Project Management Tool - Project reporting
Adopting an industry recognised project management method means burdening yourself with a responsibility for producing a mass of reports thereby doubling the amount of time required to complete the project. The thing to do is ensure that reports underpin your objectives and that information about costs is presented in the most complex manner possible (this is where accountants earn their corn). The following table identifies some of the documents and reports you will be expected to deliver; more importantly it identifies what your objectives should be for these products.
| Document | Objective | Characteristic |
| Project brief | telling the project board what they want to hear | a confidence trickster's handbook |
| Project initiation document(PID) |
convincing the project board they are going to get what they think they want. | the sting |
| Progress reports | jargon, acronyms, masses of meaningless facts and figures and don't forget the updated GANTT and Pie charts. | the fob off |
| Stage plan | convincing the project board you're going to do what they think you should be doing had the PID borne the slightest resemblance to what was really going to happen. | the British rail timetable |
| End Stage report | the truth, the whole truth, and anything but the truth. | the fairy tale |
| Exception reports | Passing the buck. | the buck stops there |
| Evaluation reports | allocating blame. | the back stab |