What Tech Report Is

CNM Cyber suites

What Tech Report Is (hereinafter, the Lectio) is the lesson part of Technical Report Essentials lesson that introduces its participants to technical report concepts. This lesson belongs to the CNMCT Entrance section of the CNM Cyber Placement.

Content

The predecessor lectio is Narrated Fact vs Opinion.

Script

A technical report is any report that presents those findings that are obtained while undertaking a research or another project. As documents, technical reports are similar to scientific reports. However, scientific reports are independently reviewed, usually by peers, before their publication, while technical reports rarely are.

Similarly to other reports, technical reports consist of report contents and metadata. Report's metadata particularly includes report's title, date, authors, owners, and so on.

SSUFI is one of many methods for report outlining. SSUFI is the acronym for Summary, Stage-setting, Undertaking, Finding, Interpretation.

The summary is the condensed presentation of the substance of the report content. It allows its reader to decide whether he or she is interested in further reading. The summary briefly answers the question, "What the report changes."

The stage-setting section describes the problem, background, situation, and/or the tasks for which the project or research was undertaken. This section answers the questions, "Who, where, when, and why undertook the research."

The undertaking section describes the actions, methods, assumptions, and procedures. This section answers the question, "How the research was undertaken."

The finding describes the research results. This section answers the question, "What has been found."

The interpretation describes conclusions, solutions, and implications that can be derived from the report findings, as well as discussions that, possibly, represent different opinions, and, if requested, recommendations for further courses of action. This section answers the question, "What people think the report changes."

The STAR Outline is often used in job interviews. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result is. In comparison with SSUFI, it skips the summary and interpretations, as well as divides the stage-setting into situation and task. The summary can be skipped since the STAR-outlined report is usually given in response to interviewer's request.

White papers can be defined as those technical reports that have been created to educate product customers. Because of their marketing purpose, these papers are usually written in simpler language than technical reports. White papers may also include opinion statements in any section; the technical reports tend to allow opinions only in the interpretation section.

Key terms

Technical report, scientific report, report content, SSUFI, document summary, report stage-setting section, report undertaking section, report finding, report interpretation, STAR Outline (situation, task, action, result), white paper

Closing

The successor lectio is Tech Report Metadata.