1/27/2019 Progress Report: How To Write, Structure And Make It Visually Attractive - Piktochart Infographics

8 Minutes Read | Design (https://piktochart.com/blog/category/visuals-hub/design/)

Progress Report: How To Write, Structure

And Make It Visually Attractive

Katrina Balmaceda
(https://piktochart.com/blog/author/katrinabalmaceda/)
Content Strategist | With Content

D
ays or weeks into a project, your supervisor asks for a progress report.
Depending on your experience with writing such a document, you might
respond with readiness, anxiety, or confusion. Worry not – we’re here to
help.

Here, we’ll give you tips on how to write a progress report, complete with templates
and checklists. We begin, of course, with the all-important question a newbie might
have: “What is a progress report?”
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What is a progress report?

A progress report is exactly what it sounds like – a document that explains in detail
how you far you’ve gone towards the completion of a project.

It outlines the activities you’ve carried out, the tasks you’ve completed, and the
milestones you’ve reached vis-à-vis your project plan.

A progress report is typically written for a supervisor, colleagues, or client. You might
write it on your behalf or work with your teammates to produce ateam progress
report.

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Depending on the scope and complexity of the project, you might need to give a
progress report weekly or monthly, or for every 25% project milestone.

Throughout your career, you’re likely to be creating more reports than you can
count. Perhaps you find yourself spending more time crunching data and plugging
numbers into graphs than actually working.

Reports don’t have to be as time consuming as they often are, which is why we
tapped into the brilliance of Kevan Lee of Buffer in this interactive content experience
to help you with them. Dive right in here, and learn some reporting hacks from
Kevan. (https://piktochart.com/marketing-reporting-buffer/)

Lean & Simple - Here's How Reporting Works at Buffer

Why is a progress report important?

Sometimes it might feel like writing about your progress in detail is redundant,
especially when you’ve been regularly communicating with your supervisor,
teammates, and client throughout the course of the project.

But this kind of report is actually quite useful for several reasons.

It gets everyone on the same page

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Each person who receives a copy of the report will know what has been
accomplished. This prevents confusion about what has been or has yet to be done.

It facilitates collaboration

This is especially important when different teams work together. Knowing what
the other team is up to helps prevent working in silos and also reduces task
redundancy. It also helps one team identify areas where it can offer help or team
up with others.

It improves transparency and accountability by providing

a paper trail

When you submit your report, you’ve placed on record that you’ve accomplished a
task or explained why your results were different than expected. Once the document
has been accepted, it becomes part of the project’s official documentation.

So, just in case someone accuses you in the future of failing to accomplish a task or
not reporting a problem, you can point to the progress report as proof that you did
so.

On the flip side, if your project ever gets nominated for an award, you can be sure
validators will come seeking documents that explain how the entire thing was
accomplished.

It improves project evaluation and review

Next time you plan for a project, your team can examine documents, including
progress reports, of previous projects to find out what was done right, what went
wrong, and what can be improved.

Previous reports can shed light on systemic issues, loopholes, and other causes of
delay or failure – both internal and external – that must be avoided or resolved.

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It provides insights for future planning

When the supervisor knows what tasks have been accomplished, he or she can focus
on monitoring progress towards the next stages of the project.

When a report shows that delays have occurred, the supervisor is able to investigate
the problems that hindered progress and take steps to prevent them from happening
again in the future.

The supervisor will also be able to adjust the project timeline if absolutely needed, or
instruct teams to double down.

Here is a progress report example:

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(https://create.piktochart.com/printable/editor/1182) Use this progress report

template in Piktochart now! (https://create.piktochart.com/printable/editor/1182)

How to write a progress report

Have you ever found yourself stuck tapping your pen or staring at a blinking cursor,
unable to begin writing?

That’s not an unusual experience when writing progress reports, especially for those
whose jobs typically don’t involve writing long documents.

One reason people may find it difficult to write these reports is the thought that
they’re not writers. But that’s all in the mind. Reports don’t require sophisticated
language – in fact, the simpler, the better. Here are some report writing tips:

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Think of it as a Q&A

Because that’s what it is in essence. Imagine your manager, colleagues, or client

asking you questions and you giving them answers.

