Project Reporting

It’s interesting to know how many ways I’ve seen this word and function interpreted.  To me, reporting is quantitative, developed from rollup’s of various done versus not done activity.  For those using older methods, I would include percent complete for the fewer larger tasks approach as this meets my quantitative criteria. 

Good reporting is Quantitative, not just Qualitative

I am amused, and horrified when I’m presented with progress reports in Word or PowerPoint.  In our shop, we affectionately refer to this as smiley face reporting.:-)

Sad but true, many believe this is the only way to effectively brief their executive team.  While I completely agree many software tools are incomplete in this area, I do not believe manual intervention and interpretation is appropriate or advantageous.  It adds cost, and of course the potential for abuse, but more importantly, it always adds delay.  The delay of a day or two might be manageable but a delay of a week or more is completely unmanageable.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen private spreadsheets, punch lists etc. coupled with meetings and conference calls simply because the enterprise reporting tool does not provide timely updating to progress, and is no longer an active management or reporting tool, but simply an auditing tool.