GROUP NUMBER 1 (PROGRESS REPORT)

LEADER:
BASILIO, PAUL ADRIAN V.

MEMBERS:

-VISUAL AIDS/RESEARCHERS-
VITAL, MARC LOIS V.
AGUDO, DENNIS CHRISTIAN D.
MANALESE, MICHAEL JASPER M.
ALCAIRE, JOHN ERWIN

-REPORTERS-
ESTRADA, ALFRED JOHN C.
ASUNCION, ROSVE
LAZATIN, JEROME B.
RODRIGUEZ, JOSE RICHARD E.
MONTOYA, JOHN ANGEL C.


CONTENT OF THE REPORT

1. MEANING OF PROGRESS REPORT
2. SAMPLE (PICTURE)
3. PURPOSE OF THE PROGRESS REPORT
4. IMPORTANCE OF WRITING PROGRESS REPORT
5. THINGS TO BE CONSIDERED IN WRITING A PROGRESS REPORT
AUDIENCE/RECEIVER
PROPER WAY IN COMMUNICATING TO YOUR AUDIENCE
6. STRUCTURE OF THE PROGRESS REPORT
- HEADING
- INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND
- ACOMPLISHMENTS
- PROBLEMS
- FUTURE WORK
- CONCLUSION
- REFERENCES
7. HANDLING PROBLEMS: HONESTY AND IMAGE
8. SUMMARY




PROGRESS REPORT
A report, usually brief, explaining the progress you've made on a given project or
set of projects.
Progress reports can take different forms, including brief verbal reports at your
weekly or monthly staff meetings, periodic emails to your supervisor and covering
all of your current projects, formal reports for clients marking various milestones
in the project, and so on.
A SAMPLE OF A PROGRESS REPORT


















Purpose of the REPORT CARD
Progress Reports, as the name implies, provide supervisors, clients, and other team
members with a concise summary of the current status of a project - including
what's going well and what's not going well.
Progress reports function largely to inform, they often also impact decision-
making - the audience wants to know whether or not to adjust their own plans in
response to the status of your work.
IMPORTANCE OF WRITING PROGRESS REPORTS
1. Writing progressreports reports is a convenient way to report on the current
condition of a project, problems that have arisen and future actions to take.
A progress report has a function of communication.
2. Writing progress reports helps you to get the full comprehension of the
whole picture. You analyze, summarize and make conclusions.
3. Writing progress reports helps you to go forward. Having evaluated the
progress of a project, you can outline things to change and to improve, to
develop or to adjust a strategy of the future actions.
THINGS TO BE CONSIDERED IN WRITING A PROGRESS REPORT
Audience
First, analyze your audience to help you determine what information to include and
what tone to use.
How are my readers connected to this project? How will its outcome affect
them?
What decisions will my readers need to make after reading the progress
report?
What information do they need to have in order to oversee this project
effectively?
How much do the readers know about the technical aspects of the project?

REMINDERS IN COMMUNICATING TO YOUR AUDIENCE:
Use formal tone.
Be courteous and professional.
Convey information clearly and simply. Always be specific, direct, and honest.
STRUCTURE OF THE PROGRESS REPORT
HEADING
The header contains identifying information for the report. You will enter the title, the date on a
which the report is published, the stoplight status of whatever you're reporting on (red yellow
green), and the overall metric, perhaps percent complete, plan versus actual
Title: Project X Progress Report
Date: May 30 20xx
Status: Green
Percent Complete: 63 actual, 59 plan.

Introduction
Your introduction (also called an introductory summary or abstract) should clearly state the
purpose of the report. Introduce the project and remind the readers that this is an update on its
progress. Next, give a brief overview of the project, summarizing the projects status. Last,
explain the progress thats been made since the last report, including whether or not youve met
your established interim goals.
Be sure to identify the person being addressed, the projects name, and the dates the progress
report covers. After reading the report, readers should NOT have to ask, What does this mean?
or Where can I find this information?
Background
Briefly review the project itself, including the major tasks and what you should have
accomplished by this point.
The degree to which you restate the project depends on the audience. If you're writing to your
immediate supervisor about your work on the only major project underway in your design group,
you may not need to say anything beyond the Introduction. If, on the other hand, you're writing a
progress report for a grant you received from the National Science Foundation, which oversees
thousands of projects, you probably need to provide a clear overview of the project goals and
your proposed schedule.
Accomplishments
Summarize what you've done in the time covered by the report. This section should include both
major tasks you've completed and, if appropriate, significant findings or results. Be careful,
though, not to include too much detail - address findings you think the reader needs to
know now, but don't waste time providing information that's not relevant to the reader's goals.

Bulleted lists offer a useful format for summarizing your work. If you do choose to include
major findings or results, consider subdividing this section of the report to make it easier to skim
the information - e.g. you might have a section on Completed Tasks and another on Major
Findings.
Problems
Summarize any problems you've encountered, and explain either how you have solved them or
how you plan to solve them. If these problems have resulted in changes to the project - a new
schedule, a new focus, more research required, etc. - state those changes clearly. Again, bulleted
lists and/or subdivisions work well here to help organize the information.
Future Work
Outline the work remaining on the project, including completion dates and time estimates as
appropriate. If you have made changes to the project plan, you should note them here (as well as
in the Problems section); for example, use color coding, bold, italics, or another visual element to
indicate changes in dates, new tasks, or other modifications.
Conclusion
For longer reports, the Conclusion may need to again summarize the overall project status; for
brief reports, that summary may be a single sentence.
If the report requires any immediate action from the reader (e.g. you are requesting a meeting to
review key issues, you need more money, you need approval to make a major change), be sure to
make your request clearly. And as with most documents, the closing should "extend the
dialogue" - i.e. offer to answer any questions and request feedback.
References
Pfeiffer, William S. Pocket Guide to Technical Writing, 3
rd
Ed. Columbus: Prentice Hall, 2004,
p108.
Pratt, Mary K. How to Write a Progress Report: Everyone Does It, But Few Do It Well. Heres
How. 25 December 2005. ComputerWorld. 19 July 2007.
HANDLING PROBLEMS: HONESTY AND IMAGE
Because the project's status can influence major decisions, you must be honest in your report -
your boss would rather know 6 months in advance that you need an extra 4 weeks to complete
the work, instead of finding out 3 days before the project is due to the customer. You won't do
anyone any favors by playing down, or worse, ignoring, major problems.
At the same time, as suggested earlier, progress reports can influence people's perceptions of you
and your work. Whether you're writing to your supervisor, the president of the company, or an
outside customer, you want that person to see you as competent and to feel confident in your
work.
So how do you balance the need to be honest with the need to project a positive image?
One solution is to pay close attention to your language - calling something "a complete
disaster" may not be in your best interest.
More importantly, instill confidence in your readers by providing solutions, rather than
simply describing problems. Telling readers how you plan to handle the problem gives
them the information they need to make decision, but also lets them know that you are in
control of the situation.
Finally, avoid making excuses or placing blame. If there are legitimate issues (late
delivery from a supplier, unresolved questions, etc.), you can lay those out clearly -
particularly if they require action from your audience - but don't sound as if you're
rationalizing or trying to compensate by shifting the blame.
SUMMARY
Progress Reports serve the needs of decisions makers - coworkers, advisors, supervisors, clients -
by telling them, before a project reaches its conclusion, how things are going and what changes
they need to make.
At the same time, a progress report also reflects back on you, demonstrating your competence
and professionalism to those who will evaluate your work.
As you develop these reports, whether verbally or in writing, always keep both the needs of your
audience and your own goals firmly in mind.