Table of Contents
The Problem: Nobody Actually Reads Your Status Report
Before I jump into the 9 slides I’m about to discuss, be honest with yourself for a moment. When was the last time a founder or product owner came to you with a follow-up question on your weekly status report, instead of replying with “thanks, looks good”?
If it’s been a while, the problem may not be the project itself. Sometimes the format of the status report makes it difficult for a busy stakeholder to find the information they actually need.
Over time, I started noticing that the reports that I found easiest to discuss during the stakeholder meetings had something in common. In those reports, the critical information was easy to find at a glance. I could see if the project was on track, what had changed since the last report, what needed my particular attention, and what decisions or support were needed. This experience taught me how to structure my reports in the following weeks.
Trust me, as a Scrum Master and Project Manager myself, I have been both writing weekly status reports for many years and been the one skimming through a report during a 5-minute break before my next meeting. And as the one skimming through, here’s what goes through my head:
🥱 Walls of text get skipped. If the report starts with three paragraphs, odds are the reader will skip to the last slide.
🔍 Risks get missed. If there is a risk mentioned in a sentence halfway through page 3, it may as well not be there.
🔁 Inconsistency means more work. If last week’s report was organized one way, but this week it’s organized differently, the reader will have to spend extra time figuring it out.
❓ No clear “what do you need from me” means more questions. Founders and Product Owners are busy people. They skim through reports looking for one thing: whether they need to do something. If it’s not clear, they’ll ask a more involved question in a 1:1.
Although none of this means your project updates are bad, the fact is the format is working against you.
How This Gets Fixed: A Structure, Not Just a Template
The problem is usually not the quality of the writing. It is the lack of a consistent structure that helps stakeholders quickly understand what they need to know and whether they need to make a decision that week.
Below is such a structure, along with an explanation of what should go into each slide and common pitfalls.
1. 🗂️ Cover Slide
Ensure that your cover slide is straightforward and contains the project’s name, the report’s due time or date, your name and position, the current sprint or release, and the version if your team utilizes versions for documentation. This way, you will make the slide recognizable and understandable at first glance and provide an adequate level of information for someone analyzing multiple reports from different projects.
2. 🎯 Executive Summary
This is the slide I would expect a busy stakeholder to understand first. It should answer the most important question quickly: are we on track, and is there anything that needs attention?
Below is a suggested breakdown of some points that should be included in the executive summary.:
| Element | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Sprint or release target date | When will this be done? |
| Progress % vs. planned milestone | Are we on track? |
| Key achievement or blocker | What changed this week? |
3. 🚦 RAG Status
Apply Red, Amber, and Green indicators consistently to areas such as scope, schedule, budget, and quality. The important thing is that we have a defined meaning for each indicator so that different stakeholders understand the report in the same way.
A good way to prevent RAG status from becoming overly optimistic is to establish what each color actually means:
✅ Green – the area is currently on track, with no significant issue requiring stakeholder intervention
⚠️ Amber – there is a meaningful risk, delay, or concern that is being actively managed
🛑 Red – a significant issue or risk is affecting the project and may require stakeholder intervention or a decision
4. 📊 Progress Overview (Actual vs. Target)
Achievements as numbers do not tell the audience anything about being on course or not. The comparison of the two allows one to see it right away.
5. ✅ Completed Tasks
The completed-tasks slide provides stakeholders with a high-level overview of the team’s accomplishments during the reporting period. I think this is a great practice, especially in the case of multiple teams/workstreams, as it summarizes the big picture out of often numerous tickets. It reassures the stakeholders that the product actually moves forward, and not a single step is lost along the way.
6. 🐞 Bug Status
Show the count of newly discovered, resolved, verified, and deferred defects for a reporting period. I use this view to understand if the trend of my defect backlog is progressing positively and if there are any quality concerns that require attention.
7. ⚠️ Risk Register
For each significant risk, include its description, potential impact, current status, risk owner, and planned response or mitigation. The fact that these elements are explicitly stated allows for the risk overview to be clear to the stakeholders, including an understanding of what action is being taken to address the risk.
In my version, risks are distinguished from issues as the former refers to the possibility of something going wrong, while the latter refers to something that has already occurred. This allows for an explicit overview of the current state of affairs, which is much needed when briefings have to be given on a weekly basis.
A risk register is a useful part of the risk management process. It helps the team keep risks and issues separate and deal with each one appropriately.
