10	Project stage 6: review and exit

Figure 10.1 Review and exit

	Why review a project?
	The information we learn about our own performance and the process used to implement the project will provide valuable information to improve our performance on future projects.

Signalling the end

Take time out to celebrate and enjoy the success of a project before moving on to the next one. (Gabriel Williams RIBA, Managing Partner, Petersen Williams Architects)

A critical action at the end of any project is to ensure that your project’s completion is formally agreed and ‘signed off ’ by your sponsor. It is important to let your sponsor and steering committee know that the project has formally ended and been handed over to the user for the operational phase. Your sponsor will also know that any additional work will be subject to new terms of reference.

Completing a project is achieved by using your original TOR and presenting your sponsor with a report that will include:

• a review of various aspects of the project
• A review of your own performance.

Figure 10.2 presents an overview of this process. The complexity of the project will determine the amount of detail you need to present in your review report.

Figure 10.2 The review process

The benefits of using this process to sign off a project are:

• having a structured method for conducting your review
• getting feedback on your contribution and performance
• measuring the effectiveness of your work and the success of the project’s results.

The review process

The two parts of your review process dealing with your own assessment and the project assessment, can be divided into a number of specific activities. These are presented in Figure 10.3, which shows that more effort must be directed towards the activities at the bottom of each triangle. As a minimum, you should carry out the top four activities, which are:

• a self-assessment
• assessment of you by your sponsor
• the effectiveness of the project
• the effectiveness of the planning and implementation process.

The other activities should be carried out if you have the required resources and funds to complete them. These include:

• assessment of you by the project team
• assessment of you by the customer/user
• determining customer/user satisfaction of the project
• gathering requests and recommendations for further improvements and changes.

For each of these activities, information needs to be gathered from relevant people. It is appropriate that an independent person is assigned to gather this information rather than yourself as the project manager. This will ensure that objectivity is maintained throughout the review process. You should complete a self-assessment and pass this on to the reviewer to be included in their final report. Each of the review activities will normally take the form of a series of one-to-one interviews between the reviewer and other parties. The reviewer needs to structure his or her interviews so that a series of standard questions are asked which were prepared in advance. The reviewer will also allow any interviewee to comment on any other issues that may have been missed. A questionnaire can be sent out to a variety of people to obtain their views but more information will be obtained on a one-to-one basis.

Figure 10.3 The review process in detail

To carry out a review the reviewer will need to:

• plan what information to gather
• conduct their interviews
• present the review report to the sponsor.

Planning what information to gather

A successful review will need careful planning as there are a number of steps that need to be carried out:

• Who should be interviewed?
• Prepare questions for the interviews.
• Arrange interview appointments.
• Prepare the review report.

The review process should be completed within one month. This should include carrying out the interviews, documenting them, analysing results, preparing a report and presenting this back to the project sponsor.

Who should be interviewed?

The type of project you have carried out will govern the answer to this question and the amount of time the reviewer has to devote to the review process. For example, if you were project managing the launch of a new IT system to a number of different organization sites, the reviewer might aim to interview a representative sample of users of the new system, the team who built it and information providers. Where applicable, the review should also extend to members of the steering committee and any departments that may have been supporting the project. This might potentially involve at least seven meetings and several more depending on the number of interviewees involved from each interested group. If there were several hundred final users of the system, the reviewer would probably want to select a small group of users representing a geographical area, be it nationally or internationally. Departments who provide regular information to the new system such as personnel, marketing, financial control, customer services and production might also be included. The people who built the system, the system developers, might include a mixture of both internal and external resource and again the reviewer would probably want to check their views. So very quickly the review process might include between twenty and thirty interviews that need to be completed. On very large and complex projects involving high levels of expenditure and large operational changes, the reviewer may well be required to carry out this size of review as the sponsor and steering committee will be looking to identify tangible results.

Conversely if you were responsible for organizing an annual management forum then the number of interviews would be significantly less. But even in this case the reviewer should aim to interview a cross-section of delegates, the sponsor and a representative sample of any external parties who may have participated in the conference.

Will your sponsor sanction a budget to carry out a review? On largescale projects there will probably be a strong expectation that a full review will take place, but you may need to work hard at persuading your sponsor to fund a review on smaller projects. Much will depend on the circumstances surrounding the original project and the availability of a reviewer who may need to conduct a review in his or her own time commitment. Where sponsor assistance is not forthcoming avoid the temptation to forget about a review, as they are vital to your improving your efficiency of running future projects. At the same time do not miss this important opportunity to document and sell the impact of your work.

