When you are managing a project with a long duration or multiple phased deliveries, you will be asked to produce weekly or monthly status reports.  In this article we will find out how to use the “Science of Incremental Delivery” to give your stakeholders an expert-level report 

 If you are in a situation where your stakeholders ask lots of questions and cut you off often when you present, it is a sign you are not delivering your message.  

 I am going to talk about 2 reasons why and how to resolve it. 

  •  Reason 1 – You might not know your audience 
  • Reason 2 – Incremental delivery 

  

Know your audience 

Business stakeholders will ask for the progress, what is done in business sense. For technical stakeholders, progress is asked in a technical sense.  If this is a 15-minutes update, communicate the business and technical benefits and leave out the “how” and “what was done” details. Know your audience. 

Incremental delivery 

What is the difference in delivering a fantastic report with minimum question and delivery a mediocre report with lots of questions or worse – lots of debates 

 It is the science of incremental delivery! 

 Mediocre report – speak in general terms 

“We did a fantastic job this week and completed A,B,C,D” – 

Result – lots of questions… 

 Vs 

 Great report – articulate the increment 

We moved the project completion from 40% to 55%, a 15% increment this week because we completed A, B, C, D  

Result – medium amount of questions 

 Vs 

Fantastic report – articulate the increment, paint the future, talk about confidence level 

    1. We moved the project completion from 40% to 55%, a 15% increment this week because we completed A, B, C,D 
    2. Because we finished D this week, it set the stage to start E on time for the upcoming release 
    3. We report that we are at a confidence level of 8/10 to complete on time 

  

Notice a theme where moving the same message from mediocre to fantastic reporting, I mention numbers, %, forward thinking, projecting into the future. Even the confidence level, I expressed in a number 8 out of 10. 

 Is important to express progress in measurable metrics. Communicate in % and $ are measurements people can understand 

 If the metrics increase is a bigger range, e.g. 15% increase, you must also be able articulate the 15% in smaller increments, 4% for X, 6% for Y, 5% for Z etc. 

  

 Conclusion 

 

  1. Know your audience - emphasize the benefits. Answer the “how” and “what” when asked. 
  2. Incremental delivery - express your progress in %, $, #, breakdown a large % into increments. Practice forward thinking and explain what is upcoming as a result of current status 

 Happy reporting.  

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