Roger McCarty: When it comes time to create reports related to your project, it's important that you follow a process that will lead to success. If we want to see how a big project was planned and implemented, we could look at the creation of the earth. 

[A cartoon animation of the creation of the earth appears on the screen.]

When we look at Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2 through verse 4, we find the spiritual creation of the earth. This is where the Great Council in heaven laid out the plans for building the earth. The chapters layout each step of creation, including the Sun, Moon, land, plants, animals, fish, and birds. Eventually, man was added to the plan. But the physical creation is outlined in Genesis chapter 2 after verse 4. It looks like they repeat the plan, but the second listing of the creation is the physical creation following the plan outlined from Genesis 1. It's not a bad idea to follow the model of how the Lord implemented his plans and documented them. So let's consider the spiritual and physical creation of your reports.

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Before you can write a report, you must first determine what the outcome is that you are going to build towards. For your research reports, that is the recommendation you will make, or in an activity-based project, it is the reporting of the impact of your activities and the value created through your efforts. For a research project, the following steps are an example of the spiritual creation: as a team, capture the insights gained and the information learned, discuss the implication of conclusions on the problem statement, define alternative recommendations and discuss implications, develop financial analysis of the alternative recommendations and select the value maximizing recommendation, outline a process for the company to implement the recommendations, and develop what next steps the company should take after the final presentation to move forward and benefit from the recommendations. This will give you the conclusions and recommendations based on the facts of the project necessary to write the report. 

For an activity-based project, you will capture the activities completed during the project, measure the impact of the activities on critical metrics you have been tracking, determine whether the desired goals were reached through the activities, document the goals and metrics reached and the activities that drove the impact. To the extent possible calculate the value created through the impacted activities. If necessary, forecast the future impact and value that will come from the activities, such as forecasts of cost savings, future revenues, or future profits over the coming months or years. This should again give you the information necessary to complete the written report. This will complete the spiritual creation of your report.

The physical creation will be the writing of the report. Now that you have the desired outcomes you wish to document in the report, the following points are often factors that are included in a recommendation oriented project: you start with the original situation, complication, and problem to be considered, the people involved in the process used to complete the project, the processes and methodologies used to gather data for the project, the techniques and tools used to analyze the data, the findings of the project and the insights gained from the analysis, the conclusions drawn from the analysis and the insights of the project, recommendations of actions to be taken and the decisions to be made, and finally, next steps forward for the company sponsor after the project. 

And if it is an activity oriented report, they normally include the following elements: the original situation, complication, and problem to be considered, the people involved in the process used to complete the project, the processes and methodologies of the tasks and activities of the project, describe the tools and programs developed during the project, define the impact and outcome of the project on the sponsor company, provide background and users guides for all tools and programs created, and lastly look at the next steps forward for the company sponsor after the project. This will complete the physical creation of the activity-based report.

Now we have one last topic to discuss. When a report is completed, there's a lot of information and activities that were created during the project that is in your head and your files that the company does not necessarily have access to. What if after you deliver the report, you're hit by a bus? All of the background of the project would be lost. So there are several documents you should add to the report.

The executive summary is a one-page document that is intended to provide a high-level review of the recommendations or value impact of the project presented in the way that top executives can derive the information they want in the most succinct and compelling manner. The elements of an executive summary most often include: purpose and background of the project, recommendations or impact of the activities completed in the project, conclusions supporting the recommendation or a list of activities completed during the project, information supporting the conclusions or description of work plan driving the activities completed or tools created.

In the appendix of the report will be all of the data gathered, surveys created, data received, analysis completed, interviews held, secondary reports found, etc. All of the graphs, charts, and tables created, whether they were explicitly used in the report or not. When activities are involved, it includes all of the event planning activities completed that were related to the project, such as social media implemented, content created, business plans developed, etc. Essentially, the appendix includes everything the company would need if they wanted to recreate your research or implement your activities again in the future.  

One specialized type of documentation to be included in the appendix is a user's guide. A user's guide explains how to use or update any spreadsheet, database or other tools created during the project. It may document how a Kickstarter campaign was planned and implemented. It may have all of the planning documents and resources utilized for an event held as part of the project. Examples of what might be used in a user's guide could include: the purpose of the tool, database, program etc., what was the problem it was designed to fix or opportunity to capture, a description of the tool, its elements and the desired outcome, a step-by-step process to operate the tool to achieve the desired outcome, warnings, limitations and difficulties in operating the tool or program, troubleshooting options if there are problems with the tool or program, contact information or bibliography of help sources for the tool or program.

Good luck as you spiritually create your report, physically create the documents, and provide any and all special documentation!