projectstatus

Project status is the current state of a project relative to its objectives, schedule, budget, scope, and quality. It aggregates progress data, forecasts, risks, and issues to provide a snapshot of overall health and trajectory.

Common status categories used in reporting include Not Started, In Progress, On Hold, Behind Schedule, At Risk, Completed, and Cancelled. Some organizations also use color codes (for example green, yellow, red) to convey status at a glance. In agile contexts, statuses may map to workflows such as Backlog, In Progress, Review, and Done.

Status is determined through regular reviews and objective metrics, including earned value management, schedule variance, burn-down or burn-up charts, milestone completion, and risk assessments. It should be grounded in baselines and updated promptly to reflect changes.

Status reporting informs stakeholders and decision-makers. It is typically presented in dashboards or status reports that highlight schedule variance, cost status, scope changes, risk exposure, and critical path. The frequency of updates ranges from weekly to monthly depending on project size and governance.

Best practices include defining standard statuses with clear criteria, ensuring data accuracy, aligning with governance processes, and maintaining consistency across teams and tools. In many project management systems the status is a field on the project or tasks, often used to filter reports and set alerts; some tools refer to it as projectstatus.