Preparing questions for an interview

A range of questions is presented in this chapter for the reviewer to consider and use when structuring their review. Alternatively, the forms in Chapter 9 can be used to conduct reviews. The appropriate form can be used for the type of information that will be gathered according to the model presented in Figure 10.3. These forms include the following.

Project manager’s assessment

• Self – project manager’s self-assessment form (Figure 9.13)
• By sponsor – project manager’s performance assessment form (Figure 9.11)
• By project team or customer – project manager’s performance assessment form (Figure 9.11).

Project related

• Project effectiveness – project review form (Figure 9.14) or sponsor satisfaction of project form (Figure 9.12)
• Process effectiveness (IT system) – new system operation review form (Figure 9.15)
• Process effectiveness – new process review form (Figure 9.16)
• Customer satisfaction – new process review (Figure 9.16) or new system operation review form (Figure 9.15)
• Additional requests – problem identification form (Figure 9.9)
• Additional requests – request for additional improvements form (Figure 9.10).

Arranging interview appointments

After the reviewer has identified the people that need to be interviewed, appointments are arranged through your sponsor’s office. The reviewer needs to find out where the people to be interviewed are located and to make allowances for travelling to their offices. If they are located abroad, provision needs to be made for obtaining any necessary travel approvals. As an alternative, it may be easier to ask if they would be willing to travel to the reviewer’s office or your sponsor’s office. Finally, if most people are located in one building, the reviewer must not be tempted into interviewing too many people in one day. His or her capacity to remain alert and focused will diminish as the day progresses. The reviewer should plan for a maximum of four or five interviews a day lasting about one hour each and having about half an hour between interviews to make final notes or to prepare before the next interview.

Planning the review report

At this stage enough time must be allocated to prepare the final report. The reviewer will now have a good idea of who to interview and should allocate at least two hours per person for writing up interview notes.

Conducting interviews

Always go into any review meeting extremely well prepared. Think carefully beforehand about the type of questions that you will want to ask. Use the forms presented in Chapter 9 to assist you in the process.

When the interview begins, make sure you inform the interviewee that your review is intended to measure the impact of your work and that they are not being assessed in any way. Relax the interviewee by discussing the background to the project, your involvement and who your sponsor is. Let them know that your sponsor will be circulating the review report to all those who participated in it. Before you begin with your questions, let them know that you will be noting down their responses. Do not hide your notes, and tell the interviewee that they can inspect them at any time during the interview.

Third party reviews

You need to be aware that you may not be the only person carrying out a review as your sponsor may want an independent third party to conduct an assessment. If another person, either within the organization or from outside, has been asked to carry out a review, you need to meet and discuss his or her structure for conducting the review. If you are also going to carry out a review, try between you to avoid interviewing the same people twice. Your credibility, and possibly that of the project, may suffer from this needless duplication. If two reviews are being conducted, discuss the aims and questions of you both. Understand the background from the other person’s point of view and try to agree a joint timetable for interviewing and completing both reviews so as to minimize disruption.

Evaluating your performance

As a project manager you need to know which aspects of your assistance have been successful or not. You must validate the impact of your project management efforts. You also need to identify to what extent other organizational factors have influenced the outcomes of the project? Without this information, neither you nor your sponsor will be clear about how to manage similar situations in the future.

Assessing your own performance

Here are a list of questions you can ask yourself in order to assess your own performance on a project. You do not need to answer them all but use those most appropriate for the project you were working on:

• Were the project objectives achieved?
• Has your sponsor’s problem been solved or addressed?
• What could you have done differently to improve the final result?
• What do your colleagues feel about the results of the project?
• How does your sponsor’s staff regard your involvement?
• How good is your current sponsor relationship?
• Will your sponsor recommend you to their colleagues?
• Has your sponsor asked you to undertake additional work?
• Did the project stay within budget?

Other people’s assessment of your performance

You also need to understand how other people and groups that participated in the project regarded your performance. Remember, you can ask this same set of questions to a cross-section of people who were actively involved in the project:

• To what extent do you think the project manager contributed to meeting the project objectives?
• What specific actions taken by the project manager helped to meet the project objectives?
• What specific actions taken by the project manager hindered you in meeting the project objectives?
• What might the project manager have done (but did not) that might have helped you to meet the project objectives?
• Would you use the project manager to help you address a similar situation in the future?
• Would you choose to work with the project manager again in the future?
• Would you recommend the project manager to colleagues?

