Progress Reports
Online Technical Writing: Progress Reports
You write a progress report to inform a supervisor, associate, or customer about progress you've made on a project over a certain period of time. The project can be the design, construction, or repair of something, the study or research of a problem or question, or the gathering of information on a technical subject. You write progress reports when it takes well over three or four months to complete a project.
Functions and Contents of Progress Reports
In the progress report, you explain any or all of the following:
- How much of the work is complete
- What part of the work is currently in progress
- What work remains to be done
- What problems or unexpected things, if any, have arisen
- How the project is going in general
Progress reports have several important functions:
- Reassure recipients that you are making progress, that the project is going smoothly, and that it will be complete by the expected date.
- Provide their recipients with a brief look at some of the findings or some of the work of the project.
- Give their recipients a chance to evaluate your work on the project and to request changes.
- Give you a chance to discuss problems in the project and thus to forewarn recipients.
- Force you to establish a work schedule so that you'll complete the project on time.
Note: Be sure to check out the example progress report:
Example progress report 1: Construction Handbook for a Mycological Growroom | Frames | Nonframes | Plain |
Example progress report 2: Database Development | Frames | Nonframes | Plain |
Example progress report 3: Debugging Techniques with Scheme | Frames | Nonframes | Plain |
Example progress report 4: Quartz Etch Rate Project | Frames | Nonframes | Plain |
Example progress report 5: Therapeutic Electrical Stimulation Therapy (TES) for Children with Cerebral Palsy | Frames | Nonframes | Plain |
Timing and Format of Progress Reports
In a year-long project, there are customarily three progress reports, one after three, six, and nine months. Depending on the size of the progress report, the length and importance of the project, and the recipient, the progress report can take the following forms:
- Memo—A short, informal report to someone within your organization
- Letter—A short, informal report sent to someone outside your organization
- Formal report—A long, formal report sent to someone outside your organization
Take a look at the discussion in Format of Proposals. You can use the same format on progress reports as you can on proposals: memo, letter, separated report; or cover memo or letter with separate report.
Organizational Patterns for Progress Reports
The recipient of a progress report wants to see what you've accomplished on the project, what you are working on now, what you plan to work on next, and how the project is going in general. To report this information, you combine two of these organizational strategies: time periods, project tasks, or report topics.
Time periods. A progress report usually summarizes work within each of the following:
- Work accomplished in the preceding period(s)
- Work currently being performed
- Work planned for the next period(s)
Project tasks. Practically every project breaks down into individual tasks:
Project Individual tasks |
Report topics. You can also organize your progress report according to the work done on the sections of the final report. In a report project on cocombusting municipal solid waste, you would need information on these topics:
Topics to be covered in the final report |
For each of these topics, you'd explain the work you have done, the work you are currently doing, and the work you have planned.
A progress report is a combination of two of these organizational strategies. The following outline excerpts give you an idea of how they combine:
Progress report A Progress report B Progress report C |
The following illustration shows an example of the project-tasks approach with subheadings for time periods; the one after that shows the time-period approach with subheadings for report topics.
Brine Drainage Tube Modifications |
Progress report organized by project tasks and time periods
WORK COMPLETED |
Other Parts of Progress Reports
In your progress report, you also need (a) an introduction that reviews the history of the project's beginnings as well as the purpose and scope of the work, (b) a detailed description of your project, and (c) an overall appraisal of the project to date, which usually acts as the conclusion.
Introduction. Review the details of your project's purpose, scope, and activities. This will aid recipients who are unfamiliar with the project, who do not remember certain details, or who want to doublecheck your approach to the project. The introduction can contain the following:
- Purpose of the project
- Specific objectives of the project
- Scope, or limits, of the project
- Date the project began; date the project is scheduled to be completed
- People or organization working on the project
- People or organization for whom the project is being done
- Overview of the contents of the progress report
I am now submitting to you a report on the progress that I have |
Project description. In most progress reports, include a project description to review the details of your project for the recipients:
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
|
Conclusion. The final paragraph or section usually reassures audiences that all is going well and on schedule. It can also alert recipients to unexpected changes or problems in the project.
OVERALL APPRAISAL |
Revision Checklist for Progress Reports
As you reread and revise your progress report, watch out for problems such as the following:
- Make sure you use the right format. Remember, the memo format is for internal progress reports; the business-letter format is for progress reports written from one external organization to another. (Whether you use a cover memo or cover letter is your choice.)
- Write a good introduction-in it, state that this is a progress report, and provide an overview of the contents of the progress report.
- Make sure to include a description of the final report project.
- Use one or a combination of the organizational patterns in the discussion of your work on the final report.
- Use headings to mark off the different parts of your progress report, particularly the different parts of your summary of work done on the project.
- Use lists as appropriate.
- Provide specifics-avoid relying on vague, overly general statements about the work you've done on the final report project.
- Be sure and address the progress report to the real or realistic audience-not your instructor.
- Assume there will nonspecialist reading your progress report. But don't avoid discussion of technical aspects of the project—just bring them down to a level that nonspecialists can understand.