5 exercises — Done/In Progress/Blockers format, action verb tense, blocker communication, and how to report missed deadlines professionally.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Your manager asks for a weekly status update. Which structure is most professional and easy to scan?
The Done / In Progress / Blockers format (sometimes "This week / Next week / Blockers") is the industry standard for async status updates. It is scannable, predictable, and actionable — a manager can immediately identify risks (the Blockers section) without reading the whole update. Ticket references should supplement, not replace, written summaries. Hour breakdowns are for billing reports, not team communication.
2 / 5
Complete this "Done" section item: "_____ the authentication middleware to support OAuth 2.0 PKCE flow — _____ and _____ in staging."
Use past simple action verbs for the "Done" section — concise, no subject pronoun. This is a conventional register in professional status updates: "Shipped", "Fixed", "Reviewed", "Deployed", "Merged". Present perfect ("Have updated") is grammatically possible but less common in this bullet-style format. Infinitives ("Update", "Test") are used in to-do or roadmap items, not completed work.
3 / 5
You are blocked on a task. Which blocker statement is most useful for your manager?
A useful blocker statement answers three questions: (1) What exactly is blocked? (the DB schema migration) (2) Who can unblock it? (@platform-team) (3) What is the timeline impact? (ETA: Monday). Including a ticket reference helps managers track it. Options A and B give no context. Option D contains blame framing — status updates should be neutral and factual.
4 / 5
Complete the "In Progress" item: "Migrating user-service to Kubernetes — target _____ end of sprint. Currently _____ on namespace configuration; ETA _____ Thursday."
"To be completed by" (infinitive passive) is natural for target dates in status updates: "Target to be completed by Friday". "Working on" is the standard gerund phrase for in-progress work. "ETA to complete" or "ETA: Thursday" both work — the infinitive form emphasises the completion event. "Completion by" (Option A) is common in formal project management writing but slightly stiff; all options are grammatically possible except Option C ("blocking" makes the writer the source of the block, not the subject of work).
5 / 5
You need to inform your manager that a deadline will be missed. Which message is most professional?
A professional missed-deadline notification must include: (1) what is delayed (checkout feature), (2) why (rate limit — discovered when), (3) new ETA (Monday EOD), and (4) mitigation in progress (caching layer). Option A is too informal (emojis, "lol"). Option B apologises but provides no context or recovery plan — an apology without a plan is not useful. Option D over-apologises and hedges ("may not be") when you already know it will miss the deadline — this lacks clarity.