Reporting the project

16
Reporting the project
Projects are often of interest to a large number of people, and reports about
progress and achievements have to be prepared for different groups and
individuals. Most of these reports are the responsibility of the project man-
ager. Others in the team may produce reports about the current status of the
project or about progress in tasks and activities, but the project manager
maintains the overview. The project manager is responsible for the progress
and achievements of the project, and is called upon to report when required.
There might be many differences in the audiences for project reports. You
may be called upon to produce a written report to go to a committee, a brief
update for senior managers, a draft press briefing or notes for a public event.
You might be asked to make an oral presentation, perhaps with visual aids,
to an audience of directors, to a team in your organization, or to a large public
meeting. You might be intending to write a report about managing the project
to gain credit towards an academic or professional award. Each of these pur-
poses will require a different type of preparation and format.
WRITING A PROJECT REPORT
A project report is similar to any other business report. You have to focus on
the issue that you are reporting and plan to present what the audience wants
to know in a well-structured and logical format. You will need to use appro-
priate and clear language so that they can understand what you are saying.
You will have to give information about the purpose and context of the report,
but also to focus on aspects of the project that are particularly significant for
this audience.
There are often a number of different project reports. When there have been
a lot of different stakeholders with different hopes and concerns, it is often
helpful to give information to each group in a way that meets their particular
needs. It may be appropriate to use similar paragraphs to outline the purpose,
background and context of the project, but the detailed information about
progress or outcomes in an area of the project might be focused for the inter-

ests of a specific individual or group.
Example 16.1
Reporting a multi-faceted project
The project was to develop placements for trainee health service man-
agers in the United Kingdom to work in other countries for three
months as part of an in-service two-year fast-track graduate training
programme. The project was intended to identify placements that
could become long-term partnership arrangements.
Placement partnerships were arranged with health service
providers, charities and other voluntary organizations in countries
including Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, India, Canada and
New Zealand. Each trainee completed an individual project (often a
comparative study of health service provision) and worked alongside
peers in the host organization.
A number of different types of reports were made as part of these
arrangements:
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by the host organization to the UK training centre about each
trainee’s performance and contribution in the placement and about
the way in which the overall arrangements for support had
worked;
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by each trainee to their host centre, both on the value of the place-
ment to his or her own development and to share the findings of
his or her individual project;
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by each trainee to the UK training centre in the form of a detailed
project report supported by academic references to gain academic
credit;
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by the UK training centre to the national UK training programme
to outline the range of experience gained from the overseas place-
ment experience.
In addition, there were sometimes reports that were made by groups
of trainees to conferences, usually to present ideas about what could
be learnt from different ways of organizing and delivering health
services.
Think carefully about how to report any matters that may not be welcome
reading for the audience. If you encountered problems in some aspects of the
work, be careful about identifying probable causes if there is an implication
of blame. Consider who will read the report and how the findings might be
used. It is usually better to report problems that have implications for con-
tractual relationships in a confidential report or in a face-to-face meeting. Any
problems that impede progress need to be considered and their causes
addressed, but in an appropriate forum. Members of the project team and
stakeholders might resent selective reporting that avoided presenting a full
picture, so an appropriate balance needs to be achieved according to the con-
text of the project.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD REPORT
Before attempting to write, consider the purpose of the report. Most reports
are written to give information, to present options in preparation for a deci-
sion or to present recommendations for action. The focus, content, style and
language will be appropriate for the report’s audience. The document will
have a clear structure and will use headings and subheadings to guide the
reader through the different sections. Spelling and grammar will be correct
and the presentation will create a good impression by being tidy and busi-
nesslike. The cover will give sufficient information for a reader to see quickly
what the report is about, who wrote it and when it was written. A summary

will be provided, and this might be written in a way that enables it to be used
as a briefing sheet for a wider audience than that of the full report.
The key characteristics of a good report are:
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the purpose of the report is made clear;
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the audience for the report is identified;
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185
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the structure of the report is clear;
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the headings and subheadings act as signposts;
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care is taken over presentation, spelling and grammar;
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a summary is given;
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the focus, style and language are appropriate for the audience.
All of these elements need to be considered at the planning stage.
STYLE, STRUCTURE AND FORMAT
There is no one right style for reports. A report with a separate title page,
contents list, acknowledgements and detailed paragraph numbering might
be seen as excellent in one organization, but may be thought to be long and
cumbersome in another context. You may work for an organization that has
a defined ‘house style’. If so, you should follow this for reports at work, but
not always if reports are to be made to external audiences. For example, a
briefing prepared for a public meeting would normally be different in style
from an internal management report.
There are some basic elements that are almost always included. For exam-

