PC Possibilities, Inc.

Tom Satyshur Jr . . . providing PC hardware, software and services since 1987 to the Cleveland Ohio area

 

The Project Status Summary Sheet

One of the most useful tools I have ever seen for controlling a project is what I call the Project Status Summary Sheet.

It is always one page and always in a spreadsheet format with Project Tasks as rows and Project Measurements (Actual Hours, Total Hours, Estimated Remaining Hours, etc.) as columns.

It is done in Hours, although the top level sheet can also done in dollars for budget control purposes.

It can be manually completed (small Projects only), be a "rollup" of various levels of "detail sheets" in a spreadsheet, or be produced from Project Management software.

It has the flexibility of accounting for Work Authorizations . . . authorized expansions or contractions of the Project Scope or Tasks.

The most critical part of the Status Summary Sheet is the Estimated Remaining column. This is not a calculation of Estimated minus Actual! It is the best guess of the individual persons as to how many hours they think it will take them to complete their individual tasks. This is the source of an accurate Percent Complete.  It is the Project Manager's job to review these Estimated Remaining numbers with each person to discern their accuracy and to see if they contain activities outside the project (e.g., scope expansion).

Samples of some of these will be put here in the near future so you can see how the Summary becomes a tool of the Project Manager.

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