This document provides guidance on writing reports from a project management perspective. It discusses the key elements of managing the report writing process, including defining the scope, schedule, resources, and quality controls. It emphasizes the importance of planning the report by considering the purpose, audience, content, timeline, methodology, and roles and responsibilities of the writers and reviewers. The document outlines the typical structure of a report and provides tips for effective writing and presentation of the content, introduction, body, and conclusion sections.

1. REPORT WRITING
A Project Management Perspective

3. Introduction
• Who has had formal training in report writing?
• What courses or training have you attended?
• What did you do during your educational years
in respect of formal writing?
• What types of writing are you involved in or
required to do?
• What types of written report does your
organisation produce?

4. Aim & Objective
• To present report writing from a project
management perspective.
• Describe how reports, may be designed,
managed and written

5. Reports & Their Function
• Communication & Information Logistics
• Right Information
• Right Time
• Right Place
• Right People
• Right Medium

6. Reports are meant to be read &
understood

7. Elements of Project Management and Report Writing
• A story should have a beginning a muddle
and an end
•

8. • A project should have a controlled start,
middle, and end

9. Project Management Framework

10. Scope
• Scope is defined by the terms of reference or the project
requirements – feasibility, design, inspection, QA, QC,
progress, design reports, technical reports etc.
• Requirements for the report and their content.
• Work breakdown structure.
• Tasks and required resources.
• Extent of data acquisition, data required,
• Approvals required
• Change management needs to be considered and
version control

11. Procurement
• Obtaining data, source
• Copyright. Photocopies, Intellectual
Property.
• Specialist authors or consultants and
necessary Terms of Reference.

12. Communication
• Issuing of requests for data
• Meetings
• Reviews
• Changes
• Internal and external meetings,
• Interim drafts and reviews.

13. Stakeholders
• Potentially the end users be they internal
or external stakeholders.
• A Project may be judged, rightly or
wrongly, on the standard of its reporting.

14. Human Resource
• Appropriate personnel
• Availability
• Training,

15. Risk
• Intellectual property
• Reliance on information by others (not direct client)
• Ppublication/use of data from others
• Negligent misrepresentation
• Disclaimers
• Reliance on information from others (substantiation).
• Paucity of data
• Accuracy
• Sensitivity / Confidentiality
• Consequences of failing to meet deadlines..

16. Integration
• Client/external party requirements (style,
content changes)
• Internal co-ordination

17. Quality
• Style
• Format
• Compliance with requirements
• Standard style for ease of editing & collation
• Standard for drawings, colour copies,
including large drawings etc.
• Content, Relevance, Analysis, Presentation

18. Time
• Planning
• Date acquisition
• Production of drafts, figures
• Editing
• Proofs
• Final delivery.
• Changes
• Availability of authors, checkers, approvers.
• The last minute is for closing the report and issuing it,
not for carrying out rewrites and proof
reading/corrections

19. Cost
• Data acquisition
• Printing
• Production of Drafts
• Human resource input
• Rejection & re-drafting
• Changes
• Repeat copies / Additional Copies

20. Managing the Report Writing
Process
• To manage is to forecast and plan, to
organise, to command, to coordinate and
to control Henri Fayol, 1916

21. Management Functions

22. Management Principles
• Division of Work - planning and subdividing
/allocating the work
• Authority - the person in charge with
responsibility
• Discipline - through good leadership and respect
• Unity of Command - to avoid conflicts
• Unity of Direction - a common interest in
achieving the same objectives
• Subordination of individual interest to the
general interest - a focus on the greater good
rather than individual goals

23. Division of Work, Discipline &
Chain of Command
• The aspects of authority, discipline, unity
of command and direction, and
subordination may sound very draconian
and old-fashioned but in writing reports
these are essential.
• If a writer insists on ‘doing it my way’ then
they should be reminded that report
writing is a team game and there is no ‘I’
in the word team but there are three in
discipline.

