status-reporting

name	status-reporting
description	Create stakeholder-friendly project status updates and progress reports. Use when writing a status update, progress report, weekly or milestone recap, release summary, or any stakeholder-facing account of where work stands.

Status Reporting Skill

Generate clear, audience-appropriate project status updates that translate technical progress into stakeholder-friendly communication.

Status reports serve different audiences with different needs:

• Executives: Impact, risk, timeline
• Managers: Progress, blockers, resources
• Teams: Details, dependencies, next steps
• Customers: Value delivered, what's coming

Shared Knowledge Gate

Before preparing a consequential stakeholder report containing risks, commitments, or decisions, consult scout-knowledge-base for relevant prior decisions, failure modes, procedures, and gotchas. Read only records whose signals or preconditions match the report, and treat them as context rather than authority. If unavailable, state that once and continue with current evidence; do not create a local fallback while reporting.

Report Templates

Executive Summary (30 seconds)

## Project Status: [Project Name]
**Date**: [Date] | **Status**: 🟢 On Track / 🟡 At Risk / 🔴 Blocked

### One-Line Summary
[Single sentence: what happened and what it means]

### Key Metrics
| Metric | Current | Target | Trend |
|--------|---------|--------|-------|
| [Metric 1] | [Value] | [Goal] | ↑/↓/→ |
| [Metric 2] | [Value] | [Goal] | ↑/↓/→ |

### Decisions Needed
- [ ] [Decision 1 with deadline]

### Timeline Impact
[On schedule / X days ahead / X days behind — why]

Weekly Team Update

## Week of [Date Range]

### Completed ✅
- [Achievement 1] — [impact]
- [Achievement 2] — [impact]

### In Progress 🔄
- [Task 1] — [% complete, ETA]
- [Task 2] — [% complete, ETA]

### Blocked 🚫
- [Blocker] — need [resolution] from [who] by [when]

### Next Week Focus
1. [Priority 1]
2. [Priority 2]
3. [Priority 3]

### Metrics
- Velocity: [X] story points
- Bugs: [X] open, [Y] closed
- Coverage: [X]%

### Risks & Mitigations
| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |
|------|------------|--------|------------|
| [Risk] | H/M/L | H/M/L | [Action] |

Stakeholder Email

Subject: [Project] Status — [Date] — [Status Emoji]

Hi [Name],

**Quick Summary**: [One sentence on where we are]

**This Week's Wins**:
• [Win 1 — business impact]
• [Win 2 — business impact]

**Coming Up**:
• [Next milestone] — [Date]
• [Key deliverable] — [Date]

**Need Your Input On**:
• [Decision needed] — [Context, options, recommendation]

Happy to jump on a call if you have questions.

[Sign-off]

Sprint Retrospective Summary

## Sprint [N] Retrospective

### What Went Well 🎉
- [Positive 1]
- [Positive 2]

### What Could Improve 🔧
- [Improvement 1]
- [Improvement 2]

### Action Items
| Action | Owner | Due |
|--------|-------|-----|
| [Action] | [Who] | [When] |

### Sprint Metrics
- Planned: [X] points | Completed: [Y] points
- Carry-over: [Z] items
- Team satisfaction: [Score]/5

Audience Adaptation

Language Translation

Technical Term	Executive Translation
"Refactored the authentication module"	"Improved security and login reliability"
"Reduced technical debt"	"Reduced maintenance costs and risk"
"Implemented CI/CD pipeline"	"Automated our release process — faster, safer updates"
"Fixed race condition"	"Resolved intermittent bug causing data issues"
"Migrated to microservices"	"Made the system more scalable and reliable"

Detail Levels

Audience	Detail Level	Focus On
C-Suite	Minimal	Business impact, risks, decisions
VP/Director	Summary	Progress, resources, timeline
Manager	Moderate	Tasks, blockers, team health
Team	Detailed	Technical specifics, dependencies
Customer	Outcome	Value delivered, what's next

Status Indicators

Traffic Light System

Status	Symbol	Meaning	Action
Green	🟢	On track, no issues	Continue
Yellow	🟡	At risk, needs attention	Monitor closely
Red	🔴	Blocked, needs escalation	Immediate action
Blue	🔵	Complete	Celebrate
Gray	⚪	Not started	Plan

Trend Indicators

Symbol	Meaning
↑	Improving
↓	Declining
→	Stable
⚠️	Needs attention

Automation Triggers

When to Generate Status

Trigger	Report Type
End of day Friday	Weekly summary
Sprint end	Sprint report
Before stakeholder meeting	Executive summary
Milestone completion	Achievement update
Blocker encountered	Escalation notice
User asks "what did we do"	Session/period summary

Data Sources

Pull information from:

• Git commits and PR descriptions
• Issue tracker (completed, in-progress, blocked)
• Calendar (milestones, deadlines)
• Session history (what we worked on)
• Metrics dashboards (if available)

Best Practices

DO ✅

• Lead with the most important information
• Use consistent formatting across reports
• Include specific dates and numbers
• Highlight decisions needed
• Acknowledge blockers honestly
• Show progress, not just activity

DON'T ❌

• Bury bad news
• Use jargon with non-technical audiences
• Include unnecessary detail
• Report activity without outcomes
• Over-promise on timelines
• Skip risk assessment

Session Protocol

Generating a Status Report

1. Clarify audience: Who will read this?
2. Determine scope: What period? What project?
3. Gather data: Commits, issues, conversations
4. Identify highlights: What matters most?
5. Draft report: Use appropriate template
6. Adapt language: Match audience level
7. Review for clarity: Can a newcomer understand?

Sample requests

Use status-reporting to create a session status report.
Use status-reporting to create this week's team update.
Use status-reporting to create an executive summary for this project.
Use status-reporting to draft a stakeholder email for [name].

Integration Points

Triggers for This Skill

• "status update", "status report"
• "what did we accomplish", "summarize progress"
• "stakeholder update", "email to [stakeholder]"
• "sprint report", "weekly summary"
• End of day/week (proactive)

Metrics

• Clarity score: Can reader understand in 30 seconds?
• Completeness: All sections filled appropriately
• Accuracy: Numbers and dates verified
• Audience fit: Language matches recipient

Would Revise If

Revisit this skill by 2026-11-30 or sooner if any of the following fires:

• Stakeholder feedback reports the templates as unclear, jargon-heavy, or missing decisions-needed sections ≥3 times within a quarter
• The audience-adaptation table produces tone mismatches when applied verbatim ≥2 times in observed reports
• Reports generated via these templates consistently bury bad news or miss escalation triggers that surface later as preventable surprises

Complementary Scout resources

This Scout skill includes original Alex ACT Core prompts and/or instructions as supporting files. Read resources/RESOURCE-INDEX.md when you need the source prompt workflow or always-on instruction context that complemented this skill in the GitHub Copilot implementation.

• resources/prompts/note.prompt.md
• resources/prompts/save-session-note.prompt.md
• resources/prompts/status.prompt.md