Project Status Report

Stop Light

What do Red, Amber, and Green Mean For Your Projects?

Stoplight reports are a great way to keep stakeholders informed of project status. It also gives us quick reports from team members after every team meeting and saves time.

Let’s take a deeper dive into what each status or colour means:

Stop Light
Stop Light

Red (project at risk): Project status is shown in Red when the project is already at risk. A risk can be of any nature. It can be resourcing risk, skillset, cost and dependency on other items.

Amber (project may be at risk): Project status is shown in Amber when you foresee based on the fact that the project will be at risk if issues are not addressed on time. During this take, attention is required and corrective action should be planned to mitigate the risk.

Green (project on track): All the aspects of the project are on track and there is no risk of the project completion then the status of the project is shown in Green status.

Now, let’s take a look at an example Project Status Report when it’s Amber:

Project Status
WeekMM/DD/YYYY
Project ManagerJohn Doe
Stoplight RatingAMBER
StatusSchedule issues (see below for details) – 1 week behind
Resource constraints (see below for details) – down one resource who was pulled for another project
Risk DescriptionSchedule Issues: The project is 1 week behind due to difficulties in scheduling meetings with users to gather information about the current applicant tracking system.
Risk DescriptionResource Constraints: The team leader was pulled from the project to help with another project. Expect to be away from this project for only 2 weeks. If it takes more than 2 weeks, it will affect the schedule.

Now, let’s take a look at an example Project Status Report when it’s Red:

Project Status
WeekMM/DD/YYYY
Project ManagerJohn Doe
Stoplight RatingRED
StatusResource constraints (see below for details) – unable to find the replacement of resource
Risk DescriptionResource Constraints: Test Automation Engineer left the project and the hiring team has not yet found any replacement. It is delaying project deliverables.

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