Style

To make a report easily and quickly readable, think of a telegram or a personal ad in a newspaper. In both cases, you want to use as few words as possible to communicate as much information as possible since each letter costs money. However make sure that if you use abbreviations they will be understood by your audience. Unless the report is in letter or memo format, you don't need complete sentences or politeness markers. If you send an email to a stakeholder, attach the project progress report and include the politeness markers in the email.

Example

Wilson's house project, Fri 6 June

Budget Status

On budget
Original budget 607,500.00
Spent 435,000.00

Schedule Status

On-schedule

Accomplishments

  • Soil has been prepared for landscaping, and the sprinkler system is being installed
  • Masonry has been completed, exterior detailing is being done
  • Roofing has been completed

Goals

  • Complete sprinkler system installation
  • Complete plumbing
  • Complete sheetrocking

Risks

The marble we re-ordered has still not arrived, but the customer service representative I talked to on Monday said it should arrive next week. We still won't be ready to install it for at least another month, so at this point it is not holding us up.