Project Highlight Report

The other week we had an email at JISC infoNet asking about our Project Highlight template. It was one of those documents that we included in the Project Management infoKit back in 2003 and it was now timely to go back and review whether or not it filled the needs of a project.

As it happened, I agreed with the person who had emailed us. It didn't. So I set about redesigning the form so that a Project Manager could either use it to report up to a project steering board, or send it out for completion by one of the project team who were managing a large work package as a sub-set of the project activity.

I didn't want a huge thing that would be onerous to fill out, but neither did I want to replicate the old template that didn't include enough information about the activities and associated budgets and timescale.

I ended up with a 2-page MS Word document that you can download from the infoKit page on Reporting and Meetings.

The template requires an assessment of the status of:-

• the schedule - whether or not we have taken more or less time than was planned


• the budget - whether the project has cost more or less than we thought it would to date


• work completed - have we done more or less than we thought we would to date


• work to be completed during the next period


• Issues that have arisen during this period, cross referenced if they had been previously identified as risks


• Any new risks or changes to existing risks in terms of probability/impact


• Project change - any requested change to scope and its status (agreed/refused/pending decision/deferred)


• Project Team - any changes to team, roles or responsibilities


• Any lessons learned - would you have done anything differently, given what you learned during this period?

You can click the graphic for a larger view and, as always, comments are welcome.