For example, let’s say that you’re organizing a weekend fair with food stalls and
music, and you’re in charge of food concessions.

The project plan might require you to have secured letters of intent (LOI) from at
least 10 businesses by the end of the first month.

Your progress report would then outline the companies or entrepreneurs who have
sent LOIs, including a description of their businesses and plans for their food stalls. If
talks are in progress with other business who haven’t yet sent LOIs, you can mention
that, too, and explain when they’re expected to send in their letters.

On the other hand, if you haven’t met your target, you’d have to explain why, but
also narrate the efforts you have exerted and the expected timeline for achieving the
desired results.

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Use simple and straightforward language

This doesn’t mean you can’t use technical jargon. For example, if you’re in the
construction business, you don’t have to avoid using terms like “tender” or
“variation” or “risk management.”

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But otherwise, speak plainly. Use clear and concise language. One misconception in
business writing is that complexity impresses. In truth, it only causes confusion. Fact
is, being able to speak plainly about your subject indicates that you understand your
subject matter inside out.

Let’s get specific. One thing that makes business documents dreary is the
transformation of verbs into nouns – just like I did there.

If we had to rephrase that to keep the verb, we’d write, “transforming verbs into
nouns.” It sounds simpler and gets to the point.

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Avoid using the passive voice where possible

Sometimes, you can’t avoid using the passive voice in really formal documents that
prohibit the first-person point-of-view. But when done well, it really helps to make
your report more relatable.

Going back to the food concession example, a passive sentence would read:
“Research on potential food concessionaires was carried out.”
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To make that sentence active, give it an actor (which is the team in this case), as in:
“The team researched on potential food concessionaires.”

Be specific

A study published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience found

(https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2020/5d3b33327477c6909e2738d4d1884b93a315.pdf)
that when you use concrete words, you tend to engage both the left and right parts
of the brain, while the right region tends to remain unstimulated by abstract words.

While the jury is still out on exactly how word meanings are represented in the mind,
we can agree that the phrase “a merry sound” doesn’t stir the imagination as much
as “tinkling bells”.

“A hot day” doesn’t activate visual imagery as much as “a melting popsicle”

(https://dribbble.com/shots/2636375-melting-popsicle-2-3) does. When a reader’s
mind is stimulated by words, it’s less likely to drift off.

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Taking the previous example, “researched on potential food concessionaires”

doesn’t evoke a visual image. “Built a list of 50 potential food concessionaires” is
more concrete, especially when you add details of what food items might be sold.

Explain jargon if needed

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This depends on who will be reading your report, and if you’re using very specialized
jargon that only members of your team would be familiar with. For example, in a
report written by a construction team addressed to the project manager –
construction jargon could be used as the recipient obviously understands it.

Spell out acronyms when they first occur in the document

Don’t assume that every single person reading the report will understand all the
acronyms you use without you spelling them out. For instance, in construction work,
SWMS should first be spelled out as Safe Work Method Statement. ‘Pre-starts’ should
be spelled out as ‘pre-start checks’.

So in your report, it would look like this: Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS), then
all subsequent references are free to just be SWMS.

Stick to facts

Avoid providing an opinion, unless it’s part of the project.

For instance, your task might be to analyze data and offer your interpretation and
prediction. In that case, you can offer your speculation and point of view, as long as
you have evidence to back you up.

Use graphics to supplement the text

Avoid writing down a long series of numbers in a sentence. Try using tables or
charts, especially when dealing with a series of numbers.

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When using graphs or charts, try out several types to determine which ones best
presents your data. You might use a bar graph, pie chart, line graph, or even scatter
plot. When doing so, though, spend time in distinguishing different data sets from the
others by using labels and colours.

Don’t worry if this sounds daunting – there are plenty of software that can help you
visualize data (https://piktochart.com/blog/how-to-communicate-using-data-
visualizations/), including the most basic examples, MS Excel and Numbers for Mac.

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How to structure a progress report

That’s all well and good. But you may still be wondering about the exact process of
how to write a progress report. Armed with all of these practical tips, how do you put
the report together?