Assessing customer satisfaction with a new system

If your project has resulted in a new system being implemented, such as a new accounting system, then you need to assess peoples’ satisfaction with the new changes and the way they were implemented. You may identify two groups of people, for example, those that are involved in operating the new system and those that receive information from it. You might arrange to interview one person who will represent the views of each group. In many cases, you may have to interview several people from each group to obtain a balanced view. This process is usual when the project has involved people from different departments, such as marketing, production or human resource. All these people may derive benefit from or use the new system but they may have very different views on its effectiveness. You are looking to assess their satisfaction in either using or obtaining information from the new system.

Consider using some of the following questions:

• Has the system delivered new benefits to the people who use it?
• Have all the expected benefits been achieved?
• Is the new system easy to operate?
• Are jobs easier to do with the new system?
• Have the business objectives been met?
• Did the project manager involve people sufficiently during the project?
• Did the project manager keep people informed of progress?
• Is the documentation supporting the new system satisfactory?

Reviewing a new system or procedure

In some cases you will also want to determine the effectiveness of any new system or procedures. Here are some questions you may ask if a new procedure has been implemented such as a new ordering process:

• Have the original problems been addressed?
• What do you like about the new procedures and why?
• What don’t you like about the new procedure and why?
• Will this new process make your job easier to do?
• Is the procedure quicker than the previous one?

For a new systems implementation, such as a sales monitoring system, you might use the following questions:

• Is the system easy to use?
• Are the response times fast enough?
• What do you like about the new system and why?
• What don’t you like about the new system and why?
• If things go wrong, is there a contingency procedure?
• If the contingency procedure was used, was it effective?
• If information is stored on the new system, is it secure?

Identifying continuing problem areas

You may also need to identify any continuing problems being experienced by people as a result of the implementation. Here are a few questions you might ask:

• Have you had any further problems since the work was implemented?
• When did they start to occur?
• What do you feel is contributing to these problems?
• What actions have you so far taken to address these issues?
• Have you reported these problems to anyone else?
• Do you have any thoughts as to how the problem might be dealt with?

Reviewing your project process

In any project you should aim to review your project management process. This will help you and your sponsor identify successful practices and improvements for any future projects. So consider using the following questions:

• What practices helped to make the project go smoothly?
• What should we avoid doing during future projects?
• What difficulties did you encounter whilst the work was being carried out?
• What did you like about the work plan?
• What else helped to make the project run smoothly?
• Why do you think we had that problem with x?
• What other groups do you think assisted the development of the project?
• What groups or departments hindered development?

Gathering recommendations for additional improvements

Although a new system may have only been in place for a short time before you carry out your review, it is none the less likely that requests for further changes will be made. Apart from recording these requested changes, your review report can also impress on your sponsor the need for a process to manage these requests for change. The dividing line between the end of your original project and further improvements and enhancements can often be blurred, and a review will help to define this divide and bring to your sponsor’s attention any outstanding issues.

For now though, you only need to ask some of the following questions to include in your report:

• What changes do you want to the new system?
• How can the new system be improved?
• How can the operation of the system be improved?
• What changes would you recommend to further increase the business benefit?

Presenting the review report

Keep it simple – one simple graph with key information is better than 100 tables of details. (Peter Suhr-Jessen, Project Manager, Novo Nordisk)

After you have completed all your interviews you need to review your notes and identify the main messages that emerge. In preparing your sponsor report provide a brief background to the project and its objectives from your terms of reference. Also indicate who you interviewed and their departments. Then detail the main learning points you have identified. Try to address any problem areas as well as the successes. The chances are that if you ignore something by not referring to it in your report, your sponsor will pick it up by some other means. This only makes you look devious. So be honest and deal with difficult issues up front. Most sponsors will respect your honesty and integrity.

As this type of report can be expected to be circulated to a number of other people in your organization, as well as those who contributed to the review, prepare a summary page of the key messages and results. In your presentation and covering letter to your sponsor do not forget to highlight your main achievements on the project. You must be thinking about the next project and future opportunities so make sure your sponsor is aware of your successful input.

Finally, you must indicate to your sponsor that you are seeking agreement to formally close the project on the basis that it has been satisfactorily completed. Never allow your projects to drift on endlessly. You will have other sponsors who will need your time and energy. So get written confirmation to signal the end of the project.

The main headings to include in your report are:

• Review summary
• Project background
• Project objectives
• Assessment of project manager
• Project review.

At this stage you are formally ending your consulting cycle, hopefully with a successful project result and a happy sponsor who feels positive about working with you. Thus you have laid firm foundations for your next project.

If the reviewer is pressed for time, select the appropriate interview forms from Chapter 9 and use these for gathering information from interviews. Make sure you discuss the benefits of the review process with your sponsor at the beginning of the project and refer to the review process during the project. Sponsors hate surprises that require resource!