project-progress-tracker

Research Project Progress Management

What This Does

For research projects after adoption, organize the research plan, milestones, budget, outcomes, risks, and reporting deadlines on a monthly basis. Rather than hastily gathering materials just before a progress report, create a log that can be used for reporting and evaluation from regular daily meetings and outcome management.

• Target Users: URA, research support staff, PI, project managers, departmental administrative staff
• Issues to Solve: Research progress, outcomes, reasons for delays, and response policies are scattered, requiring reconstruction at the time of reporting and evaluation
• Expected Effects: Early detection of delays, reduced burden of report preparation, improved quality of evaluation responses

Required Inputs

• Research Project Information: Project title, research period, funding agency, principal investigator, co-researchers
• Initial Plan: Annual plan, research items, milestones, outcome goals
• Current Status: Completed work, work in progress, delays, issues, budget execution status
• Outcome Information: Papers, conference presentations, patents, data releases, press releases, awards, etc.
• Next Deadlines: Reports, evaluation meetings, budget execution, ethics renewals, contract renewals, etc.
• Previous Log(Optional): Previous month's progress summary, ToDos, pending matters

What It Produces

1. Monthly Progress Summary: A short summary that can be shared with the PI and stakeholders
2. Milestone Table: List plans, actuals, delays, and response policies
3. Issues and Risks List: Organize impact, deadlines, owners, and escalation contacts
4. Outcome Registration Table: A list of outcomes that can be transcribed into reports
5. Items for PI Confirmation: Items to confirm with researchers and response deadlines

Procedure

1. Break down the initial plan into work units

Break down the application or adoption plan into a granularity that can be checked annually, quarterly, and monthly.

Research Item	Planned Milestone	Deadline	Main Owner	Deliverable
Example: Data collection	Completion of 100 surveys	2026-09	Team A	Survey data

Convert abstract tasks like "advance the research" into verifiable deliverables.

2. Classify current progress into 4 categories

Divide each research item into the following 4 categories.

Status	Judgment Criteria	Next Action
Completed	There is a deliverable and it has been confirmed	Put it in the outcome registration table
On track	Expected to be completed by the deadline	Set the next check date
Needs attention	Delays and shortages exist, but recovery is possible	Decide on countermeasures and deadlines
Escalation required	Affects research plans, budgets, contracts, and ethics	Consider consulting the PI, specialized departments, and FA

3. Organize risks

Write risks not as "things you are struggling with" but in a form that makes the impact and response deadline clear.

## リスク・課題

| No | 内容 | 影響 | 対応方針 | 担当 | 期限 | エスカレーション先 |
|----|------|------|----------|------|------|--------------------|

Typical risks:

• Delays in personnel recruitment
• Incomplete ethics review, contracts, export control, or safety management
• Delays in data and deliverables from partner institutions
• Budget execution shortfalls or excesses, year-end delivery risk
• Ordering issues among paper submission, intellectual property, and public relations

4. Register outcomes

Record outcomes as they occur so they can be reused in reports.

Category	Required fields	Notes
Papers	Authors, title, journal name, year, DOI, peer review, OA	Check the reporting period
Conferences	Presenter, title, conference name, date, presentation type	Distinguish invited/general
Patents	Invention title, application number, filing date, disclosure availability	Confirm intellectual property before papers or public relations
Data	Data name, repository, publication date, DOI/URL	Align with the DMP
Public relations	Title, medium, publication date, URL	Confirm with institutional public relations

5. Create a monthly summary

Write it short enough for the PI and administrative staff to read, starting with the conclusion.

# 月次進捗サマリー

- 対象期間:
- 全体状況: 順調 / 要注意 / 要エスカレーション
- 今月の主な進捗:
- 主な成果:
- 遅延・リスク:
- PIに確認したいこと:
- 次月までのToDo:

6. Connect to reporting and evaluation

When preparing reports, pass this skill's deliverables to progress-report .

• Monthly progress summary → Overview of research achievements
• Milestone table → Analysis of variance from the plan
• Outcome registration table → List of outcomes
• Risk list → Reasons for delays and future promotion measures

Judgment criteria

Judgment item	Points to check	Response
Progress	Which item in the original plan does it correspond to?	Assign a plan item ID
Delay	Does it affect deadlines, deliverables, or external dependencies?	Separate into needs attention/escalation required
Outcomes	Can it be used for reports, public relations, intellectual property, or the DMP?	Leave evidence in the registration table
Budget	Is there a divergence between research progress and execution?	budget-executionHand over to
Specialized judgment	Does it relate to contracts, ethics, intellectual property, safety, or export control?	Make confirmation with specialized departments a ToDo

Common mistakes and countermeasures

Mistake	Countermeasure
Ending progress with "it is going smoothly"	Include research items, deliverables, and next review date
Collect the deliverables list for the first time at reporting time	Update the deliverables registration table monthly
Delay reasons are vague	Separate cause, impact, recovery measures, and deadline
Manage budget execution and research progress separately	Check budget risks monthly
Consultation with specialized departments is delayed	Include escalation contacts in the risk table

Quality standards

• The initial plan and current progress are linked
• Delays and risks have impact, owner, deadline, and contact point
• The deliverables list is at a granularity that can be transcribed into the report
• Matters to confirm with the PI are clear and have a response deadline
• progress-report, budget-execution, research-data-management Can be handed over to

Available Tools

• Read: Loading of application forms, acceptance notices, progress notes, budget tables, and deliverables lists
• Write: Creation of monthly summaries, milestone tables, risk tables, and deliverables registration tables
• WebSearch / WebFetch: Confirmation of FA reporting deadlines, evaluation requirements, and deliverables publication requirements
• Bash: Formatting of CSV/Markdown tables, sorting of deadlines, and character count checks