Project Management Report: Analysis of Project Reporting

This report provides a detailed analysis of project management reports, focusing on the essential components and structure of an effective report. It covers critical aspects such as general information, executive summaries, organizational summaries, financial and technical aspects, and project implementation details. The report emphasizes the importance of creating realistic schedules and communication strategies, while also addressing the risks associated with poor project reporting, including issues related to project description, marketing plans, capital structure, and management plans. Furthermore, it explores the role of project manager biases, such as planning fallacy, confirmation bias, and optimism bias, and their impact on the accuracy and effectiveness of project reports. The report offers recommendations for improving project reporting and highlights the importance of including both issues and achievements in progress reports for a more realistic and comprehensive overview. It is a valuable resource for students seeking to understand the complexities of project management reporting and improve their skills in this area.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Q1) details need to be included in the project report
A good project report needs to follow certain criteria. Although long project report
does not attract others to read the report thoroughly no matter how well the report is, the
report should not be oversimplified either (Reijonen et al., 2015). Hence an efficient report
should be one that is short, to the point yet includes enough details (Bocken & Short 2016).
A project report should contain the following sections (Laukkanen, 2015):
1. General Information
This section includes the following details (Porterfield, 2015):
 Industry details to which the project belongs to
 past experience, present status, problems and future prospects of the industry
 product information to be manufactured
 product demand in various markets including the local, national and the global market
2. Executive Summary
This section should provide the objective of the business and also clearly specifies the
methods that needs to be followed for success
3. Organization Summary
The section contains the following details:
 organization structure
 type of ownership such as sole proprietorship, partnership or joint stock company
 name, address, age qualification and experience of the proprietors
4. Financial Aspects

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This section includes details such as estimated sales, projected profit and loss and
revenue. In order to help the stakeholders to make an effective judgement of the project
profitability profit and loss account along with the balance sheet need to be included in the
project as well.
5. Technical Aspects
Details of the technology used for the project should be specified in this section
6. Project Implementation
The detailed time schedule for project should be specified here for clarification
regarding the way project will be executed and the timeframe for completing each of the
project deliverables
7. Social responsibility
The business output and how it address the social responsibility should be included in
the report
Q2) Recommendation for preparing a realistic report:
In order to prepare a realistic report on the progress and achievements the following
point is recommended (Raisch, 2016):
Creating realistic schedule:
A proper schedule needs to be developed with tools like gnat chart that clearly
specifies how much time is assigned for each deliverables. However the schedule should be
realistic and should be prepared according to the available budget, time and resources
Communication:

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The schedule that is developed should be communicated to each of the team member
to plan the tasks accordingly
Customize performance monitoring:
It is not advisable to monitor the progress and each task at the same frequency. Some
tasks need to be monitored weekly whether others might be monitored monthly. It all
depends on the importance and complexity of the task
Enough details included:
The progress report should provide enough details like issued that have been faced
and what are the impact on the project
Information regarding issues as well as achievement:
The report should not only highlight the issues that the project progress have address
so far but also the achievement that the project has made so far. It will help to create a more
realistic project report on project progress
Q3) Major risk of poor project report:
A poor project report has following risk (Warren, 2017):
1. Poor Project Description
Lack of clarity about
 requirements of Raw material,
 production Target,
 Employment requirements of skilled and unskilled labour,
 Technology nominated for the project,

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 Production process,
2. Improper Marketing Plan
Lack of details about
 Type of customers,
 Target markets,
 Nature of market,
 Market segmentation,
 Future prospects of the market projection in future ,
 Sales objectives,
 Cost for the marketing
 share of market between the proposed venture,
 Demand for the product in the local, national and the global market,
 distribution channels for distribution of product
3. Poor Capital Structure and operating cost
Improper estimation about
 Total capital requirements
 Source of finance
 Extent of owner’s funds and borrowed funds.
 Working capital requirements
 Source of supply
 Estimation of total project cost

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 Operating cost
4. Lack of details in Management Plan
Inadequate assessment about
a. promoters business experience
b. Description of management team,
c. Duties and responsibilities assigned to team members,
d. Methods designed for managing the business,
e. Plans designed to hire and train personnel
f. Programmes and policies of the management.
Other major issues regarding poor project report are improper estimation about
 Financial aspects
 Technical aspects
 Timeframe required for project completion
All these issues makes the project delayed and increase the cost.
Role of project manager biases in the project report:
Type of bias Description Impact on project report
Planning fallacy Tendency to underestimate
time for project completion
(Chan, 2014).
Improper time schedule
included in the project report
Confirmation bias Tendency to perceive Not giving importance to

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information as per the
preconceptions
facts while developing
project report
False Consensus Effect Tendency to overestimate
extent and think it as equally
important for everyone
(Dan, 2015).
Only giving importance to
certain sections of the report
that the manager thinks
important
Optimism Bias Tendency to be over
optimistic (Dan, 2015).
Not creating project report
that is realistic and based on
facts, resources and project
constraints that needs

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References:
Bocken, N.M.P. and Short, S.W. (2016). The theory of effective project report: a
comprehensive discussion. McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Dan, A., the scope and status of viewer in art. (2015). Method and apparatus for leading
effective project execution.
Laukkanen, T. (2015). The definition and scope of project report in project management. A
modern theory of art, 42, pp.35-46.
Porterfield, T.E. (2015). Evaluation of project report: an empirical investigation of viewer
scope and success. International Journal of project management, 40(6), pp.435-455.
Raisch, W. (2016). Towards a sufficiency-driven art and culture: evaluation of as-Is
Workflow Modelling, 18, pp.41-61.
Reijonen, H., Hirvonen, S., Nagy, G., Laukkanen, T. and Gabrielsson, M. (2015). The bias of
project manager towards project report. A modern approach, 51, pp.35-46.
Chan, C. (2014, January). The importance of project report two execute project
Warren. N. (2017, January). The importance of post evaluation for successful project
implementation: an intuitive guide.