What Is a Progress Report?
The purpose of all progress reports is to keep people ‘in the loop’ and informed about a job or task that is in progress. There are numerous forms, lengths, and levels of complexity that progress reports can take:
- Memos
- Concise wrap-ups by email
- A summary of the project
- PDF documents
- Business letters
- A structured and comprehensive report
Progress reports are typically intended for associates, department heads, managers, supervisors, customers, or stakeholders. They can also take the form of a company-wide update.
The project reported on can be virtually anything. It might be a construction, renovation, or repair project, the design of a system, or changes/updates under consideration. It can be written about research into a technical subject or about a study conducted into a personnel problem or management issue.
Progress reports are vital to ensure everybody concerned stays up to date. Often, a weekly progress report is an excellent way of disseminating essential changes and documenting and recording a project’s history. These can highlight target reminders and milestones of the project, study, or investigation and are particularly important when conducting long-term projects.
Starting to incorporate progress reports into the workflow of a business introduces a powerful and beneficial management tool. It streamlines the work and makes sure everybody involved has all the crucial information they need. They will also improve efficiency and save money, as there will be fewer hiccups and instances of miscommunication.
In this article, the following points are explained:
1. Why a progress report helps your business
2. Best practices for writing progress report forms
3. Benefits of using a digital tool
Why Is the Use of Progress Reports So Important?
Weekly progress reports create a “forewarned-forearmed” mechanism, as potential future issues are considered. They make a valuable work document for future reference and learn from past mistakes and successes. A series of comprehensive progress reports can even start functioning as a resource for research and training.
Generating regular progress report forms also doubles as a valuable management tool. They contribute in many ways:
- All the work is synchronized in coordinating a team, and no critical information falls through the cracks. Progress reports also make dealing with practical aspects like meetings with other stakeholders, holidays, and sick or compassionate leave much more effortless.
- Daily and Weekly progress reports that draw together all the salient details about a project are invaluable as ‘one-stop-information-shops’. Anybody who needs an update on any aspect of the project can consult them. It avoids time-wasting repetition by managers or team members.
- Progress reports are fantastic motivational and assessment tools for acknowledging team or individual achievements. They give credit where credit is due, as they list factual progress free from subjective bias.
- Regular progress reports highlight roadblocks and hurdles that the project has encountered. This is a valuable learning tool for future planning.
To get the most out of progress reports, it’s essential to follow a consistent format. Well-designed progress reports done via daily, weekly and monthly progress report templates, for example, should contain all the following vital information:
- How much of the workload has been completed / the current status of the project
- Any unforeseen issues or problems that have been encountered
- What part of the project is currently being worked on
- What still remains to be done
- Any possible complexities or foreseeable issues that are anticipated
- A general assessment of how the project is proceeding
- Any notable achievements, insights, or reservations that should be noted
Best Practices for Writing Progress Report Forms
Remember that the main purpose of progress reports is to pass on information. This means they should be clear, logically structured, legible, and as concise as possible. Keep your progress reports’ rich in stuff’ and ‘low in fluff’!
Be transparent, honest, and upfront about problems without fear of looking bad. Always use relevant data to back up statements, and show that data in a logical way. If the report might be shared with a broader audience than just your immediate team, maintain a formal tone.
If you need to use industry-specific terms, abbreviations, and jargon, make sure that you explain where needed. Use clear headings to make writing it and reading it easier. This will also help you focus on providing relevant information in the right place.
Here are some additional tips to bear in mind for progress report forms:
- Use the correct title and a standard reference number.
- Make sure that your report is clearly and relevantly dated. Due dates, the date of the report, task deliveries, section completions, deadlines, etc., must all be clearly indicated.
- Make sure that the information contained in your is meaningful and accurate. Make sure any schedules, deadlines, and the relevant metrics are correct.
- Progress reports must give answers to questions, so treat them like Q&A and PPP (progress, plans, and problems) sessions.
- Make sure that your progress report also touches on department and company goals and values.
- Back up your data with visuals and graphics that will clarify and make it easier to understand.
Remember that a progress report is a platform for addressing issues and spelling out both problems and progress upfront but positively.
Ensure all relevant stakeholders have easy access to the progress report. Structure its storage so that everyone who needs to have access to the information, now or in the future, can easily navigate to it.
Share your progress report wisely, but well. Other departments or external stakeholders might benefit from sharing their information and insights. However, double-check what might be confidential information if the report is going to be widely disseminated.
Benefits of Using Digital Technology for Your Progress Report
The progress report requires that important status information be captured and provided on an ongoing basis. A paper-based template for all the data requires additional work to create and share the data.
With Lumiform’s mobile app, you can easily capture the information for the project status report via tablet or smartphone. Then, you send the information digitally. This allows all project participants to access the information regardless of location and respond to it immediately. This minimizes the risk of quality loss, documentation, and analysis errors.
Lumiform makes it easy for you to document project progress by first capturing everything with the mobile app and then having the system guide you through all documentation processes. Clean, transparent documentation of the project’s progress helps avoid errors and record the project status correctly. Lumiform also offers many other advantages:
- You can get an overview of how a project is progressing at any time.
- You save yourself time and effort by storing everything centrally in the cloud.
- You save time by simplifying the evaluation of all data via the analysis dashboard and identifying areas that need special attention more quickly.
- All project results are automatically bundled into one report and can be sent to stakeholders.
- Continuous improvement of project execution: Internal processes can be continuously optimized through the flexible form builder.
