Program managers will tell you that writing status reports can be tricky, especially when things aren’t going so well. But the status needs to be shared with stakeholders regardless, and program team members shouldn’t view a yellow or red status as a black eye. Despite the hard work of the team, and with all of a program manager’s careful planning and risk mitigation, sh*t happens! And you have to keep stakeholders informed. Just make sure the status also includes what the team is doing to get things back on track. With some pre-emptive communications, your stakeholders will understand and then you can get the team focused on getting back to green.
Sharing program status — a delicate dance
