Cycle Report

The goal of the cycle report is to provide a reflective assessment of the project over the last cycle (generally the last quarter). While similar to the weekly status reports, it should be more thoughtful and take into account the cycle's accomplishments with respect to the “big picture.” This is also an opportunity to revisit your Development Plan and make revisions as necessary.

The format can be similar to the status report, but keep in mind the audience might be a little different. The discussion in the cycle reports should be more involved than the status reports. You may also find that it makes sense to make it team centered and not as individually centered as the status reports.

The cycle report may be a wiki page in FogBugz, a Word document, or a PDF document. If not a wiki page, it should be made available in your Kiln repository.

Course, Team designator and member names, “Cycle N Report,” Day and Date Submitted.

Provide a brief summary of project and the planned deliverables for this cycle. Provide a summary of progress toward those deliverables as well as anything significant that was learned during the cycle. Summarize any significant changes to the project plan. (approximate length: 2-3 sentences)

Briefly, where are you relative to your schedule (plan/actual, milestone achievement)? Introduce topics that will be discussed, such as newly discovered risks, difficulties encountered, changes to your overall plan. (approximate length: 2-3 sentences)

Reflect on the experiences and accomplishments of the cycle just completed. (approximate length: variable, but likely 3-5 pages)

Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):

• Risks to the project, new and old. What contingency plans do you need to establish to manage new risks? What contingencies did you have to execute to counter a known risk?
• Evaluate and discuss the team's overall performance with respect to the project plan. Include supporting data such as the planned and actual times for each member.
• Discuss specific deliverables created during the cycle as well as supporting activities, such as reviews. If in an implementation phase, provide metrics such as lines of code, results from code reviews, etc.
• Discuss major modifications to the project plan, why those changes are necessary, and the impact of the changes on the overall project.
• Discuss any dilemmas faced by the team or a team member. How did you work to resolve the dilemma?
• Process improvement proposals.

Content depends whether changes to the project plan have occurred. If changes are necessary, the reasons and results should be discussed in the discussion section. Summarize the results of those changes here with a detailed plan of the next cycle. If no changes were necessary, simply summarize your accomplishments and provide a detailed plan for the next cycle. The detailed plan should include a list of milestones and cases associated with these milestones. The milestones and cases must be entered into FogBugz, and this document can make reference to them. You must indicate your planned deliverables for the next cycle.

Include a copy of the current version of your Development Plan with completed items identified as such as well as all current/updated items that remain.

Briefly summarize how you will be moving forward in the next cycle. (approximate length: 1-3 sentences)

Be sure to follow the general report guidelines.