Weekly

The PM on each active project should be completing a cleanup and reporting process once a week for each project they manage. This should happen after the weekly sprint meeting on Wednesdays.

Clean Up Asana

Go through the relevant Asana project(s). Ensure that all the tasks are still in the right sections, have the right assignees, are assigned to the right locations within the sprint lifecycle, etc. Key checks:

Are all tasks that are supposed to be in the current sprint actually in the current sprint project?
Are tasks required for the next sprint added to the sprint backlog?
Are there strategy or PM tasks that are behind? Are there any that need deadlines to ensure we are ready for the next sprint?
Are there tasks that are drifting?
Are tasks in the right sections within each project, and are they ordered in a way that is intuitive and clean?

Clean up any anomalies or issues immediately:

For example, if an unclarified task somehow made its way into the sprint, make sure there is a clarification task for it.
If a task required quickly was not in the sprint yet, request addition with the sprint owner
If a task was in the sprint but not assigned, figure out an appropriate assignee.

Monthly

Invoice the client and make sure that all invoiced hours are marked as such in Harvest.
Review the , and entries for the client for accuracy and currency.

Reports (Weekly, Monthly, or Quarterly)

The schedule for reports should vary depending on how much work we are doing with the client. By default, we send a “Weekly Report” for each client. However there are plenty of clients who we work with very lightly and for whom a weekly report is overkill. As a PM, use your judgment to determine if a weekly, monthly, or quarterly report is more appropriate.

Additionally, when a client is on “hold” there is no need to send ongoing reports. Just send a single report noting the hold, and then pause reports until the hold is lifted.

Internal Report

Provide an internal report via the Asana “Status”. For weekly reporting cycles, the nature of this report should be different on new sprint weeks vs. mid-sprint weeks.

On a new sprint week, the weekly update should be a “Sprint Kickoff” for that project’s work within the sprint. It should provide a recap of how we did for that project during the last sprint, and an outline of what is planned for the new sprint.

On a mid-sprint week, the weekly update should be a “Mid-Sprint Report” instead. This should focus on the current status of the sprint, what we might need to adjust to finish all the work on time, plus should have notes on what are starting to plan for the next sprint.

In both cases the report should include a comprehensive outline of hours used vs relevant budgets.

Client Report

Providing a weekly client report. This should include the same information as the internal report, but tailored to a client audience. Remove any in-house chatter/notes/planning, and add more context that matters to the client. Change wording to be less technical and more approachable. The client report should be sent via the client’s preferred communication medium, be that Slack, Email, or someday perhaps a private Asana project.

The client report must include our hours used status. This is crucial at ensuring that we don‘t end up with misunderstandings around billing.