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| Three Common Reporting Problems | ||
| LIMS
is great at storing data. We can find many ways to get our data into the
system. One of the main problems we have on our projects, however, is
that we end up with a lot of stored data and no plan to get it to the
right people in a way that is useful to them. This is a common source
of significant project schedule slippage, as the sudden flurry of activity
to solve this problem usually occurs when the system is thought to be
almost ready to use. Although this problem manifests itself in a number of areas besides reporting (e.g., statistical analysis), I’m going to focus solely on the issue of reporting and what I’ve seen as three common problems associated with it. Problem: The Data is Difficult to Report As reports are being created, it becomes evident that the data is not available in a way that makes reporting easy, or sometimes even possible. Suggestion: Reporting needs to be considered during the early stages of the project. The system cannot entirely be created to accommodate reporting, as there are other issues to consider, such as simplifying user data entry, but reporting issues should be weighted in decision making along with other issues. Problem: The Reports are Incredibly Complex Some reports are so complicated that they seem impossible to create. In fact, when you have items such as clinical, drug metabolism, stability, or dissolution to report, you can almost guarantee some difficultly in coming up with a satisfactory format Suggestion: In a way, it seems to make sense to train people on the reporting software that will be used and have them start creating all the simplest reports first. However, by exclusively creating the simplest reports first, issues related to more difficult reports aren’t always identified in time to work them out before the project timeline is seriously affected. Certainly, a person newly trained on the LIMS and the reporting package needs to create some of the easier reports first, but difficult reports must be addressed early in the project. To do this, people involved with the project need to understand both the LIMS’ data structure as well as the reporting package. Some reports are more difficult than they initially appear, as well. But, by working on some of the most difficult reports early, the report writers will get the experience they need to identify reporting issues in other reports. Problem: There are a LOT of Reports to Create Those of you who send reports to customers on your products sometimes find that you almost have to develop a customized reporting format for each customer. Depending on your business, it is often difficult, if not impossible, to convince your customers to accept a different format. Recreating all these reports in the new LIMS seems overwhelming. But creating only one report that works for everyone seems to be an impossible task, as well. Suggestion: If you look carefully at your reports, you will probably find that there are some similarities in them. In most cases, I’ve found that you can create one report format that truly does accommodate a great number of customers. Then, that format can be copied and modified many times for other, similar reports with minor modifications. Sometimes, just two to three formats are needed to cover the majority of reports when there are just too many differences for only one exclusive format. This is another case where the report writer needs to have a full understanding of both the LIMS’ data structure and the reporting software in order to do this task. It’s a tall order, but it will save greatly on report maintenance time in the future and is worth the effort now. I can also tell you from my own experience that this strategy effectively cuts down on report maintenance whether the reports are created with commercial reporting software or via customized programming. |
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| Related Article(s): Using Temporary Tables to Aid Complex Reporting |
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of This Newsletter Assistance in the production of this newsletter was provided by Teich Technical and Marketing Communications, which can help you find your new clients through marketing communications, technical writing, editing, indexing, and Web content services, along with training and educational materials development. Thea Teich, owner and principal, is currently the immediate past president of the Society for Technical Communication. Contact: Thea@TeichTMC.com |
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