# Bad-News Project Memo

Drafts a clear, factual memo delivering bad news on a project: a missed milestone, a budget overrun, or a schedule slip. Use it when the news is real and the team or sponsor needs to hear it without spin.

## Prompt

## Context
You are a project communications assistant helping [YOUR NAME OR ROLE] draft a memo that delivers bad news on [PROJECT NAME]. The audience is [AUDIENCE: team, sponsor, client, or leadership]. The news is [BAD NEWS SUMMARY]. The memo must be honest and complete without being alarmist. Readers need the facts, the cause, the impact, and what happens next.

Project: [PROJECT NAME]
Audience: [AUDIENCE]
Bad news: [BAD NEWS SUMMARY]
Root cause or contributing factors: [ROOT CAUSE]
Impact on schedule, budget, or scope: [IMPACT]
Response actions already taken or planned: [RESPONSE ACTIONS]
Next decision or checkpoint: [NEXT DECISION OR DATE]

## Task
Draft a memo with these sections: Situation, What Happened, Impact, What We Are Doing, What We Need from You (if anything), Next Update.

## Standards
- Lead with the news in the first sentence. Do not bury it.
- State impact in concrete terms: days delayed, dollars over budget, scope removed. Use only figures from [IMPACT].
- Root cause should be factual, not defensive. One paragraph.
- Response actions are specific: who is doing what, by when. Use only actions from [RESPONSE ACTIONS]. Do not invent commitments.
- Tone is professional and direct. No hedging language that softens the facts into ambiguity.
- Under 400 words.
- Do not invent dates, costs, percentages, or status ratings not provided in the inputs above.
- If any named input is missing or ambiguous, ask before drafting.

## Variables

- YOUR NAME OR ROLE
- PROJECT NAME
- AUDIENCE
- BAD NEWS SUMMARY
- ROOT CAUSE
- IMPACT
- RESPONSE ACTIONS
- NEXT DECISION OR DATE

## Input checklist

- [ ] Confirmed statement of the bad news: missed milestone, overrun amount, or scope change, from your project records
- [ ] Root cause documented before writing, even a one-sentence working theory
- [ ] Impact figures pulled from your schedule or budget baseline, not estimated from memory
- [ ] Response actions already decided on, with owners and dates confirmed by those owners
- [ ] All dates, costs, and percentages must come from your project records, not generated by AI
- [ ] Confidentiality: keep vendor contract amounts, personnel details, and customer-specific data out of the prompt

## Verification checklist

- [ ] Impact figures match your project baseline exactly: days, dollars, and scope items are not rounded or estimated by AI
- [ ] Root cause statement is factual and does not assign blame that your records cannot support
- [ ] Response actions list only commitments that owners have actually agreed to, not hoped-for actions
- [ ] No dates appear in the memo that you did not provide in the inputs
- [ ] The memo leads with the actual news, not a softening paragraph that buries the lede
- [ ] Tone check: the memo is honest without being catastrophizing; a status rating (red/amber/green) appears only if you supplied one
- [ ] Word count and section structure confirmed before sending

## Sample output

Sample output. Generated by AI from sample inputs:

MEMO
To: Atlas Warehouse Migration Steering Committee
From: Project Manager, Dana Reyes
Date: June 13, 2026
Subject: Schedule slip, Atlas migration Phase 2

Situation. Phase 2 of the Atlas warehouse migration will miss its June 20 go-live date. The new target date is July 11, 2026, a 21-day slip.

What Happened. The network infrastructure upgrade required by Northwind IT took 14 additional days due to a permit delay from the building owner. A vendor configuration error discovered on June 9 added 7 more days of rework. Both issues surfaced after the May 30 schedule baseline was set.

Impact. Go-live moves from June 20 to July 11. The delay pushes the Phase 3 kickoff by three weeks. No budget overrun is projected at this time; the vendor rework is covered under the existing contract warranty.

What We Are Doing. Northwind IT completed the network upgrade on June 12. The vendor is correcting the configuration error with a completion target of June 18. Daily stand-up calls resume Monday to monitor progress.

What We Need from You. Confirm the July 11 go-live date is acceptable or advise of any downstream constraints by June 17.

Next Update. Written update on June 20 with a revised go/no-go assessment.

## Customization notes

For a sponsor audience, keep the memo short and move detail to an attached log. For a team audience, expand the What We Are Doing section with task-level assignments. If the project uses a formal change control process, note that a change request is being submitted separately. Adjust the tone for government contracts, which may require more formal language and reference to contract clauses.

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From The Logistics, Operations & Project Management Library at vetslearn.com/libraries/logistics-pm