Issues log vs. Progress Report Confusion !

In the project management world there are plenty of terms that make the project managers confused, and drive him crazy. Issues log and progress report are one of the main two project management terms that almost every project manager get confused between them. Lets have the definition for each one of them:

- The issues log is a list of all issues might arise during the execution of the project. It should include the criticality of the issue, the responsible person and the due date to resolve this issue. The issues log helps the project manager to track each issue, and keep the project under control. The issues included in the issues log were not part of the project activities !

- The progress report is a tabulated project information in a time bases (daily, weekly, mothly etc). For example, the project manager might sent to the stakeholders all the activities and milestones that have been achieved during the last week, the planned due date and the actual start and finish dates for each activity. This helps the project manager to show the progress of the project, and find determine any deviation from the project time baseline.

From the previous definitions, we can clearly differentiate between the two terms. The issues log can show all the project issues, blockers, and any defects that arise during the execution phase and might delay the project, while the progress report is only used to show the stakeholders what have been achieved during a certain time, and is there any deviation from the baselines.

Accordingly, the key stakeholders in the project are not interested to see the issues log and in the same time they want to see the progress report regularly to be aware of the project execution status. The progress report might be helpful for the team members and some of the stakeholders who want to drill down and be aware of every single details of the project. This does not mean the issues log should be hidden from the key stakeholder, the project manager might need them and use thier power to solve some major issues.

I wrote this article because I have seen a lot of project managers who mix between issues log and progress report. In my opinion, the disadvantages of doing so are as follow:

1. Unnecessarily involvement and awareness of the high management in the project issues. The high management want to see only the status of the project milestones, and a short comments about each milestone
   
2. Team members will be confused, because they are responsible to track the issues and close them on time. The issues log should be clear, and as accurate as possible to avoid any misunderstanding
3. Reporting the issues log to the not interested people is a form of bad communication. The project manager is responsible to show the project documents on time and to the respective people only !
   

The issues log is disclosed to only the team members and to the stakeholders who can solve this issues, not to every one; while the progress report is reported to the key stakeholders who want to see the status of the project activities & milestones.


Below is a templates of the issues log & progress report.
Issues Log Template
Progress Report Template