Progress Report Writing | How to Write Progress Reports

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