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Project Status Reports are critical documents that project managers
Project Status Reports are critical documents that project managers employ to communicate vital aspects regarding the progress of their ventures, hence ensuring that all stakeholders remain informed to facilitate better decision-making practices and increase chances of succeeding (Cervone, 2014). The most common types of status reports entail the following:
Variance Reports
These reports provide data on the difference between the actual and pre-planned states of the project. The tabular numeric data makes it relatively more comfortable for the target audience to compare and differentiate. Similarly, the deviations could be presented graphically to make it easier for the audience to identify the differences between the actual and planned outcomes. Hence, these reports consume relatively much time since it presents lots of details about each category of data. Moreover, the reports do not offer summarized or conclusive information, instead the audiences have to analyze the data.
Stoplight Reports
These types of reports rely on specific colors to exemplify the progress of the project. Accordingly, the reports are relatively easier for the target audience to attain the intended message because it employs visual aspects of colors that convey particular meanings. Since the colors have specific meanings, these reports are more effective and common among project teams. The reports rely primarily on three colors; red, yellow and green. Green color means that the project is progressing well. The yellow color indicates that the project is lagging in some areas, and hence certain aspects should be adjusted to encourage recovery and better progress. Finally, the red color means that the project is facing major problems and running out of control.
Exception Reports
These reports illustrate what has gone against the plan. Accordingly, the reports could be used as a baseline for avoiding the repetition of similar mistakes and errors. These reports are primarily developed for higher management personnel. Therefore, these reports could be of no or negative value to other stakeholders since they are meant for the top management only.
Gantt Charts
Gantt Charts provides graphical representations of data regarding the project schedule. The charts illustrate and track each task against time. The charts offer important details including all necessary activities, procedures of handling tasks and assigned workers. Unfortunately, Gantt Charts do not provide information about interrelationship between the different activities involved. Still, Gantt Charts could be relatively challenging to understand due to their complexities.
Cumulative Reports
These reports rely on graphical representations to present how the actual versus predetermined values as they accumulate. Accordingly, the reports offer crucial historical details from the start to the current state of the project by providing relevant metrics against time they were attained. Therefore, the time-phased report is relatively easier to understand since it graphically presents data. Nonetheless, these reports may not offer finer details because they focus on cumulative data.
Current Period Reports
These documents provide details about the recently accomplished tasks and progress of the projects. Besides, the reports offer reasons for various events. Accordingly, these reports are highly informative to varied categories of audiences. However, these reports provide limited information since they focus primarily on the recent experiences and progress of projects (van Aartsengel, & Kurtoglu, 2013).
Differences Between Status Reports Offered for Steering Committee, Sponsors and Project Teams
Reports for sponsors: Since sponsors are concerned with the progress and eventual output of the project, their reports may not relay lots of details including employees and activities involved. Such reports provide anticipated risks and possible ways of overcoming them while explaining other necessary resources.
Reports for steering committee: since the steering committee would like to understand how projects progress in relation to their plans, they need lots of details in timely basis to facilitate better decision-making activities for revising and adjusting the project plans.
Reports for the project team: these reports offer details concerning tasks, schedules and involved personnel assigned to each team. Moreover, these reports provide information on accomplishments of the teams, encountered issues and challenges, as well as target goals and objectives.
Application of Status Reports in the Selected Case Study: Lyle Construction Project
Different status reports are necessary to encourage better progress of the Lyle construction project. First, Current Period Reports should be used to inform virtually every concerned stakeholder including the teams, steering committee, and sponsors. Sponsors of the project should remain updated on the current status of the project, additional resources needed and established approaches to addressing existing and anticipated problems and challenges. The stakeholders should gain adequate information regarding the project to facilitate better decision-making activities. Besides, the Stoplight Report should be employed to inform the top management and steering committee on undesired status of the project, hence triggering execution of necessary resolutions. Moreover, Exception Reports should be used to educate and inform the project teams on tasks that were not accomplished well while providing necessary adjustments to avoid repetition of similar errors. Also, the steering committee should rely on cumulative reports and Gantt Charts to gain more insightful about the project to unravel areas of laxity and processes that should be adjusted to ensure that the project regains its desired course and increase chances of realizing its long-term goal and objectives. The management and steering committee would gain better capability to restructure, revise and adjust the project’s plan upon ensuring that each engaged party acquires sufficient information.
