There is too much information around us every where and we are using too much of our time to filter it.
This is why I like to have reports as small as possible, focused only on the content, without any thing added to it.
And looking around I’ve tried to use the twitter idea: express something in no more than 140 chars.
Also for clear understanding I like to split reports in two main components: Things we’ve done and thing we want to do.
And there is a third component that it is not contained in the raport, but a manager should be very interested in it: Thing that might stop me achieving the results.
I’ve got this from the way SCRUM works. In SCRUM they meet daily and talk about three topics: What I’ve done so far, What I want to do next, What problems might appear.
So a report should answer to the following public questions:
- What I’ve done?
- What I want to do?
And one private question:
- What could possible stop me?
In each category, just follow the rule not to have actions/items described in more than 140 chars.
If you can make a summary of 140 chars in the beginning of each category, then you’ve got the new level in making really readable reports: Tweeter like reports.
