# Status Report

> Most status reports are green until they are red. This one is structured so that the things
> which predict lateness — ageing blockers, decision latency, cumulative change — appear whether
> or not anyone volunteers them.
>
> One page. If it takes half a day to produce, it is consuming the capacity that should be
> removing blockers.

**Project:** _______________  **Reporting period:** _______
**Prepared by:** _______________  **For:** _______________

## 1. The headline

**Would I personally bet on the current end date?** yes / no / not any more

**If no — by how much, and since when did I know?** _______________

🔴 This replaces a status colour deliberately. "Amber" is a word that lets everyone defer the
conversation; a direct answer to a direct question does not. Projects rarely fail through one
event — they fail through a series of "we will catch up next sprint" judgements, none of which is
ever escalated.

## 2. Progress

| | This period |
|---|---|
| Completed **and accepted** | |
| In progress | |
| Not started, planned for next period | |

**Measured by accepted work, not effort spent.** Effort spent is a measure of activity; accepted
work is a measure of progress, and only one of them predicts a delivery date.

**Anything claimed "90% done" for more than two weeks:** _______________

## 3. What changed

| Change | Impact on date | Impact on cost | Approved by |
|---|---|---|---|
| | | | |

**Cumulative since baseline:** schedule ____ · cost ____

The cumulative row is the one that matters and the one nobody volunteers. Fifteen individually
reasonable changes have added eleven weeks; each was assessed alone.

## 4. Blocked

| What | Blocked since | Waiting on | Chased | Escalate? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | | |

**Oldest blocker: ____ days.** **Average time to get a decision this period: ____**

Delay lives in queues rather than in the work. If the team waits a week for decisions, no delivery
improvement changes the outcome — and this table is where that becomes visible to the person who
can fix it.

## 5. Risks that moved

Only the ones that changed. A full register read-out belongs in the
[risk register](/pmo/risk-register/), not here.

| Risk | Was | Now | Why | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | | |

**Overdue mitigations:** ____

## 6. Quality signals

| | |
|---|---|
| Open defects, by severity | |
| Trend — rising or falling as we approach the end | |
| Anything substantial still untested | |
| Non-functional requirements tested? | yes / no |

Defects rising as the end approaches, or a large untested area, are the two most reliable
predictors of a late finish. They belong in the report before they are a crisis.

## 7. Decision needed this week

| # | Decision | Who decides | By when | Cost of not deciding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | | | |

The last column converts a request into a consequence, which is what turns an unread item into a
decision.

**If there is nothing here, say so explicitly** — a report that never asks for anything trains the
sponsor to skim it.

## 8. Next period

| Commitment | Owner | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| | | high / medium / low |

---

**Written for people who will read one page.** Anything requiring more detail goes in an appendix
nobody is obliged to open — and if the appendix is where the real news is, this report has failed
at its only job.