How to Prepare Executive Status Reports - Part 1 of 2

In this first podcast of a series of two, Ricardo talks about how an executive status report must be submitted, showing condensed information relevant to the sponsor and key project stakeholders. He explains that visual information is of great importance and that the report needs to have a pattern, without necessarily being presented in only a page.

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Episode transcript

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Hello everybody welcome to the five minutes BM podcast today. I like to discuss with you the project Executive Status report. So the Executive report, it's very important. In interesting to discuss this because most of the time, the problem is not the lack of information. The problem that we face in the project is usually the access of information. We have do much information. We have one Microsoft project file with 11,000 tasks.

We have a budget that takes 100 pages. We have a risk assessment with 300 risks, and we need to wrap up how about this to present to our CEO or our CFO or our CPO chief project officer to decide what we need to do. And certain times we bring that mess of papers that the paper, and there is no decision. We become a week during our discussion because we or not, I tell everybody it's much harder, harder to write one, paragraph two Xpress, one idea to write 10 pages.

Because when you write one paragraph, you need, f**k you, you need to be sharp. You need to choose the right word in the right place with the right number. So does is a big, big challenge. When I have 10 pages, I can feel it with a lot of nonsense words to express what I'm thinking. So the challenge is this. And I don't like that. Blindness. The thinking that, Oh, all Reports must be one page or two pages.

Usually I know a very good status report with something around six, seven, 10 pages. The problem is not the size. The problem is the quality is the quality. We need to understand that image, graphs. These are all indicators are great because the people do not have too much time to read. So we need to help people and understand what we want to express.

And it's the challenge is that we are not use it to that. I'm an engineer. Most of the project managers are engineers, a it people. And we think that this is not important. This is, this is not important. This is information. You staple it and give it to the CEO. I know this, this is wrong. We need to be sharp. We need to prepare. We need to take care because this will be like our only use an example like, Oh, again to war does is the way that we will defend ourselves.

The fan, our projects. This will be the way that we'll ask for change or ask for it. A different perspective. Ask for sponsorship, show the result market. Our is our results. So I love in the act. Tell people, even the paper you use is important. Even the paper, you must be smiling, listen to this and say, Oh, he can do is same point.

Bless. He thinks about the paper. Know, know that people are not so rational. We would love to have only rational people, but this is not the case. If you deliver a very high quality graphic with good information, powerful, sharp, crispy information to help people decide this will be the heaven for your project. The heaven in what is my intention next week with the second podcast of this series is to explain in my opinion, what should be in, I Status report.

If I want to produce an executive status report, what do I need to put incite? What is important to be in this kind of project? How do I select all the bunch of information? If I'm using a standard like PMBOK or a methodology like priests or how I can wrap up all this bunch of documents and be sharp to present what I need to present. And this will be the top of next week. Podcast about executive Status report.

See you next week with another five minutes BM Podcast.

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