Weekly status update
A fixed weekly note covering what finished, what comes next, what is blocked, and exactly which decisions the client owes by when.
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What it is
A weekly status update is a short written record of what finished, what is next, what is blocked, and which decisions or inputs are due. It creates one shared version of the project's condition between meetings and leaves a dated trail when scope, timing, or responsibility later gets fuzzy.
Send it on the same day each week and keep the shape fixed: overall red, amber, or green status, completed work, next week's work, blockers, decisions needed with owners and dates, and changes to scope or milestones. The red, amber, green convention is the same one the UK Infrastructure and Projects Authority publishes each year against the government projects it tracks, and its usefulness there comes entirely from writing down what each colour means before anyone has to pick one. Link to the source tasks instead of copying an entire project board into email.
Gotcha: reporting activity instead of state. 'Met with the team' says nothing about whether a deliverable moved. Name completed outputs, forecast dates, and the exact consequence of each blocker. Green should mean the plan is intact, not that the sender feels optimistic.
Ask AI for it
Draft this week's client status update from the Jira issue list and project notes below. Use RAG status with an explicit rule: green means the committed milestone is on plan, amber means recovery is possible with action, and red means the date or scope must change. Include completed outputs, next week's outputs, blockers with owners and impact, decisions needed with dates, milestone changes, and Jira issue keys as links. Put asks near the top, distinguish facts from forecasts, keep it under 300 words, and end with the next reporting date.