Project status reporting starts by doing the project work. As the team is doing the work, the project manager must collect work performance data. That means asking the right questions to understand the raw, unanalyzed numbers like hours worked, money spent, and percentage of deliverables created or how much work was done.
After the project manager collects work performance data, the data can then be monitored and controlled. That means that the project manager compares what the project management plan says should be happening to what the data shows is actually happening. That turns the work performance data into work performance information. WPI has now analyzed numbers that we can use for decision making on the project, like schedule variance, schedule performance index, cost variance, and cost performance index. All that WPI taken together allows us to report project health and forecasts to stakeholders.
And we do that in the form of work performance reports, which are graphical representations to create stakeholder awareness and perform trend analysis. So to begin with, the project manager must collect all the right work performance data. If you're not collecting the right work performance data, then your reports will never be accurate. After you have the data, then look for variance between the project management plan and actual WPD to create work performance information. That enables the PM to create work performance reports by displaying all that WPI in the proper context with visual cues like charts and graphs.