First, it depends on the type of report, as well as the intended reader. A progress
report may be written daily, weekly, or monthly. It may be written for an individual or
a team.

As you’ll see in the examples below, the main parts of a progress report are:

1. Introduction

This part provides an overview of the contents of the progress report. It’s best to
write this after you’ve completed all the other parts of the report. That way, you’ll be
able to provide an accurate summary.

Keep it short and simple. One or two paragraphs will do.

2. Accomplishments

Numbers and details are your friends, especially when writing this section of the
progress report. The accomplishments you write should correspond to your goals.

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3. Goals

What were your goals for the period covered by the report? This could be a goal for
the day, week, month, or quarter. On the other hand, it could be a team goal, too.

Be concrete when writing goals. For instance:

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4. Roadblocks

Explain what situations, if any, prevented you from achieving your goals, or may
prevent you from reaching this month’s targets.

But don’t stop there. Be proactive and present an action plan and timeline for
resolving the roadblocks. Include details, such as funds, materials, and human
resources you may need to implement the solution.

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To guide you better, here are progress report template examples that are visually
attractive and highly readable.

Daily progress report

A daily progress report includes your goals for the day, as well as your
accomplishments the previous day. It also explains challenges encountered in
performing tasks and achieving goals.
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Another section under the daily progress report is ‘lessons learned’. These need to
be directly related to the day’s tasks and challenges, as well as to the previous day’s
accomplishments.

(https://create.piktochart.com/printable/editor/1179)Try this daily progress report

template in Piktochart now! (https://create.piktochart.com/printable/editor/1179)

Weekly progress report

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A weekly progress report provides a week by week breakdown of what has been
accomplished and what tasks remain to be completed.

Just like a daily progress report, a weekly progress report may include challenges
and lessons learned. Examples are included in the templates below. To get a better
idea of this, let’s go back to the events example:

Challenges

Many potential vendors were attending a week-long industry convention;

couldn’t book meetings
Potential vendors didn’t read entire email

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Lessons Learned

Consider industry events when planning timeline for contacting clients

Introductory emails must be short and have readable formatting

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(https://create.piktochart.com/printable/editor/1178)Try out this weekly progress

report template now! (https://create.piktochart.com/printable/editor/1178)

Monthly progress report

A monthly progress report is necessary for projects with longer durations. The report
may provide both monthly and quarterly data on project progress.

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Team progress report

A team progress report provides information on both team and individual milestones
and progress status. Now this one is more complicated, simply because it involves
several people who may have worked on different tasks.

It’s not enough to just let one person make the report. Of course, one person can do
the typing, but everyone must provide input and feedback.
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One way to keep a record of different team members’ input is to keep track of edits
they have made.

To do this, simply enable tracking of changes on a Word document, or on Pages for

Mac users. When working on a collaborative tool like Google Docs
(https://www.google.com/docs/about/), click the pencil icon on the top-right part of
the window, and choose “Edits become suggestions” on the drop-down menu. Here’s
what that looks like:

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On the other hand, team members can insert progress report comments or
questions. Again, you can do this easily on a Word document, as well as on software
that let you comment on shared documents, like Google Docs and Piktochart
(https://piktochart.com/blog/piktochart-for-teams/):

Here’s a sample of a team progress report template.

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(https://create.piktochart.com/printable/editor/1180)Check out this team progress

report template now! (https://create.piktochart.com/printable/editor/1180)

One last thing…

You’ve finally finished typing up your progress report – breathe a sigh of relief, but
don’t hit ‘send’ just yet.

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Go over it at least once (better to do it more than once, especially if it’s a team
report). Re-read the article, edit the content as needed, then ask a teammate to
proofread with a fresh pair of eyes.

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(https://piktochart.com/blog/author/katrinabalmaceda/)

Katrina has a background in news and magazine media. After living

and working in the US and Singapore, she returned to her hometown
of Cebu, Philippines. She wrote freelance for companies based in
Australia, Denmark, and Singapore, and is now a Content Strategist at
With Content.

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