8. 🧩 Issues Overview
The issues overview lists the problems that the project faces, which have a current status of ongoing, resolved, or deferred. At the same time, separating issues from risks allows stakeholders to differentiate between the matters that concern things that may happen and things that are already happening.
It’s also important to identify whether the issue is related to the application, environment, dependency, vendor, or another external factor. This way, stakeholders will be able to get a more comprehensive understanding of the situation without going through the details of the ticket itself.
Some problems may show up only in a specific environment or when a particular vendor is involved.
9. 📅 Next Week’s Plan
Each item includes a title, a short description, and a due date. Ending with the next week’s plan gives stakeholders a clear view of what is coming next, what the team intends to deliver, and where their attention may be needed.
How Do I Use This Structure in Practice
I do not necessarily follow this structure for each project as a strict guideline. The one above is mainly a reminder of the key information to cover when preparing the presentation. The format can vary depending on the project size, delivery model, target audience, and level of detail stakeholders need.
For instance, some elements may be combined for a small project, whereas a large-scale software implementation may require more elaboration on such slides as the project’s risks, interrelations, defects management, and forecasting. The key is to keep the top-level overview consistent, even when you add supporting details or change the structure of the presentation.
What do I want my stakeholder to know after seeing my presentation?
After reviewing the presentation, stakeholders should have a clear understanding of the project’s current status, what has changed since the baseline date, any concerns that could affect delivery, what the project has achieved, and what comes next.
What Is This Different From A Generic Template
If you Google “status report template,” there are dozens of free options. Many generic templates I have come across tend to have one or more of these limitations:
| Typical Free Template | This 9-Slide System | |
|---|---|---|
| RAG status | Described in a sentence or completely missing | Color-coded with specific criteria for each color |
| Charts | Static images that you can’t modify | Native, editable charts built into the file |
| Structure | Varies from page to page | Same 9 slides every week, to condition the reader |
| Risk vs. issue | Lumped together | Explicitly separated, to communicate urgency |
| Built for | General use | Specifically web & app project teams reporting to founders/product owners |
The point isn’t that free status report templates are bad. The issue is that they’re built for general use. Most of them are more about looking good on a slide than making the information easy to understand. A generic template can be used as a good basis, but a reporting structure based on your project’s stakeholders and delivery process will make it much easier to review and discuss.
Quick Self-Check 🎯
Before publishing the next report in your pipeline:
- Does your executive summary answer the question of “are we on track?” succinctly?
- Is your RAG status presented in an easily skimmable way?
- Do all open risks have owners and viable mitigation?
- Is there a section that’s clearly about next actions and not just problems?
Missing more than one of these boxes? That’s where a template can help you to get more out of your existing content.
Get the Template
I’ve packaged it all in a 9-slide PowerPoint presentation in an easy-to-edit format using our brand colors, including a completed example slide deck to help you see what you’re going to be creating.
Weekly Project Status Report Template (PowerPoint)
Related reading:
- 7 Sprint Planning Templates That Save Teams From Chaos
- 5 Reasons Your Project Charter Gets Ignored (And a Better Way to Build One)
- For more on why color-coded status is better than written descriptions, Atlassian’s guide to project reporting is essentially the same idea from a slightly different angle.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How often should your weekly status report be issued?
It is critical to determine the frequency in accordance with the project’s delivery and stakeholders’ needs. It can be weekly if there is a necessity to report on a regular basis on project details, issues, and decisions, even if the team’s sprint cycle is longer than one week. The report should be consistent in its timing to help stakeholders with their expectation management.
Should the reports be shared with wider stakeholders or just the team?
When appropriate, share it more broadly so everyone who needs the information can stay informed. While the team would get a more granular version of the report with more tickets, the stakeholders, founders, and product owners would have the executive summary (this report).
What is the biggest mistake PMs make when crafting their report?
Detail before deliverable. The report should always present the are-we-on-track briefing before drilling down into details.
What is the right length for the weekly status presentation?
For a live review, my preference would be to keep the presentation brief and focused on decisions, risks, and changes. If the report is to be distributed asynchronously, the information that is relevant to the executive level should be easily scanned without having to go through each underlying detail.
How should you present a bad situation or a red RAG status?
Be straight to the point. Use the red RAG status and any risk/issue associated with it to explain the impact and the proposed mitigating action or next step. This way, you give the stakeholders the information they need to make a decision to step in if needed.
Your Turn 💬
What’s missing from your current status report? Tell me in the comments. I read every response and would love to hear what you think.
