In project management, it is important to focus on reporting: both the reports themselves, and the reporting processes within your organisation. They are vital in driving engagement and collaboration in project delivery - and reporting well saves you time and improves the quality of your work. Read on to see our four key reasons why you must get your reporting right in your project management.
Engagement
Reporting gives your work structure: it engages and motivates your team by giving them short-term goals. This is often the case for WeTrack clients. Typically, automated reports are sent weekly, for project managers or senior management to review what is on track and what is slipping. Having this regular timeline gives users the direction to complete that week's work before those reports get reviewed. It is also a great way to give the executive level confidence in the work being done. Detailed, accurate reports reassure them that their team(s) know what needs to be achieved and are all on the same page working towards the end goal.
Collaboration and Communication
Effective reporting mechanisms and reports better enable communication throughout the entire organisation, as well as direct collaboration with those you work with most closely. Crucially, it gives visibility over your portfolio of work. Seeing a report of which tasks and milestones are in danger of slipping behind enables individuals to discuss those at-risk tasks with relevant colleagues. It also allows resources to be prioritised.
Save time!
Reporting can be laborious and time-consuming - especially if you are used to hammering away at an Excel spreadsheet, trying to build a report that looks somewhat readable. Here at WeTrack, this is an area we are fiercely passionate about! Our bespoke, automated reporting module, a key part of our project management software, saved the organising committee of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 more than 80 hours a week in reporting - that's more than two employees! There are real time-savings to be made when you automate your reports.
Learning lessons
This is the area that is most easily forgotten! As a project manager, you need to be consistently learning lessons, assessing what is going well and what isn't, and making small adjustments to your projects and processes. Look critically at where you are lacking in resource or quality, and make the changes. Analyse data over longer periods of time too, to detect trends.
Reporting effectively saves you time, money, risk and frustration - and it makes your work better. Spend a little time making sure you have the mechanisms in place to succeed with your reports.
Bespoke, automated reports underpin every WeTrack module. To learn more about WeTrack's project management system, watch a short introduction to WeTrack or get in touch to arrange a demo.