Progress Reports
Modules:

Introduction

Analyzing Audience and Purpose

Writing the Report

Handling Problems

Conclusion

 

  

Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose

Progress Reports, as the name implies, provide supervisors, clients, and other team members with a concise summary of the current status of a project - including what's going well and what's not going well.

While progress reports function largely to inform, they often also impact decision-making - the audience wants to know whether or not to adjust their own plans in response to the status of your work.

As a result, when you write a progress report, you need to consider the following questions:

1. How does my work impact my audience?

2. What decisions do my audience need to make based on my report?

3. What information do my audience need to make that decision?

4. What impression do I want my audience to have about my work?

5. What should I include or emphasize in my report to create that impression?

For each of the following scenarios, what kind of decisions might depend on your report?

1) You're working on a design project with several other engineers; at the weekly staff meetings, everyone gives a brief summary of their current project status. Your coworkers will use your report to answer which questions?

  1. What should I order for lunch?
  2. Do I need to make any changes in my schedule?
  3. Do I need to get you any information or results from my work?
  4. How much should I spend on lunch?
  5. Should I ask the department to buy a new water cooler?

2) For the same project, you have to provide bimonthly written progress reports that circulate to your immediate supervisor and several higher-level managers. What questions will your supervisor answer based on your report?

  1. How much should your raise be this year?
  2. Will the project be completed on schedule/under budget?
  3. What time should my tee-off be on Saturday?
  4. Do I need to reassign work among the team members to complete the project?
  5. What goes better with chicken, a '97 sauvignon blanc or Grape Mad Dog 20/20?

3) As the project leader, you have to submit a monthly report to the clients updating them on the project's current status. What questions will the client ask?

  1. Am I getting my money's worth?
  2. Will the project finish on schedule?
  3. Should we plan a hostile takeover of AOL-Time-Warner?
  4. Would we rather plan the company party for Friday or Saturday?
  5. When should we have our staff ready for training on the new product?

Click the arrows below to see more information on each scenario:

Scenario 1 Scenario 1| Scenario 2 Scenario 2 | Scenario 3 Scenario 3

 

Writing the Report-->

  
Copyright 2001 - James Dubinsky, Marie C. Paretti, Mark Armstrong