EXECUTION & METHODOLOGIES · LESSON 03.08intermediate

Status reporting — up and sideways.

Different audiences want different signals at different cadences.

↳ tl;dr

Status reports fail when the PM treats every audience the same. Sponsors want decisions and risks. Peers want dependencies. The team wants the work. Three different reports, three different cadences — and three is fewer than "status" usually becomes.

Three audiences

Audience	What they want	Cadence	Format
Sponsor / steering	Outcome status, key risks, decisions needed	Bi-weekly / monthly	1-page summary
Peers / dependencies	What you need from them, what they get from you, dates	Weekly	Email / Slack thread
The team	Sprint health, blockers, upcoming	Daily standup + weekly check-in	Verbal + board

The sponsor's one-pager

Best format: RAG status (Red / Amber / Green) per dimension (schedule, scope, budget, risk), one paragraph on what changed since last report, three bullets of decisions needed. If the sponsor reads only the colors and the decisions, they have what they need. Anything longer is for them to dig into if they want.

↳ the watermelon problem

// sources

Sources cited

[01]
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 7th Edition
Project Management Institute (PMI) · 2021 · retrieved 2026-04
PMI's flagship reference. 7e shifted from process groups to performance domains.

All lessons in Execution & Methodologies Skip ahead: Change control + the Change Control Board

Status reporting — up and sideways.

Three audiences

The sponsor's one-pager

Sources cited

Decisions needed: the under-used section