Report Highlights

 

At an End Stage Assessment, or an Exception Assessment, either the next Stage Plan or an Exception Plan approved by the project board, tolerance for the next stage is set, and the frequency of highlight reports for the next stage are stated.

 

The Highlight Reports are created by the project manager and provided the project board with summary information about the status of the stage and the project.  These are also distributed to other key stakeholders as defined in the Communication Management Strategy document.  Typically the Highlight Report will be asked for on a monthly basis, but its frequency will depend on many factors within the stage, for example how complex, risky, or lengthy the stage is.

 

PRINCE2 recommends the following actions:

 

Typically checkpoint reports occur on a weekly basis, and the project manager will want to collect this information to form the basis of the Highlight Report.  Also, the risk and issue registers are used to gather status on these topics for inclusion within the Highlight Report.  The specialist team will have been creating the specialist products, carrying out quality checking activities, and getting the requisites approvals as detailed in each Product Description.  Therefore a rich source of progress is information can be gleaned from the quality register.

 

There may be lessons to be learnt since the last Highlight Report, and these can be gathered from the Lessons Log.  The project manager may wish to request a Product Status Account from configuration management to gather the most up-to-date information on product creation progress.

 

Throughout the stage the project manager would have been using the Stage Plan as a reference point to monitor and control the stage, and in doing so, keeping the Stage Plan updated with actual progress.  

 

The Stage Plan, any revisions, and deviations is also a source of information to include within the highlight report.

 

The project manager’s main responsibility is to ensure that the stage completes within tolerance, and in doing so will normally take many small corrective actions.  These corrective actions should be summarized within the highlight report to give confidence to the project board that the stage is being managed appropriately.

 

The project manager will want to refer to the previous Highlight Report to note any promised or forecasted activities, and ensure that these have been carried out, or state a reasonable reason why these have not been done.  The Highlight Report will be distributed to members of the project board, but the Communication Management Strategy should be referred to for other stakeholders that need to be sent copies.

 

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