Performance Reports

What is a Performance Report?

Collecting information related to work performance, analyzing it, creating reports and sending them to respective stakeholders is involved in reporting performance of the project. performance report is a part of communications management plan.

The reports should provide all the information needed by stakeholders to the level of detail required by them. The needs of the projects should be considered while designing the reports. The most appropriate method is to be used to send the reports. A project manager must not spend all the time only doing reporting activities. The project management plan can be used to identify performance measurement baseline. This baseline can be used in the reports to measure the performance of the project. All reports must give a clear, concise and true picture of the information that is being depicted. Reports should not just include schedule, but also include cost, scope and quality performance as well. The appropriate moment of recommending and implementing corrective actions is known by looking at the reports.

The different types of performance reports include:

Status Report:

Reports the current performance of the process against performance measurement baseline

Progress Report:

Describes the total work accomplished

Trend Report:

Whether performance has an upward trend or a downward trend is reported by the trend report

Forecasting Report:

Future project status and performance is reported basis current (or historical) data

Variance Report:

Compares actuals to baselines

Earned Value Report:

This report integrates scope, cost, and schedule measures to assess project performance

Lessons Learned Documentation:

Performance reports are used as lessons learned for future projects

This concludes the Communication Management concept. A project manager should spend time in the early stages of the project to identify ALL stakeholders and take a structured approach to communications by creating a communications management plan.