Reporting and Communication

As noted earlier, a schedule is a fundamental program management tool that specifies when work will be performed in the future and how well the program is performing against an approved plan. It is therefore particularly important that all stakeholders be able to view information stored in the schedule related to their specific roles and needs to successfully manage and execute the plan. Stakeholders include, among others, program team members, activity managers, government customers, resource managers, subcontractors, program sponsors, finance specialists, and decision makers. Each stakeholder requires a different level and type of information that depends on whether the stakeholder is internal to the program or external. Reports can encompass actual data (status), actual versus planned data (progress), and predictive data (forecasts). A well-constructed, comprehensive schedule is a database that contains actual, planned, and forecast activity as well as resource and cost information. It can report reliable data quickly at all levels of detail.

The regularity of schedule reporting and the level of detail that is reported naturally varies by stakeholder and project complexity. At the level of senior decision maker, high-level summary trend charts and key milestone schedules reporting monthly or quarterly progress are most useful. These reports typically include progress and forecast information on contractual and deliverable milestones and major program phases, as well as summary critical path and contingency information. High-level trend information is also useful, such as key milestone completions, contingency burn rate, and resource availability. In addition, the level of detail depends on the complexity and risk of certain WBS items. For example, a series of complex activities on the critical path may be reported to program management in more detail than less complex, noncritical activities.