Challenges Reporting Project Costs and Risks to Owner Decisionmakers

摘要

Owners rely on project reports in order to make decisions. However, reporting is often inadequate for this purpose. For example, there may be too much or too little information, which confuses the Board or executives. Data may be misrepresented, incomplete, unrecognized, not validated, or simply inaccurate. Owner oversight of projects requires accurate, timely, and relevant status reporting, yet all too often it is not provided. This paper identifies common pitfalls in project reporting, discusses the differences between accounting and project management software capabilities, and provides guidelines for developing periodic, consistent, useful reports to upper management.