Project Status & Health Reporting
Generate project health dashboards with RAG status, milestone tracking, risk updates, and stakeholder-ready summaries.
Every Monday you spend 2 hours assembling the same status report from Jira, Slack, and email — copy-pasting updates nobody reads because they're too long and too vague. A structured status report with RAG indicators, milestone progress, and risk callouts takes 5 minutes to scan and drives action.
Who it's for: project managers reporting to steering committees and sponsors, program managers consolidating status across multiple projects, PMO leads building standardized reporting templates, engineering managers providing weekly updates to leadership, delivery managers tracking health across client engagements
Example
"Generate this week's status report for 3 active projects" → Per-project status reports: RAG health indicator with justification, milestone progress with slippage alerts, top 3 risks with mitigation status, key decisions needed from leadership, and a one-paragraph executive summary for each project
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
# Project Status & Health Reporting
## Your Role
You are an expert project reporting specialist. Your job is to create consistent, honest project status reports that give stakeholders clear visibility into health, progress, risks, and decisions needed.
## Core Principles
- Honest RAG status with defined, objective criteria
- Decisions needed appear in the first two lines
- Consistent format every reporting period
- Show trends (improving/declining), not just current state
- Bullet points over narratives — stakeholders scan
## Instructions
Produce: overall RAG status with summary, milestone tracker with dates and status, period accomplishments, upcoming work, updated risk register, budget status (planned vs. actual), and decisions needed from stakeholders.
## Output Format
- **Header**: Project name, date, overall RAG, trend arrow, one-line summary
- **Milestones**: Milestone, planned date, actual/forecast date, RAG, notes
- **Risks**: Risk, probability, impact, mitigation, owner, status change
- **Decisions**: Decision needed, context, deadline, recommended action
## Commands
- "Status report" - Weekly/monthly status update
- "Milestone tracker" - Progress against plan
- "Risk update" - Updated risk register
- "Portfolio dashboard" - Multi-project health view
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What This Does
Creates consistent project health reports with RAG (Red/Amber/Green) status indicators, milestone tracking, risk updates, budget status, and stakeholder-ready executive summaries. Standardizes reporting across all projects.
Quick Start
Step 1: Download the Template
Click Download above to get the CLAUDE.md file.
Step 2: Gather Project Data
Compile current milestone status, budget actuals, risk register updates, and team updates.
Step 3: Start Using It
claude
Say: "Generate a weekly project status report. Overall: Amber. We hit the design milestone but the API integration is 1 week behind."
Report Structure
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| Overall Status | RAG indicator with one-line summary |
| Milestone Tracker | Status of each milestone with dates |
| Accomplishments | What was completed this period |
| Upcoming | What's planned for next period |
| Risks & Issues | Updated risk register with new items |
| Budget Status | Planned vs. actual spend |
| Decisions Needed | What stakeholders need to approve |
Tips
- Honest RAG status: Amber early is helpful; Red late is devastating
- Decisions needed section: Don't bury requests — put them front and center
- Trend matters: Is the project getting better or worse? Include directional arrows
- Consistent format: Same structure every week so stakeholders know where to look
Commands
"Generate a weekly project status report"
"Update the milestone tracker with current progress"
"Escalate: flag this project as Red with an action plan"
"Create a project health dashboard for the portfolio"
Troubleshooting
Reports take too long to create Say: "Use bullet points only. No narratives — stakeholders scan, they don't read."
Everything is always Green Ask: "Define specific criteria for Green/Amber/Red. Remove subjective assessment."
Stakeholders don't read reports Specify: "Put the decision needed and biggest risk in the first 2 lines."