References
Cervone, H. F. (2014). Effective communication for project success. OCLC Systems and Services: International digital library perspectives.
van Aartsengel, A., & Kurtoglu, S. (2013). Develop Communication Management Plan. In Handbook on Continuous Improvement Transformation (pp. 363-380). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
The Gift of the Magi
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The Gift of the Magi
The Gift of the Magi is a short story authored by O. Henry, and it revolves around the lives of a young, poor couple Jim and his wife, Della. The young couple lives in a modest apartment and has very little money. The only valuable possession they had was Della’s long hair and Jim’s gold pocket watch, which belonged to his family. The story takes place just before Christmas, where both of them are contemplating the gifts to get one another. Della is sad because she only has one dollar and eighty seven-cents, which is not enough to purchase any valuable present for Jim. She therefore settles with selling her hair, so that she could buy Jim a watch chain. On the other hand, Jim also wants to impress Della that he sells his valuable watch to buy the tortoiseshell combs that she always wanted for her hair. In the beginning, they both believe that the only way they can make each other happy is by purchasing extravagant gifts. However, in the end, their feeling about gifts change. The couple does not hesitate to lose their valuable possessions to please each other, which makes them realize that the wealth of love they have for one another is even more essential than their lack of funds.
The young couple shows the true expression of love by selling their most prized possessions and by showing selfless consideration for their loved one. The relationship between Jim and Della can be described as reciprocal, selfish, and profound. Their relationship is not based in inconsequential or trivial qualities. Even though Jim had his wages cut by a third after they got married, she did not love him any less. The qualities that define these two young individuals remain unchanged throughout the short story. At the beginning of the story, O. Henry describes the young couple using their poverty and their unselfish love for one another, something that is still constant at the end of the story. Even after their realization that the love they had for each other was more important than their lack of funds, nothing changes between them as they continue being committed to making each other happy as they did in the beginning.
Della can be described as a warm, loving, and selfless woman, who appears to be the dominant character in the story. In the story, she is portrayed as a poor homemaker, who spends most of her days inside a cramped flat. However, it is evident that she lives for one thing, which is her husband. Throughout the story, it is clear that she loved her husband so much that she spent so much time thinking of the best gift that she could get him for Christmas. Even though Jim is not bringing the same amount of money he brought after they were married, Della still loves him completely, and she believes that he deserved the best. Della is willing to go to any lengths to ensure that her husband has gotten what he deserves for Christmas (Lin 50). At this point, one can argue that Della believes that only an extravagant gift can impress his husband. Even though she is worried that Jim might not like her as he did before for cutting her hair short, she still cuts it to obtain money for purchasing the gift.
Jim also has a similar perception to that of Della, that only an extravagant gift would make his wife happy. However, as the story comes to an end, his attitude also changes after they are left with gifts they cannot use. He also reaches to the agreement that the only thing that is constant to them is the love they have for each other. From the story, it is evident that Jim was not doing great. O. Henry describes him saying, “He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat, and he was without gloves (Henry 4).” He is the breadwinner for the family, and even though he works for long hours, the salary is not enough for them. The two are struggling to survive and pay for their small flat’s expenses. However, just like his wife, one thing keeps him going; his love for Della. Even though the author does not dwell on Jim’s character so much, it is evident from the sacrifice he made that he loved his wife. He gives up a possession that belonged to his grandfather and father, to purchase something that would please the woman he loved so much. However, at the end of the story, they both change their perceptions on the extravagant gifts, what they needed was the love they had for each other.
