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A progress report template is a document used in school or company while working on a project. This document provides a progress report on how the project progresses and where you’re presently at. A progress report basically describes how far you have gone towards finishing the project in a detailed manner.
What is a progress report in a project management?
On the progress of a project, this is a timely update. A progress report has answers to questions that anyone will ask regarding the progress of a project. A well-written progress report should be precise and offer high-level information regarding a project.
Moreover, the main benefit of writing a progress report is that it helps you to keep the stakeholders and investors in the loop on how the project progresses. You can expect a fewer questions when you have a sample progress report. This is because you’re already ahead of the game. The report indicates that you’re on track. Thus, this makes everyone feel more confident.
The importance of a progress report:
The progress report can be very important due to a number of reasons;
Keeps everyone on the same page
A progress report makes sure that everyone is on the same page. Everyone has a copy of the progress report which assists in preventing confusion on what is already done and whatever is still pending.
Promotes collaboration
When different groups work together, this becomes very important. By knowing what the others should do, the risk of redundancy gets prevented.
Promotes accountability and transparency
After submitting your progress reports formats, you have to keep record that you have accomplished a task or describes why your results differ from what’s expected. Once it is accepted, this document becomes a part of the project’s official documentation. In case, in the future, someone accuses you of failing to complete a task or not reporting an issue, the submitted report becomes vital. You just have to present the progress report as evidence that you did finish a task.
Improves the assessment and review of projects
For future projects, the progress report can become a resource document. By having this document, your team can assess to determine what you did right, what went wrong, and what to improve. Additionally, previous progress reports could shed light on systemic loopholes and issues.
Gives insight for future projects
The project managers can find out what tasks you have completed through your progress report. They pay attention to keep track of the progress towards the next stages of your project. The report also gives information regarding the occurrences of delays.
How to write a progress report?
Here are some steps on writing a progress report;
- At first, identify the purpose of your progress report. This acts as your guide on how you write your report.
- Next, in the header, include the name of the project, your name and job title, the submission date, and other relevant information.
- Then, give an introduction or an overview of the report.
- Write the body of the report that includes the following information;
- what tasks you have accomplished
- the problems you have encountered
- the actions you have taken to solve them
- Specify a couple of details regarding your future plans for the project. Speak about the tasks you plan to do in the future and the time you require to accomplish these tasks. You can also involve a forecast on the potential problems you may encounter.
- In the end, include a summary of your report that has the key points you have discussed.
- Also, proofread your report in order to make sure that there aren’t any errors in it.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, a progress report template is an executive summary of the progress of an individual or team has achieved on a project over a particular period of time. The primary purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the project’s overall status report.