A report is typically a written document providing a summary of findings in relation to the system being analysed. Often when a software developer is creating a new system to replace the system that is currently in place, they must investigate the current system as part of their analysis of the requirements of the new system. In this instance, it can be useful to collect data about the current system; often this data has been summarised in report documents. These could include error reports, customer complaint summaries, uptime reports and other related system reports such as system performance reports, and monitoring reports. The types of reports collected will vary depending on the system being built and the system being replaced. The advantages of using reports as part of data collection is that they are often pre-prepared and quick to obtain, and therefore inexpensive. The data within them has already been collated and interpreted, saving time. This can also be a disadvantage, however, as the method of interpretation may not be sound, or may have been deliberately manipulated to present a particular point of view. Using data from reports can risky if the source of those reports is not reliable. ## Note It will likely be hard to find existing reports for similar software solutions This like website uptime, Github issue reports and user reviews will be the most accessible data.