ple, the start of a report normally includes the title of the report, who it was
prepared for, the author, the date and possibly the organization name and
logo. A report normally has the following sections:
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Title, author, date and so on, on a title page.
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Contents page, listing headings, subheadings and the page numbers for
each.
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Summary (sometimes called an executive summary). A one-page sum-
mary of the purpose, background and main issues addressed in the report.
This will usually briefly describe how the project was carried out and note
the main achievements and any recommendations that were made.
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Introduction. This usually covers the purpose of the project and briefly
outlines the context.
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Background to the project. This gives whatever additional information
is essential to understanding why the project was needed and how it was
proposed and agreed.
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Terms of reference. This outlines the key objectives and gives any other
relevant information about assumptions or constraints.
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Methods. This may report on methods of investigation and/or methods
used to plan and implement the project. Problems encountered and over-
come might be mentioned.
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Analysis. This section would only be necessary if the project had included
a lot of research or investigation that necessitated some sort of interpre-
tation or analysis. The methods used to do that are reported here.
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Results. This section reports the results, either of the investigation or of
the practical activities. It usually contains details and quantitative infor-
mation, but these might be presented as an appendix if the project has a
lot of results that can better be understood in a summarized form.
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Conclusions. This section is about what can be concluded from the re-
sults. If the project has been an investigation, it might present a view as
to the extent to which the questions addressed had been answered. If the
project was carried out through a series of tasks and activities, this section
would come to a conclusion about the extent to which the objectives of
the project had been achieved. It might also return to the purpose of the
project, and comment on the extent to which the overall purpose had been
achieved. The conclusions might also present some of the learning that
has been gained during the project.
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Recommendations. Recommendations should always arise from the con-
clusions that are, in turn, drawn from the previously presented results.
This means that there will be a trail of evidence presented in a report that
supports any further proposals made. Recommendations should be
phrased as proposals for action, and should be realistic and cautious. The
action proposed will often be to investigate further and then to take action
rather than trying to offer a sweeping solution to a problem.
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Acknowledgements, notes and references. This should acknowledge
any contributions to the writing of the report, present any further notes
indicated in the text and give full references for any quotations or refer-

ences made in the text.
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Appendices. Anything essential to understanding of the report should be
in the main text, but supplementary material or detailed data can be put
into an appendix. Any material that would interrupt the flow of a report
can also be put into an appendix. Nothing should be in an appendix that
is not referred to in the report itself. It is not a dumping ground for any-
thing that might be of interest to the reader. Details of budgets, statistics,
Reporting the project
187
personnel (usually only mentioned in confidential reports), relevant
records, charts and diagrams are often included as appendices.
This is not an exhaustive list but an indication of the structure that a report
normally follows. If the report is intended for a specific group or individual,
the structure will be similar to this but the focus and content will reflect the
particular interests of that audience. If the report is to be presented for aca-
demic assessment there are normally additional sections, probably one
reporting research carried out into the issues of the project and another pre-
senting a critical review of the project.
Reports are often presented in numbered sections. There is no particular
rule about how to number, but it is important to be consistent. The main
sections are often numbered as 1, 2, 3, etc with subsections being numbered
as 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. For a short report it is not always necessary to have sub-
sections.
It is usual to be as brief as possible in a report while presenting the issues
clearly. Try to avoid description unless it is essential for the point to be made.
Read each sentence, asking yourself why that sentence is there and what it
adds. Read each paragraph and ask what point it makes, and try to keep to
one main point in each paragraph. Use bullet points, lists, diagrams and
tables to help to present information concisely but clearly.

REPORTING THE PROJECT TO GAIN AN
ACADEMIC OR PROFESSIONAL AWARD
Projects and project reports are often included in programmes of learning
when the students are working in management or professional positions and
can carry out a project related to their work. There are a number of reasons
for this.
To link learning about theory and practice
It is often difficult to understand how theory applies in practical settings.
Projects are often set as assignments in which a learner is asked:
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to apply the theories and techniques introduced in a course to the setting
in which he or she works;
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