Writing a Project Summary

This is a brief description of what you plan to do, comprehensible to non-technical people. This is primarily intended for the business owner

For me in this context, “brief” means do not exceed two pages.

We will frequently be dealing with a business owner, a chief financial officer (CFO), or perhaps non-technical members of the board. At some stage in most projects, we need to write a description of the project comprehensible to these people. We will explain any abbreviation or technical term or avoid them. We avoid generalities and “marketing-speak”.

At a minimum, the summary might have the following components.

• Very brief introduction. What is this document and what is your remit?

• Briefly give context, say what you intend to do, you are trying to convince the customer that your design is professional, reliable and value for money.

• Define the scope of the project, what is included, what is not. Which branch are you responsible for?

• Declare your assumptions or say where you still need to elicit information.

• You could provide a timeline, we are not doing project management as a topic, you could give a brief description of the duration, notice, staging time, etc.

• If you refer to best practices, certifications, and standards, it will give your customer confidence!

• What are the risks and how may they be mitigated?

• Are there any legal compliance requirements on the site, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), site safety, manual handling, etc. How are people insured?

In Ireland, a quote is typically stated as valid for 30 or 60 days. In jurisdictions with high inflation, this may be an issue. Identify the validity of the information you are providing.

There are many other things students have added to this type of summary in the past.

• Security

• Business continuity and disaster recovery (backups!)

• Lifecycle, maintenance, warranties, and support?

• System life expectancy, upgrades.

Take a look at this video of a live session from 2022.