How to develop a professional reporting system?

Dear Scarlett,



Thank you for your kind reply.



It would have been very interesting if you said that you are reporting on all the FIDIC clauses in each monthly report.



You are correct, the reporting is developed based on the requirements of the project. You custom tailer the report in order to highlight the statistics on the project in addition to the issues that need to be resolved by the shareholders or upper management, if needed.



With kind regards,



Samer

Dear Samir,



I highlight FIDIC because i really do not know the contract which the initiator of this post had at present.



The point I want to highligt is to develop professional reporting system based on what the contract required, this is for a start. The report should consider the contractual obligation as a minimum requirement. Presenting more than what will be required in the contract could means only: a.) the report has value added or b.) the report is full of garbage (GIGO rule).



As i mentioned earlier, the reporting system is an evolution. so for five years contract, the first six months could only include:



Introduction

Project Details

Executive Summary

Project Progress

Work Done during this Period

Work Planned for Next Month

Progress Photographs



The report is more on narrative without any progress charts, Primavera extracts, tables,etc.



Thank you,

Scarlett

Dear Scarllet,



How did you connect FIDIC with the reporting format? Do you have any reference please.



Thank you for sharing it.



With kind regards,



Samer

Dear Fernando,



What are to be included in the report? Easy: Read your contract. Since I don’t know what your contract says, we can take FIDIC



Each report shall include:



(a) charts and detailed descriptions of progress, including each stage of design if any, Contractor documents, procurement, manufacture, delivery to Site, construction , erection and testing: and including these stages for work by each nominated Subcontractor (as defined in Clause 5 [Nominated Subcontractors]).

(b) photographs showing the status of manufacturing and of progress on the Site;

(c) for the manufacture of each main item of the Plant and Materials, the name of the manufacturer, manufacturer’s location, percentage progress, and the actual or expected dates of;

(i) commencement of manufacturing,

(ii) Contractor’s inspections,

(iii) Tests, and

(iv) shipment and arrival at the Site:

(d) the details described in Sub-clause 6.10 (Records of Contractor’s Personnel and Equipment)



This is what i discovered from my research.



It looks easy but believe me, the no.1 International Construction Compary find it hard to understand, develop and submit this kind of basic and fundmental contractual obligation.



In conclusion, you are not alone.



Thank you,

Scarlett

Dear Mike,



SAP is an Enterprise Resource Planning Software. The basic idea is to have all the organization input their data into one database, then you can create the Formats and reports that you want. It is not something that can be done easily and will take 1-2 years to implement.



We were working towards implementing the software at a 1500 people company, and after 1.5 years or training, they went to the inhouse developed system. I think that it might be a good solution for big companies. You need to train people to become trainers in order to train everyone else how to use the system. Unless the organization is really in need to such a system to optimize the resources, then your cost for running the system will be high.



With kind regards,



Samer

Its an accounting reporting system that has the ability to do planning as well - its nonsense and is one of the most user unfriendly systems I’ve ever come across

Hi James



What is SAP?



Best regards



Mike Testro

How to develop a professional reporting system?



Do not use SAP!!!

Dear Fernando,



Periodic progress report is the lifeline of planning engineer. This is because it is the task of planning engineer to report on weekly progress, bi-weekly progress and monthly progress.



So, knowing your employment depends on this important project deliverables, the preparation of periodic progress report is an evolution, meaning, it must evolve from inception, along the middle of the project and finally during the final phase of the project.



You can compare it to a butterfly, the butterfly started as a caterpillar, the struggle of a caterpillar as it evole into a beatiful butterfly. Or if you a a chess enthusiate or very good chess player, you always have an openning move, then the middle games move and the final check mate.



In a practical sense, we will take an example of design, built and commissionin of mega projects, says, a Metro, or any project that spans more than three years to complete.



Initially, your report will be full of rubbish. but as the project move on, the value of information must change to something rubbost and important for management decision.



so I hope that will answer the how to develop a report



Thank you,

Scarlett

Dear Fernando,



This is an excellent question. It depends on the type of project.



Basically, you need to monitor: Scope, Time and Cost.



The building block of each program is the Activity. So you need to make sure that the above three items are monitored in each reporting cycle.



The planned vs the actual is what you want to report and comment on. Ultimately, you want to maintain the approved schedule.



With kind regards,



Samer