24. Organising, Controlling &
Communicating
• Creation of a checklist with WBS, OBS,
CommBS
• Checklist used on large, complex reports or for
routine reports such as monthly progress
reports.
• Periodic reviews, particularly for larger reports,
are to identify /correct errors in the report.
• Correct the report design or any deviation from
the aim of the report

25. Report Overview
• Content - Reports should be clear and
structured
• Relevant Information only
• Analysis of Information should be
• Presented well

26. Coordinating
• Reports do not magically appear and
coordination is required in pulling any report
together
• The cordinator can be a dedicated editor or the
PM
• The task of an editor is to ensure that the
writer(s) has effectively communicated the
information contained within the report and that
the report may be understood and complies with
the requirements and deadlines.

27. Planning the Report
I keep six honest serving men
(They taught me all I know)
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who
• Rudyard Kipling

28. • Why is the report required and for whom? -
Purpose
• What must be reported /communicated? - Scope
• When is the report needed? Time
• How will the report be written? - Quality / Cost
• Where will the report be produced? -
Communication / Organisation
• Who will write and check the report? Cost /
Human Resources

29. Why a report? - Contract /Project
Requirement
• Project requirements or terms of reference
will often define the types of reports
required as part of a contract or
specification
• The reader of the report may dictate how
the report is to be written.

30. What is Required? - Work/Product
Breakdown Structure
• The scope of the report should be broken down
into a logical framework defining the main
sections of the report and content.
• Sections and their content may be based on
similar previous types of report.
• The process for identifying keywords or content
may be from the terms of reference for a report,
organisational policy / style, previous reports,
mind-mapping or brainstorming.

31. When is the Report Needed? -
Schedule & Programme
• Most reports have a deadline and late reporting
can be tantamount to no reporting at all.
• Work back from the due date allowing time for
compilation, issue and delivery, checking,
proofing and production of figures etc.
• Time for writing and reviewing the report.
• Procrastination or Student Syndrome - report
writing is often put off until the 'last minute‘…the
last minute usually belongs to somebody else

32. How Will the Report Be Written?
- Methodology & Control
• the essence of the report writing process is
acquisition organizing and presenting
information in a logical manner…and
• Succinctness (Comprehensive but Compact
avoiding over-analysis)
• Relevance
• Accurate and Factual (assumptions stated and
justified)
• Unambiguous and not contradictory
• Complete and self explanatory

33. Where Will the Report Be Produced? -
Location & Communication
• Communication between authors, potential time
differences, possible breakdown in
communications due to physical separation or
conflict due to technical or resource reasons.
• Lack of Face to face meetings
• “The Last Minute” - often the most crisis-torn
minute. The effort needed in finalising reports
produced from multiple locations should not be
underestimated – admin staff can work to ‘stupid
o’clock’ to meet deadlines.

34. Who Will Write & Check the
Report? - Organisation
• The roles and responsibilities for the individuals can be
determined from the WBS.
• Even the 'table of contents; has an owner who is
responsible for the physical issue of the report and its
compilation.
• Several personnel may be involved in writing and
producing a report. Their efforts should be coordinated /
orchestrated through a lead author responsible for
technical matters and that the report is correct.
• A person who can review reports for presentation, style
and accuracy of the written word should edit reports

35. Change
• If it becomes apparent that changes to the report
content or design are required, then it may be
necessary to change or amend the design of the
report.
• The impact on other writers needs to be
communicated.
• Change needs to be addressed in terms of what
and why and when, and how and where and
who it affects and be managed accordingly.

36. Writing the Report
• I am sorry to have made such a long
speech, but I did not have enough time to
write a shorter one. Winston Churchill
• I didn't have time to write a short letter, so
I wrote long one instead Mark Twain

37. Presentation & Format
• A standard report style also assists in compiling
reports, particularly when contributions are
required from a number of authors.
• Standard style allows the report producer to
compile the report rather than focus on format.
• Report production is about producing a report,
not embarking on an adventure in printing and
publishing

38. Report Structure
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Summary or Abstract
• Preface or Foreword
• Main Text (as a single or multiple, numbered volumes)
• Figures and Tables (unless included judiciously within the main text)
• Acknowledgement
• References
• Appendices (within a single report or as separate volumes)
• Enclosures such as maps, drawings etc..