Another change that appears in the story is Della’s physical appearance. Her hair is used in describing her beauty. She is described as a character who had beautiful long brown hair, which reached down below her knees. The author compares Della’s hair to a brown waterfall (Carrier 20). However, to make money for Jim’s gift, she had to make a sacrifice, and cut her hair short. She is however afraid of Jim’s reaction on realizing that she had cut her hair (Henry 5). After Jim enters the house and stares at her with a peculiar expression, she is only worried about her husband’s displeasure. However, cutting her hair does not change Jim’s feelings towards her, he is not angry with her for cutting her hair because both of them had done the same thing; sold what they valued the most for the other.
Conclusively, at the beginning of the story, it is evident that the two principal characters of the story believe that the only way to impress each other was by purchasing extravagant gifts. Therefore, they both settle with selling their most valuable possessions to get good gifts. Della cuts her hair short and sells it, while Jim sells his expensive watch. However, in the end, they are both left with items they cannot use, which makes them realize that the love they had for each other was more important than any material possessions.
Works Cited
Carrier, James. “Gifts in a world of commodities: the ideology of the perfect gift in American society.” Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice 29 (1990): 19-37.
Henry, Oh. The Gift of the Magi. Pioneer Drama Service, Inc., 1977.
Henry, Ossian. The gift of the Magi and other short stories. Courier Corporation, 2012.
Lin, Tai-An. “A study of metacognition on O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”.” Asian Social Science 6.4 (2010): 49-54.
The GI Offensive In Europe
The GI Offensive In Europe
Mansoor is the author of the book “The GI Offensive in Europe”, obtained a PhD from the state of Ohio, and was a teacher of military history at West Point. His book concentrates on the issues surrounding American performance in Europe during the World War II. According to the book, German Werhmacht had the capability of fighting forces from any military force in the World. However, despite its ability the formation of the Allies proved difficult for the German forces. Moonsoor indicates in the book that no resources that the United States produced was useful without soldiers to use them. According to the book, it is the organizational capabilities of the military, leaders to lead formations, and the willpower to win by the army. In accordance, the soldiers sent to war were responsible for the defeat of the German soldiers.
The book concentrates on indicating that the soldiers won the war because by developing the combat divisions that proved to be effective. These divisions would win the war and facilitate the sustenance of the win over the following years. The United States economy was booming, and their industrial sector was thriving. United States industries were producing materials sent to the war front. In addition, the status of the American economy had the meaning United States could sustain the war oversees. However, the effectiveness portrayed by the forces depended on the ability of the army to adapt into various lethal environments. Their organization and discipline that they did derive from their leadership was contributors to the success of US army in the European front during the war. It is clear that there is a message that the author is sending through the book.
Mansoor in the book does analyze the impacts of logistical and personal systems of the strength of the army. In the book, there are explanations of the way leaders of the army would use smaller groups in their divisions that had high state of effectiveness in terms of combat. The organization of the American divisions retained their high state during the critical wars of 1944 and 1945. On the other hand, German Wehrmacht was disintegrating from the immense pressure leading to its collapse. The most significant factor to win the battle, according to explanations from the book, was the endurance of the American army. For explaining these facts, the book closely examines the capabilities of the army commanders and their tactics that would be substantial facilitators of the success of the Allies during the war of 1944 and 1945 that led to the retreat of the German soldiers.
Mansoor explains in the book the reasons that led to the success of the United States Army and the Allies during the Second World War. The books give a different account of the events leading to the success of the army. Mansoor explains the organization of the military. According to him, the unit-to-unit divisions of the army had more effect that the adversaries of the army. The GI Offensive in Europe succeeds in changing the perspective of the success of the American troops. This book is indispensable in the history of military given that it gives details on the issues that led to American victory in the Second World War.
Bibliography
Mansoor, P. R. The GI Offensive in Europe: The Triumph of American Infantry Divisions. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002.