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- Hey, welcome to Coffee with Brett.
I'm Brett Harned and I'm the Director of Education
at TeamGantt.
Thanks so much for checking out this video.
You know, if you're looking for more project management
tips and tools, definitely check us out
at teamgantt.com or on social
and click that subscribe button
so you get notified when we release new episodes.
All right, so let's jump in.
You know, I'm fully caffeinated with a cup of coffee
still in my hand, and I'm ready to let you in
on a secret weapon of mine.
Secret weapon, if you will, you know.
It's my second must have as a PM
and it's a quick and easy tool that's super powerful
to add to your workflow.
You wanna take a guess about what it is?
It's funny when I talk to the camera like this, right?
Well, I'm talking to you.
All right, did you guess?
Well, if you guessed Team Gantt, you're wrong.
Good guess though,
because that's actually my first must have.
Plans are not optional ever.
Definitely remember that.
All right so the number two thing,
the thing that I'm talking about today is status reports
and they actually work hand in hand with your project plan.
A regular status report can be
one of the most helpful communication tools
on any project, large or small.
It's an easy way to keep your team
and your stakeholders informed
and to manage expectations as your project makes progress
or your team makes progress.
So I always recommend doing
weekly or bi-weekly status reports
depending on the size and the scope of your project.
And I only say that because you might not need
to report out on smaller projects,
but you'll need to be the judge of that.
But if you're having trouble keeping people aligned
on project details, this will absolutely help you.
Essentially, I see the status report
as a critical form of communication
that keeps everyone honest about project details.
A good status report covers the work
that's recently been done and highlights what's coming next.
By outlining that, you can set expectations
about what's complete and what will not be revisited
as well as look to what's coming next
and have conversations or even educate your team
or your stakeholders about how next steps
fit into your overall process.
A regular status report also includes
an overall update on your timeline percent complete,
which you can pull directly out of Team Gantt
as well as a budget update, if you report on budgets.
It's just as important to include next steps
and action items in your status report.
So you can be 100% sure that all parties
are accountable for their tasks.
Lastly, I always recommend using the status report
as your own way of tracking possible issues
or risks and initiating open conversations
about those things before they become huge problems for you.
This is a part of a status report
that certainly requires a little bit of transparency
and some critical thinking on your part.
And the thing here is that you don't wanna alarm your team
and your stakeholders about risks,
but if you see a potential issue, you should document it
and discuss it in your status report
or in your status meeting.
Because talking through an issue early on
will help you to resolve it more quickly.
Plus you'll have it documented.
And when you do that, you can just justify
why a certain decision was made or why a date was missed
if something is looked at later on in the project.
Basically I want you to cover yourself with documentation.
I'm sure you'll get it.
It's easy to pull a status report together.
It typically takes me about 20 to 30 minutes
to write my first project status report
and then about 15 minutes weekly just to update it.
And man, is that worth the time.
They're so helpful, not only in keeping things documented,
but I have to say, it kind of makes
difficult conversations easier
because you get to present it in writing
before actually discussing it.
Maybe that's a little bit of a mind trick
that I'm playing on myself to give me
a little bit of confidence
to jump into those difficult conversations.
I don't know it works.
I also tend to think that the status report
makes people more accountable to the project
and to their tasks.
Why is that you ask?
Well, because a status report really shines a light
on all of the work that's happening
and opens up discussion about progress
and issues related to the work in a way that
just looking at a project plan, can't be done alone.
(sighs) It's that added PM context
that's really gonna make that status report useful.
So again, it's definitely worth your time
and your extra thought.
Think about it this way.
If you're a PM or if you're a project lead,
this is your deliverable, so make it good.
If you wanna start implementing status reports,
grab our free status report template
at the URL on screen here or in the show notes.
This is a template that I've used for years.
It's one that I created and it really does
cover all the bases.
All right so the last thing I wanna talk about
before you write your first status report,
using that template, I recommend
getting your status reports on your calendar
by conducting a meeting to review it
with your team and your stakeholders.
That is gonna make you accountable
to getting it done every week before that meeting
so that you can arrive, prepared
and be ready to have conversations.
Same thing goes for everyone else.
Make sure you deliver that status report
in advance of the meeting so people can skim it
and then you can discuss.
I think the bonus in doing that is that
when you write a status report,
it really does force you to check in
on all of the aspects of the project.
So you'll update your plan and look at
your upcoming tasks and milestones.
You'll work through your to-do's
and check in on that budget.
It's the stuff that you have to do as a PM,
but we all know that a lot of other things
get in the way of that.
We call it firefighting pretty often.
So anyway, get in a routine
and you'll always rest assured
that everyone is up-to-date with the project.
If you're not doing status reports now,
I certainly encourage you to so get on it.
All right. That's all I have on status reports.
Tell me what's your PM must have?
Is it a status report, a plan, something else?
Share that in the comments and I'll see you next time.
Cheers.
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