How do I present a Project Update?

Your project success relies on you communicating project status. Use these tips and templates to help

Summary

  1. Keep your update short – aim for 5 minutes or less.
  2. If you have project objectives, compare progress with these objectives.
  3. Provide a 1-page document so that people can take away the key messages.
  4. Provide easy-to-understand status indicators – “Red / Amber / Green” (RAG) status for each update item.

More detail

Project updates are a crucial part of project and product management.

  1. Keep your update short – aim for 5 minutes or less.
    1. Provide some introductory context – remember that everyone’s mind is elsewhere.
    2. Avoid going into detail – just give the headlines!
    3. If there are any issues, provide some suggested solutions.
  2. If you have project objectives, compare progress with these objectives.
    1. Show this side-by-side: Targets vs Actual Progress.
    2. RAG Status is a good way of highlighting good and bad progress.
    3. If you bear bad news, it always pays to have some suggested solutions.
  3. Provide a 1-page document so that people can take away the key messages.
    1. Once again – keep it simple.
    2. Use a Status Report or Dashboard template (see below).
  4. Provide easy-to-understand status indicators – “Red / Amber / Green” (RAG) status for each update item.
    1. RAG Status: this can be achieved with traffic lights, or dials, or just simply the Red, Amber, Green colours.
    2. Dials: While it may seem a bit of a gimmick, dials can be very popular with corporate stakeholders.

Short on time?

try one of these templates:

By . Published: 2009/11/03 12:14:00 PM, Last Updated: 2016/05/01 8:56:26 AM

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