in other areas ofmanagement.
First, it’s important to understand that your project's primary stakeholders require varying degrees ofinformation. The business owner
in charge of supervising end users may requiremuch more frequent and detailed updates than a project sponsor. So how do you put
together the best document for an executive?
As a general rule-of-thumb, executive summaries should be written for your audience with the assumption thatthey are not interested
in overly-technical details.I always include the following to make sure sponsors have allthey need to track portfolio progress and
departmental budgets.
1. Percentage of Budget Spent
Having an accurate estimate ofhow far along a project is in spending the totalallocated budget is important. It will help y ou
as manager to target spending so that you can come in at or under budget at go-live.
2. Percentage of Work Completed
This figure compared to the dollars spent over total budget percentage in #1 helps executives accurately gauge the total
health ofyour project. For example, a project that has completed 25% ofwork but that has spent 75% of their budget is
spending too much and action should be taken to correct it.
3. Next Major Milestones
Sponsors will likely be keen to know upcoming outputs ofyour project. Has design or build been completed? Is testing soon
to be finished? These updates give a high-level view ofproject progress and are required for all to keep an eye on your
progress.
4. Outstanding Issues
Finally, major issues that could potentially affect project budget, contracts, or schedules shouldbe communicated upward
along with a clear plan for resolution. And don’t worry -- issues are not all badand every project has them. An understanding
of what it will take to manage them is much more important.
Issues Requiring Management Attention: Adding a subsection that specifically highlights issues thatrequire management attention is
especially helpful to senior leadership. In this section, addcontent that will bring attention to issues that cannotbe resolved without
management involvement.
These are just a few items that you may want to consider including in an executive summary for your primary stakeholders. What other
items does your firm’s senior management like to see in their status reports? Feel free to share!