TCM490: Telecommunications Management Senior Project
Status Report Format

Introduction

Status reports quickly and effectively communicate the status and projection of the project. The status report directly relates to the project management file by providing a report fromat for presenting the current status of the project and the projected progress of the project..

Requirements

As with any business report, there are certain components that should be characteristic of the document. Here is a format provided on progress reports from ENGL-225. Below are some components expected in status reporting. These are guidelines for report writing in this course and are not all inclusive of the various needs that may arise for report writing in this course or in the project. You should consult other professors and resources for areas not covered.

• A header on each page that identifies the type of report: Status Report.

• Page numbers if more than one page.

• A heading section that identifies the Date, Project, Project Manager, and Client.

• An introduction or subject section that identifies the purpose of the report: project phase, milestone, deliverable alteration, or other issue.

• A Project Status section that describes the current overall status of the project and summaries of tasks completed or in progress. Identify your tasks by task numbers or outlining from the project management file.

• A Project Projection section that describes the estimated overall status of the project by the next report, when that report will be (date), issues and tasks on which the project is continuing to work, and tasks that will be complete or in progress by the next report. Identify your tasks by task numbers or outlining from the project management file.

• A Project Time section that summaries the efforts in the project to date and remarks on the estimated work. Is this the amount of effort your team exptected to have to date, more or less? What alteration in efforts will your team be making between this report and the next? Are you needing to crash the project? Example timesheet.

Project status reports should provide an effiective and clear statement of the project status based on the project management file. Both the status reports and project management file should accurately suppport each other. However, the status report is first document to be read and is referenced to the project management file for necessary clarification.

The status report will clearly identify the tasks or milestones they are describing to the project management charts. Cite variances data when stating the amount of time the project or tasks are ahead or behind schedule.

Below are some examples of raw and revised status reports from the Winter 1999 Term. These examples are based on the syllabus of that term. Reports under the current syllabus will have the same general format and expectations, but will contain information meeting the needs of this course outline.

Tips

• View your status reports in the page view. This will help you ensure that tables and charts do not run off the page.
• Make your reports easy to read by providing a clear and effective page layout, use spacing between paragraphs, and bold section headers to make the sections easy to locate.
• Keep section headings and their content together.
• Keep your writing professional and non-biased. Do not include personal remarks or opinions.
• Have a professional writing professor help proof your first reports until you become comfortable.
• Compare and contrast the data from a previous report to the current report to ensure you are covering necessary information and follow-up items.
• If you report contains extensive statistical information, provide a summary prior to presenting the raw data.
• Introduce technical terms. Do not assume your reader is familiar with technical jargon.
• Generally, introduce and discuss your tasks and milestones as they occur in your report.
• List and summarize problems first.