Status report

Status reports are an important part of project management and project controlling. The progress of the individual subtasks of the project plan is documented in them. It is clear who is working on what, how far the task has progressed, or what problems or obstacles there may be. In addition, due dates are shown and the next upcoming tasks are included. Status reports are distributed to the project manager and all project participants and form the basis of the status meetings. Status meetings are held at regular intervals, usually weekly or bi-weekly. The decision on the frequency of the meetings lies with the project management.

There are various approaches to displaying status reports. Frequent representatives are:

• Milestone approach: The status report (of the sub-project / work package) contains the milestones / subtasks with planned and actual dates. In a supplementary area, textual explanations about the status and challenges (risks and problems). This form of status report is often used when time is the primary target.

• Component approach: The status report (of the sub-project / work package) contains status fields for the components content, time, budget (and, if necessary, resources separately). Risks can also be shown separately.