What is a project progress report?
If a project progresses toward a milestone, but there’s nobody around to document it, does it really move forward?
Of course it does – but stakeholders won't know until you provide a project progress report. Similar to a project status report, this high-level document shows stakeholders how your project team is advancing toward essential objectives and milestones. Beyond informing interested parties, project progress reports organize collective efforts and keep teams on track.
Progress report writing is a core competency of project management professionals and leaders. Ready to learn how to write progress reports for your team’s initiatives? Our helpful tips and progress report template will get you started.
Types of project progress reports
Project progress reports are given at varying intervals depending on the audience and the initiative’s timeline.
Daily project progress reports: These status updates offer a comprehensive view of a project’s progress and tasks completed. Project managers typically use them to track project activities in periods of high urgency.
Weekly project progress reports: These more common reports provide a detailed outline of a project’s progress and upcoming action items.
Monthly progress reports: These offer a broader view of the project timeline, including current status updates that gauge toward quarterly or yearly project milestones. Project managers use monthly project reports to inform key stakeholders who don’t require frequent, granular updates.
Project managers can also create quarterly project progress reports. However, most prefer to present these updates during the next quarter’s planning meeting since the outcomes of the previous quarter help inform .
Additionally, project managers may create on-demand project progress reports.
How to write a project progress report
The template for each type of report is essentially the same. Here are six steps for writing an effective project progress report:
1. Define the report’s focus
Who is asking for the report? What information do they consider relevant? You can define your report’s focus by answering these questions.
Once you understand your audience’s priorities, you can organize the report to focus on relevant details. Summarize your audience’s priorities and inform the team members drafting the report.
2. Include a cover page
A project progress report’s cover page serves two primary purposes: to provide stakeholders with context at a glance and to help project managers store, index, and retrieve the report. The cover page should include the following information:
Project name
Executive summary
Project team members
Project timeline
Creation date or version number
Project sponsor
It may also include the report’s confidentiality or distribution level and budget, if appropriate.
3. Write a project summary
A concise project summary details the project’s most essential elements:
Objectives: Reiterate the objectives key stakeholders established at the project’s inception.
Current status: Provide a high-level overview of the current status and how effectively or ineffectively the project is progressing toward its objectives. You can use a simple metric like a red-amber-green (RAG) status indicator or a project completion percentage.
Core components: Detail the project’s key focus areas. You’ll unpack the progress of these individual components in the report’s next section.
Limit this summary to around 200 words. Create project progress reports assuming some stakeholders may look to this section for information without reading the rest of the report.
4. Segment the report into key project areas
This is the bulk of the report. Create separate sections for each of the project’s key areas. For example, if the project aims to improve SEO outcomes, vital components may include conducting a technical SEO analysis, auditing current content, and hiring a link-building specialist.
This section doesn’t need fluff. Use a bulleted list under each component’s title to cover relevant information with maximum readability. Cut straight to the key details while maximizing precision and clarity.
Here are the most important insights to include:
Overview: Highlight the project area’s intended outcome, timeline, scope, stakeholders, and stakeholder responsibilities.
Tasks completed and progress toward milestones: Write a brief summary tracking this key area relative to the project’s milestones.
Hurdles: Note the problems your team is facing and the steps they’ll take to overcome them.
Next tasks: Highlight measurable action items and next steps.
Miscellaneous comments: Provide additional context specific to the project area that stakeholders will find helpful.
This step differentiates a progress report from a status report. A status report focuses on a project’s current state, whereas a progress report provides more granular info regarding action times and project milestones.
5. Add miscellaneous comments
You may wish to include comments that aren’t specific to a project area but that stakeholders may find informative and relevant. Examples include flagging budget constraints, , upcoming regulatory changes, and other factors that can influence the project’s outcome.
Aim for brevity as you add miscellaneous comments. Additionally, consider formatting your comments in a bulleted list or table for enhanced readability.
6. Review and store the report
Read over and review your report with another member of your team. Check for grammatical and factual accuracy, then make any necessary revisions. Consider key stakeholders’ responses to past report examples – what engaged or disengaged them, points of confusion, and any direct feedback – and refine the report’s structure, content, and delivery accordingly.
Once you complete the report, digitally index and store it in a secure repository the project team can access – preferably an advanced project management tool.
Benefits of progress reports
A project ensures project momentum, informs stakeholders, and facilitates timely adjustments. Here’s how:
Ensures project momentum
Measurability is a hallmark of attainable goals. Teams must measure the progress of their projects to ensure they’re working productively. Objective project metrics help team members coordinate their efforts and ensure unified momentum, making them .
Informs stakeholders
Project progress reports offer clarity, keeping everyone aligned. They inform clients about budget allocation, show management a project’s health status, and give individual team members insight into their performance.
Facilitates timely adjustments
Project progress reports show teams what’s working and what isn’t. With this information, project managers may adjust their strategy to avoid losses. Daily and weekly project progress reports offer especially detailed performance metrics that inform timely corrective actions.
Tips for writing progress reports
Remember these tips when writing your next work progress report:
Write for your audience
The structure should remain the same regardless of who the project progress report is for. It should begin with the cover page, lead into the project summary, detail the key areas, and end with miscellaneous comments.
However, you may adjust the content of these sections depending on your audience. Your audience may include:
Clients
Individual teams
Departments
Senior management
Sponsors
Vendors
Subcontractors
Regulatory bodies
End users
Information that one group considers a priority may not be as vital for the next. Consider what your audience needs to know, and place your focus there. When in doubt, directly ask the stakeholder group about their key focus areas and metrics.
Maintain a consistent structure
A logical and clear structure helps readers understand the project progress report. Before presenting it, explain the report’s structure with a brief summary.
Use visuals
Visuals effectively communicate data in a way stakeholders can easily digest. In fact, pairing written information with visuals . Choose a that generates high-quality visuals to reduce manual effort.
Avoid jargon
Unfamiliar jargon may alienate stakeholders. Progress report writing should convey actionable insights; stakeholders can more effectively act on information when you outline it clearly.
Enhance project progress reporting with Tempo
Project progress reporting is easier when you have state-of-the-art tools by your side. It becomes a breeze when these tools integrate seamlessly.
Tempo’s tool simplifies complex reporting. You can create a wide range of interactive chart types using real‑time data from Jira thanks to dynamic filtering and segmentation, an intuitive centralized dashboard, and a user‑friendly no‑code interface.
Want to ensure there’s good news in your next report? Tempo’s helps you anticipate, mitigate, or avoid roadblocks altogether with predictive scheduling.
The full suite of Tempo tools work together to help you track and manage projects with ease. Start your free trial today.
