Consistently share progress

Advantages

It is important to ensure that all stakeholders who are involved in your project, or have an interest in your project, are kept updated on its progress over its duration. Regular updates can spark new interest in the project, particularly if made when a project milestone is met or an important outcome is achieved. This is very useful for long-term projects, which require stakeholder engagement over extended periods of time. Sharing progress presents an opportunity to receive feedback from external stakeholders, and helps to flag potential project issues at early stages. It is necessary to keep funders aware of the project’s progress, confirming that it continues to align with the goals and objectives of the funding body. Here, regular brief reports on the status of agreed upon milestones and deliverables can be useful.

Disadvantages

It may take time to establish appropriate methods and pathways for sharing project progress across a diverse group of stakeholders. Progress reported to government (often done through policy briefs or roundtable discussions) will consist of different information and be presented in a different format to progress reported to community members (often done through newsletters or community meetings). It may be difficult to summarise a large amount of work into a clear, brief message. It is important to share the right messages with the right people - remember who your audience are and only include the information that is relevant to them. When circulating project updates to a diverse range of stakeholders, a number of avenues for providing feedback should be made available to suit different levels of access and ability (online, face-to-face, via phone).