Technical Reports

Definition of a Technical Report

• Technical reports present facts and conclusions about your designs and other projects.

• Typically, a technical report includes research about technical concepts as well as graphical depictions of designs and data.

• A technical report also follows a strict organization.

General Format

• Technical Reports have an organized format because a majority of your audience may not read the entire report in one reading.

• This specific format allows readers to quickly locate the information they need.

• Most technical reports include the parts listed below. However, you may be required to include or exclude specific sections.

• Transmittal Letter

• Title Page

• Abstract

• Executive Summary

• Table of Contents

• List of Figures & List of Tables

• Report Body

• References

• Appendices

If you are planning a technical report, you should define the following:

• Report topic: Decide what subject you are going to write on.

• Report audience: Define a specific person or group of people for whom you are going to write the report.

• Report purpose: Define what the report will accomplish—what needs of the audience it is going to fufill.

• Report type: Decide on the type of report—for example, technical background report, feasibility report, progress report, etc

Progress Report• Progress reports have several important

functions reports. As the name suggests, they document ongoing projects.

• You write a progress report to inform a supervisor, associate, or customer about progress you've made on a project over a certain period of time.

• The project can be the design, construction, or repair of something, the study or research of a problem or question, or the gathering of information on a technical subject.

• You write progress reports when it takes well over three or four months to complete a project.

• They might be one-page memos or long, formal documents.

• Such a report is aimed at whoever assigned the project.

• Its goal is to enable the manager or sponsor of a project to make informed decisions about the future of the project.

Functions and Contents of Progress Reports

• In the progress report, you explain any or all of the following:

• How much of the work is complete • What part of the work is currently in

progress • What work remains to be done • What problems or unexpected things, if

any, have arisen • How the project is going in general

Organization• The original proposal for the project

determines the structure. With this in mind, the simplest structure is as follows:

• Introduction• Progress Summary Work Completed Work Scheduled

• Problems• Changes in Requirements (If any)• Overall assessment of the project

1. Introduction

• As always, first indicate the purpose of the report and its intended audience.

• Clearly define the time period covered in the report (see also titles).

• Then, explain the project's objectives and summarize the major issues.

• Sometimes the summary can be a separate section from the introduction.

2. Progress Summary

• This is the substance of the report. You want to discuss work done, work in progress, and work to be done. You might just use these as subheadings to structure the section. This would be a project-tasks approach.

• Other approaches are time-periods or a combined approach.

• Your project (and sometimes your sponsor) will determine which of these three you use.

3. Problems Encountered

• Snags are expected.

• If the problem occurred in the past, you can explain how you overcame it.

• If the problem is in front of you (now or in the future), explain how you hope to overcome it, if you can.

4. Changes in Requirements

•   Here, you record the changes to the project: milestones added, new requirements, or schedule changes (good or bad). 

5. Overall Assessment of the Project

• Since a progress report is not about a finished work, the conclusion needs only to give your professional opinion of how the project is going. 

• What is significant is to explain anything that may change the expected quality of the final product. 

Report Apparatus

•   A long progress report will include all the apparatus of formal reports: letter of transmittal, title page, table of contents, abstract, appendices, references.