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Performance reporting involves collecting, processing and communicating information to key stakeholders, regarding the performance of the project. Performance reporting can be conducted using various tools and techniques, most of which have been already described in the previous paragraphs. The most widely used techniques for performance reporting are:
| ● | Performance review meetings that take place to assess the project’s progress or/and status. |
| ● | Variance analysis which is about comparing actual project results (in terms of schedule, resources, cost, scope, quality and risk) against planned or expected ones. |
| ● | Earned Value Analysis (EVA) used to assess project performance in terms of time (schedule) and cost (or resources). For more information on EVA refer to 7.5.3.3 and the Annex 7-11. |
| ● | Financial and Output Performance Indicators used to measure financial and physical progress of the project (refer to 7.4.9) |
Information of project’s performance is usually communicated via Progress Reports and Project Status Reports which are described in the paragraphs below.
The use of a Progress Report
 The Progress Report is a document prepared by the Project Team members (in case of in-house production) or by the Management Team of the Contractor (in case that the implementation of the project is totally outsourced) to provide regular feedback to the Project Manager regarding the progress of the project. Progress reports should be submitted on a regular basis to enable the Project Manager to update the Activities Schedule, identify any schedule problems or potential problems and act proactively for their resolution. Progress Reports are usually asked to be submitted every two weeks or every month, when the project is implemented with own resources. However, in case that the project is implemented by a Contractor, the progress reports are usually asked every three or six months. Generally, a Progress Report should include the following information:
Table 7-7: Typical contents of a Progress Report
| ● | Reporting period to which it refers |
| ● | Authors of the report (or name of the contractor if applicable) |
| ● | Project synopsis (i.e. project goals and objectives, expected results, project activities, duration, etc.) |
| ● | Project progress in the reporting period (i.e. activities/ tasks executed, actual work accomplished, deliverables submitted, deviations for baseline schedule, estimation of the effort required to complete activities/ tasks) |
| ● | Work programme for the following reporting period (i.e. activities/ tasks to be executed, deliverables to be submitted, schedule estimates for key milestones, etc.) |
| ● | Updated/ revised Activities Schedule showing the percentage of work completed so far and the estimated start or finish dates for activities/ tasks. |
Note: Depending on the specific monitoring requirements of the project, the Progress Report may include also additional information regarding resources and costs. For example, if you have a fee-based service or work contract with an economic operator (Contractor), you will need to gather information regarding the actual time spent by labour resources. So, in that case you should ask the Contractor to attach the relative timesheets. Another example could be when you want to track actual costs incurred by the resources, where you have to collect information on time spent labour resources, usage time of equipment resources, used quantities of materials, travel or any other incidental expenses.
 It should be noted that in case of small projects with only few team members, the Progress Report can be substituted by personal judgment and observations of the Project Manager or by day-to-day discussions with the team members on the progress of the deliverables. On the contrary, in case of large and complex projects, where progress reporting is an important aspect of communication management, the Progress Reports should be formally submitted to the Project Manager by the Team Manager(s) (or by the Contractor), who have to prepare them by collecting the relative progress information from individual team members.
The use of a Project Status Report
The Project Status Report is a document prepared by the Project Manager - using the information provided by the Progress Reports - to present the status of the project to key stakeholders, including the Project Steering Committee, the Project Owner and the Funding Agency. Depending on the duration and size of the project, as well as on specific communication requirements of the Project Owner or/and the Funding Agency, the Status Report can be prepared monthly, quarterly or biannually. Usually, Status Reports are prepared with the same or less frequency than Progress Reports since they require input from them.
The aim of the Project Status Report is to:
| ● | Provide an overview of project’s progress up to date |
| ● | Ensure that the key stakeholders are regularly informed on the progress of the project |
| ● | Inform the key stakeholders about issues that require immediate action or resolution |
 Generally, a Project Status Report should include the following information:
| ● | Overall status of the project |
| ● | Status of Activities Schedule |
| ● | Status of Resource Schedule |
| ● | Status of Quality and Acceptance of Deliverables |
| ● | Recommendations to the recipients of the report about actions or decisions that they should take in order keep the project on schedule or bring it back on schedule, to keep costs within budget, to mitigate or eliminate risks or to close any pending issues. |
| ● | Work programme and objectives for the next reporting period |
Other documents that can be attached to the Status Report are: Status Gantt Chart, Notes of meetings, Quality Review Reports, Deliverable Acceptance Forms, Risk Log, etc.
 For the purposes of this Guide, a generic template of a Project Status Report is provided in Annex 7-16. It should be noted that this template can be modified to meet the reporting requirements of a specific project.
 Make sure that you include only summarised information which is relative to the recipients of the Project Status Report. In case of large projects several other reports may be generated over the project execution period, which can focus on specific management processes providing more detailed information on a certain topic. For example, the Quality Manager may prepare and submit to the Project Manager on a monthly basis a report with the results of the performed quality reviews. Or the Project Manager may have to submit an analytical Financial Report to the Funding Agency on a quarterly basis to inform them about the financial progress of the project and the percentage of funds’ absorption (mainly applicable in case of EU funded projects).
 Normally, the Status Report becomes the point of discussion for the Status Meeting, which is a regularly scheduled event, where the Project Manager presents the status of the project to the Steering Committee (and maybe to the Project Owner or /and the Funding Agency). In these meetings the Project Manager can invite members of the Project Team who have expertise in a certain area of the discussion. It is, however recommended that the Project Manager invites periodically the Project Team to review the status of the project, discuss their accomplishments and communicate any issues or concerns in an open, honest and constructive forum. On large projects where gathering the entire team is not always possible, the Project Team members can be represented in the meeting by the respective Team Manager(s), who can communicate the status of their team work since they have a better insight into the day-to-day activities of their team members.
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