If you've followed the instructions and guidance, then pulling the report together should be pretty simple.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n If you’ve followed the instructions and guidance, then pulling the report together should be pretty simple.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There\u2019s a good chance you might be thinking that I\u2019m glossing over the difficulties of populating the template and what I\u2019ve just described is too good to be true.<\/p>\n And you are partially right: there are times when the report just won\u2019t come together and you feel like you are fighting with the data. Things feel incomplete and you keep having to stop to hunt for more information. It certainly isn\u2019t as straightforward as Bobbie\u2019s day.<\/p>\n What I just described is what compiling the report feels like when you\u2019re properly prepared. If it\u2019s not flowing, then you\u2019ve probably started compiling your report before you\u2019re ready. Sometimes that\u2019s because your timeline was cut and you are having to rush compilation and at other times, it means that you weren\u2019t able to get all your prep done in time. Perhaps your notes aren\u2019t organized. Maybe you didn\u2019t hammer out all the details of the methodology. You might not be fully comfortable yourself with your metrics.<\/p>\n The biggest reason I have found for a lack of flow was that I simply didn\u2019t understand the organization properly. I hadn\u2019t gathered enough information and I wasn\u2019t feeling fully comfortable with what I had. I would keep stopping to verify a piece of information or I would have to dig back through my notes to make sure what I had written was accurate. I would be second-guessing myself the whole time. In short, I wasn\u2019t ready to complete the assessment because I hadn\u2019t completed the previous steps.<\/p>\n So if you don\u2019t feel as though you are ready to compile your results, then you shouldn\u2019t go any further until you work out what the gaps are and close those. Otherwise the final assessment will have gaps or inconsistencies in it which are going to hinder the decision-makers.<\/p>\n If there is a genuine need to accelerate the report and cut the time available, you need to go back and reduce the scope. Zero in on the critical issues under consideration and the key decisions people are trying to make. Then, focus on what\u2019s needed to support this work.<\/p>\n Better to give thorough answers to a couple of questions than partial answers to several. You should continue to work on the full assessment in the background but this way, you can meet the decision-makers\u2019 most urgent needs and still deliver the full report.<\/p>\n The key thing is that if you don\u2019t feel ready to write the report, or get bogged down as soon as you start, then something\u2019s missing and you need to address that before you go any farther. Remember, the hard work is gathering the information and interpreting it. By this stage, you should just be filling in the blanks and completing whatever template you\u2019ve selected.<\/p>\n As you go, you will still find small \u2018bugs\u2019 here and there. You might notice that there are inconsistencies that appear once you collate everything. You might want to go back and check a piece of data. All of that is fine – this is a significant piece of work and what you produce now won’t be your final report, not by a long shot. The point is that there is a difference between the normal kind of fact-checking and review that is part of the risk assessment process and trying to write the report when you have significant information gaps.<\/p>\n Once you have this initial draft of the assessment, it\u2019s time to sense check everything through a series of reviews with the client. This allows you to close any gaps you\u2019ve identified and tackle any discrepancies that have arisen to ensure that the final report is as accurate as possible. It\u2019s also a way to start to introduce the results to the client so you aren\u2019t simply dropping the whole report on them with no preparation.<\/p>\n However, as Bobbie’s about to find out, that can be the hardest part of the whole project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[47],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-160","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-standard"],"part":52,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/authorlab.pro\/layout\/beyondthespreadsheet\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/authorlab.pro\/layout\/beyondthespreadsheet\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/authorlab.pro\/layout\/beyondthespreadsheet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/authorlab.pro\/layout\/beyondthespreadsheet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/authorlab.pro\/layout\/beyondthespreadsheet\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161,"href":"https:\/\/authorlab.pro\/layout\/beyondthespreadsheet\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/160\/revisions\/161"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/authorlab.pro\/layout\/beyondthespreadsheet\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/52"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/authorlab.pro\/layout\/beyondthespreadsheet\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/160\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/authorlab.pro\/layout\/beyondthespreadsheet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/authorlab.pro\/layout\/beyondthespreadsheet\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/authorlab.pro\/layout\/beyondthespreadsheet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/authorlab.pro\/layout\/beyondthespreadsheet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThere\u2019s a good chance you might be thinking that I\u2019m glossing over the difficulties of populating the template and what I\u2019ve just described is too good to be true.\r\n\r\nAnd you are partially right: there are times when the report just won\u2019t come together and you feel like you are fighting with the data. Things feel incomplete and you keep having to stop to hunt for more information. It certainly isn\u2019t as straightforward as Bobbie\u2019s day.\r\n\r\nWhat I just described is what compiling the report feels like when you\u2019re properly prepared. If it\u2019s not flowing, then you\u2019ve probably started compiling your report before you\u2019re ready. Sometimes that\u2019s because your timeline was cut and you are having to rush compilation and at other times, it means that you weren\u2019t able to get all your prep done in time. Perhaps your notes aren\u2019t organized. Maybe you didn\u2019t hammer out all the details of the methodology. You might not be fully comfortable yourself with your metrics.\r\n\r\nThe biggest reason I have found for a lack of flow was that I simply didn\u2019t understand the organization properly. I hadn\u2019t gathered enough information and I wasn\u2019t feeling fully comfortable with what I had. I would keep stopping to verify a piece of information or I would have to dig back through my notes to make sure what I had written was accurate. I would be second-guessing myself the whole time. In short, I wasn\u2019t ready to complete the assessment because I hadn\u2019t completed the previous steps.\r\n\r\nSo if you don\u2019t feel as though you are ready to compile your results, then you shouldn\u2019t go any further until you work out what the gaps are and close those. Otherwise the final assessment will have gaps or inconsistencies in it which are going to hinder the decision-makers.\r\n\r\nIf there is a genuine need to accelerate the report and cut the time available, you need to go back and reduce the scope. Zero in on the critical issues under consideration and the key decisions people are trying to make. Then, focus on what\u2019s needed to support this work.\r\n\r\nBetter to give thorough answers to a couple of questions than partial answers to several. You should continue to work on the full assessment in the background but this way, you can meet the decision-makers\u2019 most urgent needs and still deliver the full report.\r\n\r\nThe key thing is that if you don\u2019t feel ready to write the report, or get bogged down as soon as you start, then something\u2019s missing and you need to address that before you go any farther. Remember, the hard work is gathering the information and interpreting it. By this stage, you should just be filling in the blanks and completing whatever template you\u2019ve selected.\r\n\r\nAs you go, you will still find small \u2018bugs\u2019 here and there. You might notice that there are inconsistencies that appear once you collate everything. You might want to go back and check a piece of data. All of that is fine - this is a significant piece of work and what you produce now won't be your final report, not by a long shot. The point is that there is a difference between the normal kind of fact-checking and review that is part of the risk assessment process and trying to write the report when you have significant information gaps.\r\n\r\nOnce you have this initial draft of the assessment, it\u2019s time to sense check everything through a series of reviews with the client. This allows you to close any gaps you\u2019ve identified and tackle any discrepancies that have arisen to ensure that the final report is as accurate as possible. It\u2019s also a way to start to introduce the results to the client so you aren\u2019t simply dropping the whole report on them with no preparation.\r\n\r\nHowever, as Bobbie's about to find out, that can be the hardest part of the whole project.","rendered":"
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