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PPM AND COMMUNICATION 351

Narrative

• Usually combined with one or more of the preceding, to discuss progress
and issues.

Report Variables
Here are some of the items that should be addressed when we design our reports.

• Subject. • Formats.

• Purpose. • Time Scale and Time Span.

• Distribution. • Summarization Criteria.

• Data Items (fields). • Subtotals.

• Selection Criteria (records). • What is the reader supposed to be looking for?

• Sorting Criteria. • What is the expected response?

Project Portfolio Management and Communication

All the preceding discussion was directed toward communication on a single proj-
ect. Most of us contribute to or manage multiple projects, which necessitates ad-
ditional considerations for communication.

Most of the preceding comments can also apply to the multiproject environ-
ment. Here are a few additional considerations.

• Resource-oriented data, especially in formats designed to obtain timesheet
data, should cover all projects that involve the target personnel.

• Performance data may cover multiple projects so that the performance at-
tributed to groups involved in multiple projects can be fully evaluated.

• Milestone-level data for multiple projects can be tracked in combined for-
mats, for comparative progress and performance analysis.

• Special reports should be developed to address specific concerns involved
with managing the portfolio.

• If the firm works on projects that are similar in nature, it might be advanta-
geous to develop a standard Work Breakdown Structure, to be used for all
projects in such a group. In this case, the project becomes the second level
of the standard WBS, and the project group becomes the senior level. This
allows performance analysis and reporting to be performed across projects.