Project Progress Vocabulary

1. The Language of Project Status

Professionals often use reports and dashboards to track project health. Before we learn the words, let's look at what they describe. Notice the key status words in these two typical project reports.

These reports show that the most important information in a project update is about schedule, budget, and task completion. Let's learn the vocabulary for each.

2. Talking About Schedules and Deadlines

The most common question in a project update is: "Are we on time?" The following video will teach you the essential phrases to answer this question clearly. You'll learn how to talk about the project schedule and manage deadlines.

Here’s a summary of those key phrases:

3. Talking About the Budget

After the schedule, the budget is often the next most important topic. The next short clip from the same video teaches the three simple phrases you need.

• Over budget: Using more money than planned.
  • Example: "The project is over budget because we had to buy more licenses."
• Under budget: Using less money than planned.
  • Example: "We finished the data migration under budget."
• On budget / Within budget: Using the planned amount of money.
  • Example: "We are working hard to keep the project on budget."

4. Describing Progress on Specific Tasks

When you give an update, you also need to talk about which specific tasks are finished and which are not. A very common and professional way to do this in English is by using the present perfect tense with the words already, yet, and still.

This next video explains exactly how to use these words to report on task status.

Here is a quick reference:

• Use already to emphasize that a task is completed.
  • "We have already deployed the new software patch."
• Use yet in negative sentences and questions to talk about something that has not happened.
  • "We haven't received the client's approval yet."
  • "Have you finished the system analysis yet?"
• Use still in negative sentences to show you are surprised or annoyed that a task is not finished.
  • "We still haven't fixed the main bug."

5. Sounding More Natural: Phrasal Verbs for Progress and Problems

To sound more fluent and natural in meetings, native speakers often use phrasal verbs. These are short, professional, and very common. The following video introduces phrasal verbs that are perfect for describing progress and challenges.

Here are some of the most useful phrasal verbs from the video:

For Describing Progress:

• move forward with: To progress to the next stage.
  • "We are ready to move forward with the user testing phase."
• carry on with: To continue an activity.
  • "We will carry on with the development as planned."
• work on: To be actively engaged in a task.
  • "Our team is working on the final report."

For Describing Problems:

• run into: To encounter an unexpected problem.
  • "We ran into an issue with the database compatibility."
• hold up: To cause a delay.
  • "The final approval is holding up our timeline."
• push back: To postpone or delay something.
  • "We have to push back the launch date by two weeks."

6. Putting It All Together: Key Phrases for Your Update

Finally, let's look at some simple, professional phrases that you can use to introduce your status update. These phrases act as signals to your audience, telling them you are about to report on progress.

Here are some of the best phrases to start your progress report, combining what we've learned:

• "Here’s the current status: We are on track to meet the deadline."
• "To update you on our progress: We have already completed the first phase, and we are now working on the second."
• "The latest update is that we ran into a small issue, but we are still on schedule."
• "Our recent milestones include finishing the initial design and getting it approved. We haven't started development yet."

Conclusion

Excellent work! You now have a solid vocabulary for talking about project status like a professional. You can clearly state whether a project is on time and on budget, describe which tasks are complete, and use more natural phrasal verbs to discuss progress and challenges.

Key Takeaways:

• Describe schedule status with on schedule, behind schedule, or ahead of schedule.
• Describe budget status with on budget, over budget, or under budget.
• Use already, yet, and still to report the status of specific tasks.
• Use phrasal verbs like move forward with (progress) and run into (problems) to sound more fluent.
• Start your update with phrases like "The current status is..." or "To update you on our progress...".

Preview of the Next Lesson:

Now that you have the vocabulary, the next step is to organize it. In our next lesson, you will learn how to outline a short project update using a 'What I did, What I'm doing, What's next' structure. This will help you present your updates in a logical, clear, and confident way.