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In my team, For the past two months, one of my team failed to share the weekly status reports with a customer during my vacation. I acknowledge that weekly status reports are crucial documentation, providing evidence of progress and communication transparency. In light of this oversight, I'm contemplating the best approach to rectify the situation.Should I consolidate all the status updates from the past two months into a single comprehensive document, or would it be more effective to create separate documents for each missed week? While both options would serve the same purpose, I'm inclined to take a corrective action that aligns with best practices and demonstrates accountability. Any insights or recommendations on the preferred course of action would be greatly appreciated.

Additionally, it's worth noting that this particular customer has a close engagement with us and is familiar with the project's status. However, past experiences have shown the importance of having detailed status reports as a safeguard against misunderstandings or disputes. Therefore, I'm seeking guidance on the most diplomatic and effective approach to address this situation.

This is a waterfall software project in the development stage.

MS007
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    You missed 8 status reports and your customer didn't even ask why they aren't coming? My customers would have asked they day after the first was due. Maybe they aren't as "crucial" to them as you think? – nvoigt Jan 29 '24 at 07:23
  • Yes, they don't care about it at all. They love meetings. But it is part of my company process and it is important as you know. – MS007 Jan 29 '24 at 07:42
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    I tend to agree with nvoigt - if they were so important or crucial, they would have asked 6 or 7 weeks ago, after missing a couple. However, since you have a close engagement with the customer, is there any reason why you can't ask them what would be most useful to them? – Thomas Owens Jan 29 '24 at 12:40

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I would just resume sending the weekly reports. Forget about the old ones.

As pointed out already in the comments, if someone needed them, they would have complained already. It seems they are not very useful, but is within your company policy or stipulated in the contract as part of details within the management of the project. So resume sending them as part of that.

If someone asks for the old ones, then you can send them. But most likely they will not ask now, if they didn't ask when they noticed them missing. So even if you send all the reports from the last two months, probably nobody will read them now.

The only thing of concern is if the relationship with this customer goes south for some reason. In Waterfall projects it sometimes happens at the end of it, when the customer receives the final product but either does not like it or asks for something different.

Then arguing starts. "We didn't ask for this, you misunderstood that, bla bla, what now? ...let's read the contract". Then everything becomes ammunition. And two months of weekly status reports missing will be used for sure in the conflict. If you think this is a big risk, then just send out the old reports. If not, this can also be an opportunity to open up a discussion with the customer, to ask what is helpful for them: the weekly status reports or something else?

Bogdan
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