Checkpoint Report

description producers & consumers template example

Description top

Preparation

A Checkpoint Report is prepared for the Project Manager of a PRINCE2™-compliant Project, at a frequency defined in a Stage Plan or a Workpackage. It describes the status of the work for each member of a Team. It should cover all the work of the Team which might be:

a single Workpackage
several Workpackages
all the Workpackages in the current Stage.

It will consolidate for a Workpackage or Stage the most recent Activity Status Reports (ASR) and Workpackage Status Reports (WSR) that are available. These will be:

the final report for an Activity or Workpackage that has been closed
for every Activity that is currently open, a newly-prepared ASR, which a Team Manager or Workpackage Manager will receive from the members of his/her Team
For every Workpackage that is currently open a newly-prepared WSR which a Workpackage Manager or Team Manager will prepare from the ASRs delivered by the Activity Managers in his/her Team
an initial Report for each Workpackage and/or Activity that has yet to be started.

The consolidation could be for a Stage, for several Workpackages, or for a single Workpackage. This will depend on the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and the work delegated to the Team. Starting with the Activities, a Checkpoint Report will build up a statement for each item in the Work Unit delegated to the Team of:

its summary status (usually reported as Red, Amber or Green, with appropriate comments)
a forecast for its date of completion (versus Plan)
a forecast of the effort needed to complete the item, together with the effort spent to date and the total effort provided by the Plan.

Supplementary information and comments on Quality, Risks, Issues and deviations from Tolerances may be included as required.

Report structure

It is common practice for the structure of a Project Status Report to reflect the Work Breakdown and the delegation of work. So typically, there will be a Checkpoint Report for each Workpackage in a Stage Plan.

Format and use of the report

A Checkpoint Report may be a simple verbal report, it could be provided as a Word document (for example on a large or complex Project, or as an email, (see Template below).

The next step

For a Project that is compliant with PRINCE2™, Checkpoint Reports will be consolidated into the Stage Status Report for the Stage that is currently open. This will be the next step in the assembly of a Highlight Report.

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Producers

Consumers

Monitor and Report Work Status

Do Work

Templatetop

The following Product Templates are available:

For PRINCE2™ Projects:
- a Word skeleton document called "Checkpoint Report"
- an Excel form called "Stage Status Table" whose layout is compatible with that of an Activity Status Report and a Workpackage Status Report. This Template is one of an integrated set, which supports the use of copy and paste, to simplify the upwards consolidation of Status Reports
- an Excel form called "Workpackage Status Table", whose layout is compatible with that of an Activity Status Report. This Template is one of an integrated set, which supports the use of copy and paste, to simplify the upwards consolidation of Status Reports
- an Excel form called "Activity Status Report". This Template is one of an integrated set, which supports the use of copy and paste, to simplify the upwards consolidation of Status Reports.

Example top

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