# Project Status Meeting Agenda Template (Free)

Source: https://lessmeeting.com/tools/meeting-agenda-templates/project-status/

A free 45-minute project status meeting agenda with a time on every topic, a filled-in example, and a status update to send the day before.

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A free 45-minute weekly project status meeting agenda that gives most of its time to risks and decisions. The written status goes out the day before. No signup. Copy it as text from the page, or open it in the free [agenda and minutes builder](/tools/meeting-minutes-template/?agenda=project-status) to edit it and download a PDF. Part of the [meeting agenda templates](/tools/meeting-agenda-templates/).

## The agenda (45 minutes, weekly)

Goals: schedule, scope and budget are each stated against plan; every risk has an owner and a next step.

| # | Topic | Minutes | How to run it |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Status against plan | 8 | Schedule, scope and budget, each on plan / at risk / off plan with one sentence of reason. Detail is in the written update; this slot is for questions. |
| 2 | Completed since last meeting | 5 | What finished and what it unblocks, plus last week's action items: closed, still open, or dropped. |
| 3 | Risks and issues | 12 | Ranked by impact before the meeting. Expect to cover two or three. Each gets an owner and a next step. |
| 4 | Decisions needed today | 12 | Written as a choice with options. No decision maker attending, no agenda slot. |
| 5 | Next milestones and owners | 6 | Next two milestones, dates and owners. Moved dates get said here. |
| 6 | Action item review | 2 | Read back each new item with its owner and due date. |

Action items are left blank and written during the meeting: what, who, and by when.

## Status update to send the day before

```
[Project name]: status update, week of [date]

Overall: On track / At risk / Off track

Schedule: [status]. [One sentence on why]
Scope: [status]. [One sentence on why]
Budget: [status]. [Spent vs. planned to date]

Completed since last update
- [What finished, and what it unblocks]

Last week's action items
- [Item / owner]: closed, still open, or dropped

Top risks and issues, ranked by impact
1. [Risk] / owner: [name] / next step: [step]
2. [Risk] / owner: [name] / next step: [step]

Decisions needed at the meeting
1. [Decision, with the options] / who decides: [name]

Next milestones
- [Milestone] / [date] / [owner]
```

## Filled-in example

A customer portal relaunch, week 6 of 14.

1. **Status against plan:** schedule at risk (payment vendor sandbox access slipped a week, pushing checkout testing). Scope on plan. Budget on plan, 41% spent at 43% of the timeline.
2. **Completed:** account settings pages on staging. Last week's four action items: three closed, the load-test plan still open.
3. **Risks:** payment sandbox delay (Dana: get a firm date by Wednesday, otherwise test against mocks). Two of four support agents for user testing on leave in week 9 (Priya: confirm backups).
4. **Decisions:** launch with saved cards only; Apple Pay moves to the first follow-up release (decided by Tom, sponsor). Pushing user testing back a week deferred until the vendor date is known.
5. **Milestones:** checkout feature-complete end of week 8 (Dana); user testing starts week 9 (Priya).
6. **Action items:** get a firm sandbox date from the vendor (Dana, Wed); confirm backup agents (Priya, Fri); remove Apple Pay from the launch scope doc (Marcus, Thu); finish the load-test plan (Marcus, Fri, carried from last week).

## FAQ

**How long should a project status meeting be?** 45 minutes for most projects with a mixed group. A small team on one workstream can do it in 30 by cutting risks and decisions to 8 minutes each. Regularly running past an hour usually means the status is presented live instead of sent ahead.

**Who should attend?** The project manager, the workstream leads, and whoever can make the decisions on the agenda, usually the sponsor. People with only an update can put it in the written status and skip the meeting.

**How often?** Weekly for most projects; twice a week near a launch or when risks pile up; every other week in a long steady stretch. Keep the written update weekly either way.

**Status meeting vs. standup?** A standup is daily, 15 minutes, for the people doing the work to surface blockers. A status meeting is weekly, includes stakeholders, and is where schedule, scope and budget decisions get made.

**What goes in a project status report?** Overall status; schedule, scope and budget against plan; what was completed; last week's action items; top risks with owners; decisions needed; next milestones. One screen.

**Can a written update replace the meeting?** Some weeks. If the written status raises no decision and no risk worth discussing, send it and cancel that week's meeting.

**How do I run the same status meeting every week?** Keep the agenda identical and start from last week's open action items. In Less Meeting the agenda is saved on the recurring series, and anything left open last week appears in this week's meeting until closed, with reminders to the owner in between.