I’ve never been excited about writing them myself. I admit it. The feeling of waste and futility as you face the last thing standing between you and the weekend doesn’t help either.
So, let’s fix it, and let’s start with the name. Instead of Weekly Status Report, what teams need is something closer to a Current Work Plan. The target audience for a Current Work Plan is broader.
Current
Perhaps people read it on a weekly basis, but plans change more frequently. Problems can arise at any time, and motivation comes from choices on a much smaller timescale. How many times has your manager stopped by during the week to ask you for your ‘status’ in addition to the reports you write each week?
Manage yourself. Try updating your plan one day in advance, and then hit it hard in the morning. Accomplish what you promised yourself before you leave for the day.
Work
Some work is aimed at a specific a deadline, so the work must be estimated, re-estimated, risks called out, scope adjusted, etc. Being perfectly efficient is not as important as hitting the deadline — even though managers have a dark history of asking for and expecting both. However, just managing work aimed at a deadline is inherently less efficient.
Some work must only be done efficiently. Arrange it to maintain motivation and quality. Some work is a tax that you want to pay slowly over time. Spread it out.
To plan your work, you need to know the mode of your projects. But, this should be easy, slow-changing information.
Plan
The word ‘Plan’ is forward facing. Many times, Status Reports are written from a defensive point of view as if they offer evidence that you are working or that work has been done. Your manager may even ask you for this evidence because he/she in turn is defending the team against his management. But, that kind of information is one of the least important aspects of managing a project.
Unsolved problems, blocking issues, communication between team members, remaining days of work, order, arrangement, and understanding of future are all more important that what has occurred in the past. Schedules are pushed out due to remaining days of work — not days completed.
Sometimes, two or more people are experiencing different parts of the elephant and they just need to compare notes. I’ve seen weekly SCRUM-type meetings expose this kind of redundancy and in a matter of two weeks, cut the bug list in half. And, then, as successful as that was, the same individuals naturally fall back into the backward-looking Status Reports.
