Program Management

Reporting – The First R is . . . Reporting

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Last week I mentioned why Reporting, in a way is a core part of the P(x)M jobs – Program, Project, and even Product Managers. Basically knowing is core to what we do, reporting is key to knowing, so like it or not it’s a part of your job. Fortunately I like reporting, which is both an advantage an possibly a cry for help.

So what happens when you come onto a new project and need reporting to run? Well that’s my next focus here, and I’m going to explain my seven stages of reporting, each of which conveniently begins with “R”. It’s like the five stages of grief with spreadsheets and my usual display of anal-retentiveness.

When you come onto a project, one of the first things you need to do is get reporting running so you and everyone else are informed about what’s going on. Admittedly when you know what’s going on it could result in panic, but we’ll actually cover that in stage five.

So what’s your first step in getting reporting running.

Step One is . . . Reporting.

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Reporting And Project/Program Management

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One of the most important tasks of a Project/Program Manager (even if they don’t call you that) is reporting.

That may sound odd. It’s supposed to be management, or projects, to tracking things. Which is of course core to what you do, but just because people are managers doesn’t mean management is the most important task. Management can only happen in the right environment and place.

An environment and place where you, the manager, are properly informed and aware.

It doesn’t matter how organized you are, how well you plan, how well you update your gantt charts, or if you’re SCRUM certified if you lack information and if you don’t know you have the right information. No matter your skills and abilities and inclinations, you have to know in order to manage, and if you don’t know you can’t do your job.

That comes back to what I said – reporting is one of the most important tasks of Project and Program Management.

Good reporting is all about making sure information flows to and from the right people, in the right format, and that includes yourself. Without that information flow you can’t do your job, people can’t know what their jobs are, no one knows what’s going on – and you’re probably going to get blamed for it. In fact things could be a complete mess reporting-wise and you may not even know it since . . . reporting is so bad.

Again, reporting is one of the most important tasks for people in the Project/Program Management profession.

In fact we have to work on it even if it’s not officially our job. Because we stand in the middle of everything and know how things work. Because information can flow to us and often does, even if it’s half-baked. In short, because we’re in the best position to make reporting work unless someone has specifically been given that job (whoever that poor sot is).

I’d like to see more of this covered in Project/Program and even Product Management training.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.