An Effective Executive Summary An executive summary is a concise, (usually) non-technical, targeted summary of a project being proposed, addressed to executive management, and prepared with the assumption that by reading the summary, the executive will have all the necessary information to make an informed decision to accept or decline the proposed project. While the summary is designed to motivate the executive to read the detailed project report, it should be prepared with the thought in mind that a very busy executive may likely make the go/no go decision by reading of the executive summary alone. The executive summary normally contains 5 major components, (1) an introductory paragraph, (2) a brief explanation of the project itself, (3) an explanation of the resources required by the project, (4) key evidence that the project will provide significant benefit to the organization, and (5) a concluding paragraph that summarizes the above sections and reiterates the value of the project. Each of these sections should open with a sentence that capsulizes the information that will follow within the section. Since the executive summary may be the only opportunity for a project to be considered for approval, make certain that the information presented is factual and necessary for decision-making. Do not "load up" the document with data that might impress you, but will not contribute to the decision-making process. Remember, many great ideas never get off the ground because of simple mistakes. Punctuation, spelling, grammatical, errors have derailed great ideas before they were ever started. Executives will make the assumption that an engineer who doesn't take the effort to properly write a document will not be responsible to expend the time and resources of the company wisely. The executive summary is the primary marketing document about you! Do it properly and you speak volumes about your competence; do it wrong, and the opposite will be conveyed. Invest the time and energy to prepare it well.