(^184) 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know
Developers Hate Status Reports, Managers Love Them
Developers Hate Status Reports, Managers Love Them
Pavel Simsa, PMP
Bellevue, Washington, U.S.
WoRKIng In ThE BIggEST SoFTWARE CoMPAny In ThE WoRlD, I can
attest that developers hate status reports. It makes them spend hours each
week writing down what seems to them to be obvious, redundant information.
For you as a software project manager, however, this is data used to get a bigger
picture of your project progress, and then passed on to upper management. On
average, a project manager helms five to seven projects at a time. Both you and
your senior management team need you to collect and pass on this project data.
Here are tips to make developers less resistant to sending their “whatever-
frequency-you-need” status reports:
• Help them understand why this report is important to other team mem-
bers or other departments that need to plan based on team progress. People
work harder to help their peers.
• If the project progress was slow, know what the team was doing. Was it
learning a new tool or language? Were there unexpected problems and
challenges this week? When you compile the status reports, add the
explanatory information to help others interpret the numbers.
• Give proper recognition. If you know what the problems and challenges
were, you’ll be able to make sure that no significant achievement is
masked by the progress report metrics. For those who have made helpful,
unplanned contributions, offer a latte coupon to a nearby coffee shop. Try
a “Great work, thank you <name>” email that goes to the entire division.
Create a direct link between the work and the importance of how it relates
to the “big picture.”