The BIGG Successs Show
2 Tips for More Effective Project Status Reports
We talk with project management expert Ron Holohan from the pm411.org Project Management Podcast, about how to create more effective status reports. Read our show summary at BIGGSUCCESS.COM.That's also where you will find the link to Ron's free templates!
Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today, we'll share some tips for more effective project status reports. The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. Our guest today is Ron Hallahan, a certified project management professional, who has been involved in project management for over 14 years. Ron is currently the director of program management at Shure Incorporated in the Chicago area. Ron also hosts a weekly project management internet radio show called the pm411.org project management podcast, which has consistently been in the top four project management podcast listed on iTunes. Welcome to The Big Success Show, Ron. Thank you very much, George and Mary Lynn. It's great to be here. When we know how project status reports can be a stickler, so can you share with us today two tips to help us create more effective status reports? Absolutely. So I'll kick it off with the first tip, and the first tip is focus only on the exceptions. And what I mean by that is you don't want to throw everything in the kitchen sink into your status reports. No one wants to read all that. They want to be able to look at your status report and pull out just the information they need to get from that particular report. So what you want to focus on are just the exceptions. In other words, those issues that have changed since your previous report. And this is going to give your audience just the information that they need, and it will also help you keep your report short and concise. And boy, that's a big one, I think, Ron, because I just feel like there's so many people that feel like they've got to almost do a mind dump with their report. And so you get every single bit of activity that's happened since the last report, and you just sort of get bored with it and kind of tune it out, and you don't really, you're not able to help them. That's right, George, and the other thing, too, is if someone ever wanted to go back, they could always go back to one of your previous reports and find out previous information. Cut the fat. Get to the meat. That's right. All right. Ron's second tip is coming up. Plus, we'll talk about some free goodies. Today we're talking with project management expert Ron Hollahan, and Ron, you shared one tip so that we can give more effective project status reports. What's your second tip? Another tip would be to make your report as easy as possible to read, and it's the same kind of idea as tip number one. You want to allow your audience to easily scan and just find those details that interest them the most. One way that would suggest that you can do that is by using something called Stop Light Reporting. What this does is it communicates progress by giving different colors. In other words, if you have a bullet item that's in green, that may indicate to your reader that that particular issue is according to plan. If it's yellow, maybe that particular item needs to be watched, and red means that some kind of action is required because that particular issue is starting to go off track. And you can actually use blue as well, and that can indicate when a particular issue has been resolved or completed. Can you somehow put a don't walk in there? That'd be nice. Hey, this one's drinking. Or do not pass go, right? Right, right. And use short bullet points. You don't want to write a paragraph. This isn't going to win you a Pulitzer Prize. You're just trying to convey simple facts to your audience. And also use tables where you can. And tables are great for listing things like milestones, or budget information, or even product material cost. Well, I think what's interesting about what you're talking about, Ron, is some people are good with words or numbers, but other people are very visual. And what you're doing is you're sort of giving your report in the way that your audience can consume it the best. That's right, George. I prefer stick figures. Well, and it's a great system that you're outlining with the different colors, and it just instantly lets you see what's going on. And obviously, I would assume then that what you're reporting about really is the yellow or what you talk about would be the yellow and the reds. That's right. So if I was reading the report, my eyes would naturally be looking for those yellow and red items or bullets that need my attention the most. All right. Well, these are great tips. Absolutely. I love this, the stop light effect. And now you have some free templates that people can get on your site, right? Can you tell us more about that? Absolutely. Any of your listeners can download a free status report template along with some other great templates that we have for my site at www.pm411.org/templates. And there's four or five templates there now, and we're always adding new ones. And there's actually a status report template with a stop light. That is awesome. There we go. And we've got a link to that on our site today at bigsuccess.com. Well, it has been so nice talking with you, and we're definitely going to have to have you back, Ron. Well, thank you so much, George and Mary Lynn. I appreciate it. Well, thank you, Ron. You can find a written summary of today's show on our site at bigsuccess.com. Next time, we'll ring in the Olympics. On 8808. That's right. Until then, here's to your big success. The Big Success Show at B-I-G-G Success.com. [MUSIC PLAYING]