The Engineering Reporter

Engineers, especially those in management roles, are expected to report in various ways, to summarize and convey information, to make recommendations, to give early alerts to emerging problems, and to cut costs.  The bulk of the information will contain numbers with dollar signs in front of them.  Engineers will need the ability to summarize financial information, explain what it means, and combine it with an informative narrative.

Michael Thornsett has written a great book that helps engineers with this process - - The Manager's Pocket Calculator: A Quick Guide to Essential Business Formulas and Ratio (2010).  The first portion is finance and numbers with dollar signs 101 - - probably the the most informative summary and presentation of this type material that I have seen.  A must read for the future engineering manager.

The second portion of the book provides a focus on report preparation.  I liked several of the general rules - - with the understanding that no one format is going to work best for every kind of report ("As a general rule, remember that, the longer the report is, the less chance it has of even being read.  A three-page summary is much more effective that a highly detailed 80-page analysis.").  Thornsett had the following recommendations regarding the "Art of Shortness" - -

• Provide a summary only, but have supporting documents ready.  Assume that anyone receiving your report is going to give it only a glance.  A report is rarely going to be read cover to cover.  So a two-or-three-page report that gives your conclusions and highlights is far more effective that a longer versions - - you should give your conclusions and highlights with supporting documentation available as a backup report or an online link.
• Organize the report assuming that your audience will read only the first paragraph.  Put your most important point on the first page - - clear, concise, and brief.  Another good tip - - put your conclusion in the title of the report.
• Never include pages full of numbers in the body of the report.  Charts and graphs say much more (see my Gapminder blog and the link to the TED presentation - - it is truly amazing).  Remember that numbers are not your friend - - they are wonderful, but really boring.  People generally don't like boring.  Remember, your report's purpose is to reveal information and to express ideas, not to fill pages with columns and rows of numbers.  Charts and graphs tell stories - - people like to read stories.