I have heard the terms internal proposals, appropriation requests, and justifications used interchangeably, depending on the business's nomenclature. In the previous post, I describe internal proposals as solicited or unsolicited requests to management for an investment of funds, staff, equipment, or real property. I have seen three large corporate clients equate their appropriation requests to internal proposals, so I do too. For this series on report writing, I define an internal proposal as a request for getting what we need to do what we must, and a justification as a defense for doing what we are already doing.
We justify projects, activities, and purchases because we want a record of our business decisions and a rationale for them. The can be invaluable learning tools down the line. Justifications may require the following components:
- A problem statement, including a detailed narrative about the causes of the problem and their impact on the business that motivated our reasonable actions. The problem statement may also call for a discussion of interventions taken which were inadequate in addressing the problem completely.
- An exploration of options, with advantages and disadvantages.
- A justification, describing why the chosen path is the most cost-effective.
- A project plan with required objectives, activities, tasks, responsible parties, milestones, contingencies, deliverables, and projected completion date.
Other reports in this series:
- Meeting Reports
- Incident Reports
- Investigation Reports
- Inspection Reports
- Procedural Reports
- Scopes of Work
- Test Reports
- Course Reviews
- Conference Reviews
- Contractor Appraisals
- Staff Appraisals
- Self-Appraisals
- Audit Reports
- Root-Cause Reports
- Business Forecasts
- Project Plans
- Project Status Reports
- Project Completion Reports
- Internal Proposals
