executivesummary.tex

\chapter*{Executive Summary}
\label{sec:execsum}

From wikipedia: \url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_summary}

An executive summary, or management summary, is a short document or section of a document, produced for business purposes, that summarizes a longer report or proposal or a group of related reports in such a way that readers can rapidly become acquainted with a large body of material without having to read it all. It usually contains a brief statement of the problem or proposal covered in the major document(s), background information, concise analysis and main conclusions. It is intended as an aid to decision-making by managers and has been described as the most important part of a business plan.

An executive summary differs from an abstract in that an abstract will usually be shorter and is intended to provide a neutral overview or orientation rather than being a condensed version of the full document. Abstracts are extensively used in academic research where the concept of the executive summary would be meaningless. "An abstract is a brief summarizing statement... read by parties who are trying to decide whether or not to read the main document", while "an executive summary, unlike an abstract, is a document in miniature that may be read in place of the longer document".

Structure:
\begin{itemize}
 \item be approximately 5-10\% of the length of the main report
 \item be written in language appropriate for the target audience
 \item consist of short, concise paragraphs
 \item begin with a summary
 \item be written in the same order as the main report
 \item only include material present in the main report
 \item make recommendations
 \item provide a justification
 \item have a conclusion
 \item be readable separately from the main report
 \item sometimes summarize more than one document
\end{itemize}

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