The linkage between reporting quality and performance in IS projects

Recent research has suggested that flawed status reporting is a serious concern in IS projects. However, the linkage between reporting quality and project performance has not been empirically confirmed. Our investigation consisted of two complementary studies, both of which employed previously validated measures of reporting quality and project outcomes. The first considered the perceptions of 210 IS project members of the quality of status reports they submitted to their project managers. The second considered the perceptions of 485 IS project managers of the quality of project reports they received from project members reporting to them. Both showed that the perceived quality of project reporting was less than perfect and was significantly associated with project task and psychological outcomes. Moreover, the second study results suggested that reporting quality was also related to organizational outcomes. We offer recommendations for project managers.