> if you're not ready to write extensive reports.. it's probably 75% of the job
Do you happen to have a system for building these out? As a techie, I imagine you've tried something like text-expander or similar... but I see a lot of people unsatisfied that they end up building their own tools.
Yes, We have a few tools that fill in based on scan data, with typical points of data, but a lot of what we're doing requires it's presented in a few different perspectives. Generally we provide a couple reports, the Highly Technical (with notes, logs of actions, etc. This can be hundreds of pages, but it's meant to be a reference for the engineering teams fixing what we found. We also sometimes provide full screen captures of the "ops". Second we provide a paired down version of that report with issues and recommendations, usually for the person that's hired us. It includes what we recommend for them to be successful. Finally we provide an Executive report that is designed to be presented by the second report recipient. Usually we've addressed the high level issues, helped with internal requests if possible (IE IT/Security wanted a budget for new firewall, we help boost that with our report as part of future planning etc.) and ultimately this report is designed to give whomever hired us the ability to be the rockstar (we're just the tool).
So all in, there are different tools needed for each report. Fortunately the way we capture the data and notes through out the "op" makes it much easier for the team to put together each part.
There's ways we could automate more, we've even messed with AI writing some of the suggestions and actions based on input. So far though, we still need the humans in the loop.
Honestly the first few reports are hardest, after that you find a process and it becomes much easier.
Wow -- thank you kindly for the thorough answer. It looks like you have the reporting down to a science (given how effective that comment was and how quickly you turned it around! :).
I've seen a lot of professions where in depth reporting still requires humans in the loop, and I think that will always be the case.
There's a small hope I have that one day writing will be a bit more like programming -- as in selecting a 'class' for a structure of a section / paragraph / thesis you want to communicate, which then provides typed functions for potential inputs -> outputs, freeing up human brain cycles for more interesting ideas.
> if you're not ready to write extensive reports.. it's probably 75% of the job
Do you happen to have a system for building these out? As a techie, I imagine you've tried something like text-expander or similar... but I see a lot of people unsatisfied that they end up building their own tools.