Webinar: Writing Technical Reports - Are Your Reports Readable Understandable And Actionable?

Ing. Joseph Micallef Chief Operations Officer – BEAT

Writing Technical Reports Are Your Reports Readable, Understandable And Actionable?

23rd November 2015

WEBINAR

Housekeeping

• The slides will be available on our SlideShare

page, and a link will be emailed to you

• The recording of the webinar will be available to

view, and a link will be emailed to you

• Please take the time to complete the post-

webinar survey that will pop up at the end

• Time will be allocated at the end of the webinar

to answer Questions

Today’s Presenter

Ing. Joseph Micallef is Chief Operations Officer at BEAT, an organisation that

supports clients in optimising performance through Strategic and Operational

Reviews whilst priding itself of its strong implementation expertise in Business

Process Transformation, Change Management, Project Management and Project

Commercialisation Solutions. Originating from Malta, BEAT’s client portfolio

comes from private and public organisations, both in Europe and the Middle East.

Joseph is an engineer by profession, with a particular penchant for guiding

organisations along the road leading to operational effectiveness, value-adding

activities, and customer-centric, high-quality performance through business

excellence processes. With a career spanning a very broad spectrum of industrial

processes as well as services oriented sectors, his experience and expertise

contributes to numerous operational improvement case studies.

A regular speaker and facilitator at a number of training seminars, workshops and

conferences, he has trained hundreds of middle-management level and executive

management delegates in Europe and the Middle East.

A Well Written Report

OBJECTIVE

RESEARCHED

STRUCTURED

WRITING STYLE

Fat reports

Colourful reports

Boring reports

The Real Challenge!

Do the reports we read/write give the

value we expect?

Can conclusions be drawn?

…are they stated clearly?

Is it another ‘time-robber’?

For whom is the report

intended?

What does the reader

already know about the

material of the report?

How knowledgeable of the

subject is the reader?

Why should the reader

need this particular report?

What is it necessary

to tell the reader?

What will the reader’s

expected response be?

What do we (the author)

want the reader’s response

to be?

How can we bridge the gap

between what the reader

knows already?

What do we (the author)

want the reader to know,

in order to generate the

desired response?

…on your readers!

FLOW…make it LEAN

Process: stress-free

Maximise: time & resources

The REPORT WRITING process needs to

“For Goodness’ Sake…”

The Deming Cycle

Continuous Improvement Process

PLAN

DO

CHECK

ACT

Do any final touches

Proof read and confirm facts

Distribute to the audience

Follow up and obtain FEEDBACK

Does it address the scope?

Is it written to address the right audience?

Have the facts and all data/information

been presented?

Write out the FACTS

Present all data

Present relevant information

Be concise

Type

Format

Layout

Content

Planning Tool

FRAMEWORK

Typical Report Structure

Cover Page

Title Page

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abstract

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures

Summary

1 - Introduction

2 - Discussion/Main Text

3 - Conclusion

4 - Recommendations

5 - References

6 - Bibliography

Glossary

Appendix

Index

…technical people, in general,

Thank you