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| Progress Report Writing | How to Write Progress Reports |
When a long term project or work is undertaken, the administration
keeps itself informed through progress reports. The project may be the
construction of a bridge or building, the layout of a residential colony, the
installation of equipment in a factory, or the investigation of a problem.
These reports help immediately the authority concerned or the officers and
workers responsible for the job to have an exact idea or accurate information
about the task already done and to relate it to the total amount of time and/or
money available. Sometimes your boss may ask you to write a progress report on
the running project undertaken by your office. In such a case you have to write
the report with necessary information that can help your boss with solving the
problems (if any) of staffing, supporting, guiding and budgeting throughout the
project. At times a student, who undertakes a research project, will be
required to submit progress reports periodically. These reports usually include
a chronology of the progress made since the last report or the commencement of
the project and indicate further time and/or money available for its
completion. When government departments give work on contract, they insist on
such reports from contractors. These enable the government to know whether the
work is progressing according to schedule.
However, while writing a progress report, you have to be attentive to
the following points:
Examine the aspects of your project.
Before starting to write your progress report you must know all aspects
of the project in detail and collect necessary information about the project so
that you can present needful information in your report. In this case, you can collect
useful information from your subordinates, colleagues, and others involved in
the project, if necessary.
Explain the purpose of your report.
This is the opening section of a progress
report, where a brief description of the purpose of writing this
report is provided. You should not elaborate this section as everybody involved
in this project is aware of what you are working on.
Describe the completed work.
This section is the body of the report which
indicates how much work has already been completed. You can elaborate this section with necessary information related with
this project as your boss may convey the information to other parties, if
needed.
Write ongoing and outstanding work of this project.
State clearly the ongoing and outstanding
activities of the project in this section. This section should contain rich and
clear information as the information provided here can be shared with others by
boss. How much work is still left to do must be mentioned here. So, provide
information here as much as possible.
State problems you have faced.
In this section of your report you should
state the problems or difficulties you have faced while working on this
project. You can include here the problems arising from workers, time constraints, traffic jam, power supply, and legal issues.
You can explain here how you have overcome and will overcome these
difficulties. Also probable problems
you foresee and your recommendations should be stated here.
However, the frequency of writing progress reports mostly depends on
the principles maintained in an institution or organization. Progress reports are
usually written and distributed at a specified period of time or the completion
of a stage of work or the end of each phase of work. If they are prepared at
regular intervals, they are sometimes called periodic reports. The proforma for
preparation of such reports is specified by each organization. But, generally
speaking, they contain the following information:
(i) Name of the work or project
(ii) Total work to be completed
(iii) Date
(iv) Work completed to date
(v) Work to be completed
(vi) Possible date for completion
(vii) Remarks, if any
(viii) Signature and designation of the reporting officer
