Free Project Status Report template

The project status template works hand in hand with the university PMO’s Jira projects, which all share the same scheme. In that scheme, a specific issue type called the PMO Project collects metadata, including the project details such as the project's name, project manager and sponsor, report date, project health, constraints, and status. 

That information is used to update the Jira macros embedded in the Confluence template, which will give your stakeholders an overview of the project's progress. There is only one PMO Project issue per project, and it’s all filled out by the project manager. This integration also ensures the project's status is continuously updated in real-time, allowing for immediate visibility into the project's current condition or progress.

ASU also automated filling out the Summary section of the template by creating two custom fields in the PMO Project issue: the Status note field and the Constraints field, effectively creating a project status summary. This summary provides key stakeholders and team members with a concise overview of the project's progress, including progress reports for completed work, upcoming tasks, and project milestones. Then, they employed the Jira macro in Confluence to pull only those fields into the Summary table.

To create this magic yourself, set the display only to show ‘Status note’ and ‘Constraints’ (or whatever you’ve set up as your status summary custom fields) in the corresponding columns. Once you’ve set this up, your project managers will only need to replace the project key in the macro JQL. This section reflects the project's progress through status notes and constraints, providing high-level updates to keep the team on track, proactively identifying risks, and ensuring stakeholders align with the project’s progress. 

With all this data automatically in their view, it’s far easier for the project manager to assign project status – green, yellow, or red – after a quick glance.

Use the Jira report macro to display all the issues in the project, including tracking project progress and aligning it with the project schedule, and then have your project managers replace the project key with their own. You’ll see in the ASU example that the team set up its PMO project issue type, which displays the custom fields summary, status, start date, end date, and description.

Give your stakeholders an overview of your latest accomplishments, next steps, and risks or issues. Again, ASU uses issue types that exist in each PMO Project.

In the Accomplishments column, ASU adds their resolved tasks from the last 7 days using the JQL Project = “ATL” AND Resolution changed to Done during (-7d, now()). This includes progress reports for completed work, upcoming tasks, and project milestones, providing a clear snapshot of achieved goals.

The Next Steps column pulls in tasks that are still unresolved using the JQL: Project = “ATL” AND issuetype != “PMO Project” AND Resolution = unresolved.

Custom issue types also pull in Risks and Issues. Assessing project health is crucial in identifying potential risks, ensuring the project remains on track, and informing stakeholders about key metrics, risks, and budget status.

Once you have set this up for your team, you can save the template as your own so that your project managers only need to update their project key to get started. Offer one place to send your stakeholders and teams to get an update across all projects in a standardized way.