Project Status Report Generator (Weekly RAG Report)

About the Project Status Report Generator (Weekly RAG Report)

Write the weekly or monthly status report of a project from a short form. Give the project an overall status — green, amber or red — and a status for each area that usually goes wrong: scope, schedule, budget and people, each with a line that says why. Add a summary, the progress since the last report, the next steps, the milestones with their planned and forecast dates (the report works out how many days each one is slipping), the risks and issues with owners and actions, and the decisions you need from others.

The budget part takes the budget, the actual cost so far and the forecast at completion; add the planned and earned value and it shows the cost and schedule performance indices too, as the Earned Value Calculator works them out. The checks point out what readers would ask about: a green report with a red area, a status without a reason, a milestone forecast late but marked on track, items without an owner, decisions that are overdue. Next week, Start the next report copies this one forward, with last week’s next steps as the starting list of what was done.

Without a pass, the form, the checks and the figures work in full and the report shows as a free preview. A Premium pass unlocks the PDF, the editable Word file, printing and the email text.

Common uses

• Send the steering group a one-page weekly report with the same layout every week.
• Turn a quick look at the plan into an email update for the sponsor in a few minutes.
• Keep a record of a project’s weekly statuses for the end-of-project review.
• Escalate a decision with its deadline and what happens without it.

Red, amber and green

• Green: on track. The plan, the budget and the people are where they should be.
• Amber: at risk. Something needs attention, and the project manager has a plan for it.
• Red: off track. The project needs action or a decision from someone above the project manager.

Agree what each colour means with your sponsor before the first report, and keep to it: a report that is always green until the week it turns red helps nobody. Every status that is not green needs a line that says why and what is being done — the checks ask for it.

What the report contains

• Status: the overall colour and the trend, the colours of scope, schedule, budget and people, and the colour of the report before.
• Summary: a few lines a busy reader can stop after.
• Progress since the last report and next steps.
• Milestones: planned and forecast dates, the days of slip and the status.
• Risks and issues: a risk may happen, an issue already has; each with an owner, a priority, an action and a due date.
• Decisions needed: what, from whom, by when and what happens if it is not taken.
• Budget: the budget, the actual cost to date, the forecast at completion and the variance, and with earned value the cost and schedule performance.

Budget and earned value figures

The variance at completion is the budget minus the forecast at completion: above zero, the project expects to finish under budget. With the planned value (PV: the budgeted cost of the work scheduled by now), the earned value (EV: the budgeted cost of the work actually done) and the actual cost (AC), the report shows the cost performance index CPI = EV ÷ AC and the schedule performance index SPI = EV ÷ PV; below 1 is unfavourable. They are the cost and schedule variances of NASA’s earned value management tutorial — CV = EV − AC and SV = EV − PV, below zero when the work cost more or is behind — written as ratios. The Earned Value Calculator works out the full set, with estimates at completion.

One report after another

Your reports stay in this browser, one for each week or month. Start the next report makes the next one from the current one: the same project, people, statuses, milestones, risks, issues, decisions and figures, the period moved on by a week or a month, the current overall status kept as “the report before”, and last report’s next steps as the starting list of what was done — edit it into what really happened.

Limitations

• The colours, the forecasts and the comments are your own judgement: the tool checks them for consistency, not for truth.
• Earned value figures need the planned value and the earned value from your plan; the report does not work them out from tasks.
• Up to 30 rows in each table and 30 reports in this browser.
• The PDF draws Latin, Cyrillic, Greek and Vietnamese letters; text in other scripts shows as “?” there, and the page says so. The Word file and the email text keep it.

Privacy

On this device; its files download once

Everything happens in your browser. Your reports are kept in this browser’s storage on this device and are never uploaded.