I have hated status updates all my life because I feel that people should already know what the heck is going on if they’re involved in something.
But as I’ve gotten older, I started to realise why people ask for them. However the next and proper question is, if you have to have a status update, then WHAT is a good status update?
And here, I think I diverge from the majority of PMs most people think a good status update is a status update that tells you something you want to know, i.e., good news. I disagree.
A good status update just gives you the status of what’s going on so that you can make informed decisions. That might sound like a minor thing, but it’s a major thing to those who are giving you the information to make that update to powerful people.
If everyone thinks that you will only accept good news as part of your update, then they will not turn up to your meetings. They will not give you the truth. They will not even be available to find because frankly what is the point?
But in reality as long as they tell you what’s going on and give you enough information to show that people are making an effort and that whatever progress can be made is being made toward a resolution, that is a good status update.
Then it is your job as a manager or project manager to take that and fight the battle with the stakeholders or the clients. It is not the responsibility of subject matter experts, be they developers, support staff, or business people, to give you good news, and only good news. You’re paid to manage projects, so manage them.