Bridge Communication Chasm: Fix ineffective reporting to improve communication.

A growing Communication Chasm is having a negative impact on the relationship between the PMO community and their senior executive teams. 

That’s according to research we recently commissioned that discovered major discrepancies between execs’ expectations and what PMOs deliver to them. The results of this study show that execs are frustrated when they receive ineffective project and portfolio reports that don’t meet their requirements.

The major complaints reported by execs is that reports are text-based and too wordy, are compiled in formats that prevent them from quickly discovering the information they need, and are buried in emails or document management systems in large reporting packs. 

This continued failure to provide execs with what they want, how they want it is hindering their ability to add value to the business. More concerningly, it is negatively impacting execs’ perception of value generated from the PMO and project management community. 

Below, we explore the key pain-points reported by execs, and how the PMO community can begin to strengthen the relationship.

Dwindling engagement

Senior execs are increasingly demanding clear reporting to permit active involvement in project and portfolio activity. 96.9% of execs surveyed told us it is either ‘extremely important’ or ‘very important’ to be actively involved with project and portfolio activity. However, only one in six PMOs (15.2%) believe their execs are ‘extremely well informed’ on the status of their projects. 

A major part of the problem is that reports are not consistently delivered to execs in their preferred formats. For example, more than three-quarters of PMOs (77%) currently deliver project information to their exec teams in Excel or PowerPoint. That’s despite just 3% of execs preferring to receive reports in Excel and 42% favouring PowerPoint reports.

Think concise and visual

The modern exec needs to be presented with reports that provide information in a clear, concise and highly visual manner. 93.8% of senior execs told us that concise and visual information is the feature they consider most important in project reports. However, less than one-third of PMOs (31%) believe creating highly visual reports is important to encouraging exec involvement. 

It’s therefore hardly surprising that more than three-quarters of PMOs (78%) are struggling to engage execs in the project and portfolio reports they generate.

Execs require reports to be presented in a manner that enables them to digest information in seconds and meets their personal leadership and decision-making criteria. Providing this will help execs easily explore the performance of their projects and quickly identify the issues that demand their most pressing attention.

New reporting methods

PMOs must explore new, more innovative and exec-aligned tools that bring their reporting processes into the modern day if they are to achieve exec-level satisfaction. Only then will they be able to provide the highly visual reports their execs demand – anytime, anywhere and on any device.

Not only will this delight execs, it’ll also make the PMO’s life easier and hugely reduce the time the organisation spends on reporting processes. More than half of our PMO respondents (53%) told us they spend more than 8 hours per month compiling project and portfolio reports. Now, instead of painstakingly creating detailed reports in formats that fail to engage execs, the PMO can be freed up to focus on delivery and drive value for the business.

Kivue Perform will help the PMO community welcome in a new world of smarter processes that encourage communication with execs. Wave goodbye to soulless PowerPoint slides and Excel spreadsheets and usher in consistent and concise, fast and formidable reporting with a free trial of Kivue Perform.

You can discover the key pain-points afflicting both PMOs and execs by downloading the research report here.