39. Report Content
Beginning - Introduction & Aim
Middle - Project Description
- Data Acquisition
- Results or Findings
- Discussion/Analysis of Information
End -Conclusions &/or Recommendations

40. Introduction & Aim
• Who is the report for or who commissioned the report?
• Is the report internal or external and who wrote it?
• When was the report written, what were project dates,
when was research or study carried out, what is the
reporting period?
• Why is the report being written and what is to be
described
• What is the report about – this constitutes the aim of the
report and should, where possible be singular.
• The aim, as in a mission, is an unequivocal statement in
the definitive.

41. Project Description or Report
Background
• A project should be described in terms of the
type of scheme, geographic location, size, value,
benefit and future or current plans.
• For large projects the description should focus
on the part of the project to which the report
refers.
• In respect of background it may be that a report
is being written following an accident, or
incident, as a result of a claim or tender
evaluation or a situation report.

42. Data Acquisition or Data Used
• type of data referred to
• how much data is available for any data
type or location
• how data was obtained
• of what use is the data, if not readily
apparent

43. Results or Findings
• The findings of analysis of the data, should be
presented as a separate section or sections.
• The data should be described and, if
appropriate, summarised as tables or graphs
within the report
• Detailed results should be described in summary
and included in tabular or graphical form within
the main body of the text.
• Actual results should be included in the report as
appendices or annexures or referenced.

44. Discussion or Analysis of
Information
• The reason for any discussion is to
address and answer the aims and
objectives of the report that are contained
within the introduction.
• A proper discussion will allow the aim of
the report to be satisfied.

45. Conclusions
• Conclusions are conclusions and not a repetition of
statements made in the report.
• Conclusions must be based on the information that is
available and that has been presented within or referred
to within the report.
• Conclusions should be based on the discussions or
opinions expressed in the report and new information or
incompatible conclusions should not be offered.
• It may be necessary to draw some interim conclusions,
findings or deductions within the section on results or
within the discussion to assist the reader to understand
an argument or the reasoning behind an argument.

46. Recommendations
• For further work, more data, etc

47. Headings & Sub-headings;
Taxonomy

48. Other Contents
• Appurtenances - Tables, Figures,
Illustrations & Drawings
• Appendices and Annexures.
• Summaries, Abstracts, Prefaces,
Forewords, Footnotes &
Acknowledgements
• References & Referencing
• Bibliography

49. Grammar & Style
• Reports should be grammatically correct so that
the meaning of the data described and any
arguments are presented in a are clear, concise
and unambiguous manner.
• A good report conveys information in a form that
the reader can understand readily.
• In order to convey information well it is
preferable to use simple sentence construction
rather than complex or even pompous and
verbose language.
• Concrete rather than abstract terms should also
be used to convey meaning.

50. Punctuation
Full Stop (.) Hyphen/ Dash (-) Ellipsis (3xDots) (…)
Colon (:) Apostrophe (‘) Brackets ({[ ]}) Italics – not
exactly
punctuation but
included herein
Semicolon (;) Solidus (slash) (/) Question Mark (?)
Comma (,) Quotation Marks (“ ”) or
(‘ ‘)
Exclamation Mark (!)

51. Other Considerations
• Numbers, Dates & Units of Measurement
• Abbreviations & Acronyms
• Rules for usage and consistency

52. Conclusions
Well begun done is half done (Aristotle)
• Successful reporting comes from good planning
which can result in a definitive requirement with
a logical set of contents.
• A report should have an introduction a middle
and an ending.
• The ending is normally a conclusion or
recommendation or even a request for a
decision.

53. • Reports should have an introduction, a main
body and an ending.
• Reports must have an aim and this must be
ascertained at an early stage in the report writing
process.
• A report should be designed so that the required
sections are structured in a recognisable form. If
the design of a report is not suited to the aim of
the report then change the design.

54. • All data or information must be presented in a
logical and systematic way.
• All tables and figures must be necessary.
• A report must have the appropriate Content, the
information must be Relevant, the information
should be fully Analysed and the Presentation
should be consistent and to a predefined style.
• Reports should be checked and reviewed
rigorously before being issued.

55. Concluding Comment
“to talk without thinking is to shoot without
aiming” (18th
Century English Proverb)
If one writes a report without planning then
the report may well be read…but it won’t
hit the mark.