What is a Project Review?

A Project Review is an assessment of the status of a project, at a particular point in time.

The first time in the project life cycle that a project review is undertaken is at the end of
the first project phase, called "Initiation". During this project review, a decision is made
as to whether or not the team has met the objectives and is approved to proceed to the
next project phase, being the "Planning" phase. Performing a project management
review at the end of each phase is critical to the success of the project, because it allows
the Project Sponsor to control the progress of the project and make sure that it passes
through each Project Phase smoothly.

When do I complete a Project Review?

As soon as the project team believes they have completed a particular project phase, a
project review should be undertaken. There will usually be at least three project reviews
during the project life cycle: at the end of the Initiation, Planning and Execution project
phases. The template on this page will help you complete a project review for the
"Initiation" project phase. The items included in the project review form are targeted
towards this phase specifically.

Why does a Project Review? (What are the Benefits?)

Lessons learned from Project Reviews are useful from many perspectives. The real
benefit from Project Reviews is the opportunity to step back and tack a deeper look into
the system. During the throes of delivery when a problem is observed, the inclination is
to fix things quickly without a thorough examination of what is really happening. We
call this the ready, fire, aim approach. Sometimes this works. We get lucky; smart team
members use their insight to aim the arrow correctly. Project Reviews that follow this
process allow us to take a deeper look and examine the underlying values, practices,
and assumptions that got us in trouble in the first place. We can then precisely craft an
appropriate solution and monitor the solution carefully.

What's in it for Management?

Management benefits by gaining insight into the way that the organization is
working.
It enhances our ability to distinguish between common causes and special causes
of variation in the project development process.
The organization can work collaboratively towards a common understanding of
the system.
It builds common metrics so we can track our efforts across projects.
It provides an opportunity to exercise fact based management.
It facilitates the development of a clearer vision of improvement in the system.
 It helps in visualizing what change would look like.

What's in it for Teams?

Teams learn how roles and responsibilities can be redesigned to enhance product
development.
It provides an historical link through which we can build or accumulate theory
and knowledge.
It provides an opportunity for teams to take effective action and have control
over the future that increases job satisfaction, morale, and our ability to take joy
in work.
Teams can build on their understanding of common assumptions.
It provides a structured process for developing shared learning and shared
meaning.

What's in it for Project Managers?

Project managers learn how to improve project management methods and

infrastructure to enhance productivity and ensure that project goals are met.
It helps us identify and work towards common, known, related goals.
It separates the people from the system.
It provides different points of view and perspectives so we can evaluate our
assumptions.
It enhances our understanding of the current reality.

What's in it for Individual Contributors?

Individual contributors learn how to improve tasks and deliverables to increase

effectiveness.
It increases our understanding of key elements needed to support productive
work.
It helps us see how our actions impede or enhance the success of the project.
It reveals weakness and strengths in our project documentation and
communication methods.
It provides an opportunity to get closure.

There are five types of project review that we commonly use on projects. These are:

1. Peer review
2. Audit
3. Project evaluation review
4. Benefits review
5. Post-project review
Peer Reviews

Peer views are an informal review of the situation at any point in the project life-cycle
by someone of equivalent experience to the project manager. The objective is to have a
fresh (but knowledgeable) pair of eyes look over at the project management practice
and say whether or not they would be doing it the same way.

Project Audit

A project audit can be carried out at any time in the project life-cycle by an independent
individual. This could be, for example, a third-party organization or an independent
internal function like project assurance.

The point of an audit is really to look at whether or not your projects is compliant with
company standards, corporate processes and other formal and obligatory internal
guidelines like cost control.

Project Evaluation Reviews

Project evaluation reviews are carried out by the project manager. They are also known
as stage reviews and typically fall prior to a formal gate review with your project
sponsor.

This type of review is informal and you wont be asked to do it (unless your project
office is super-structured and on top of all the small details). Instead, youll have to
work out when to fit them in and schedule them yourself.

The risk of doing that is that you dont find the time in your project schedule and the
gate reviews, if you have them, come and go without the project manager having spent
any time preparing or assessing prior to the formal review.

Youre supposed to assess progress against base lined cost and schedule and provide
reassurance that the project is well-governed and progressing to plan.

Post-Project Reviews

Post-project reviews happen at the end of the project, but not before the project are
formally closed. I think their name is a bit misleading in that regard. They are led by the
project manager with input from other project team roles. They assess how a project
performed in terms of schedule cost quality and other key measures. They look at how
the processes and techniques used on the project works in practice. You might also
know them as post-implementation reviews or project autopsies.
Benefits Reviews

Benefits reviews take place after the project handover and close out and are conducted
by the project sponsor. In practice reviews are often set up by the project manager, even
if they dont actually attend the meeting. That tends to happen because, as part of the
handover activity, the sponsor asks for them to be arranged or the project manager
realizes that if he or she doesnt get them in the diary now then they wont happen.

A benefits review assesses whether or not the stated and desired benefits set out in the
business case have been achieved and to what degree. The first one normally take place
between three and six months after the project has formally closed. They are then
repeated at regular intervals until the business deems that the product is in a business
as usual state and no longer needs tracking.

Why Review? The Benefits

The simple reason is that project reviews enable managers to say that the project is well-
governed. They provide reassurance that structured methods are being used.

There are some other benefits too:

They form part of the audit trail enabling a good historical record of what
happened.
They make it easier to compare projects.
They enable the project manager and the team to continually assess project
practice, ensuring that project management approaches are tailored throughout
the project for the best possible outcomes. They enable the continuous collection
of lessons which make sure that you can learn lessons at every step in the project
life cycle and every member of the team can take part. This contrasts with the
idea of waiting for the post-project review to discuss lessons learned.
Reviews can help motivate the team and provide recognition for a job well done.
They enable corrective action to be taken including closing down the project if
appropriate. They do this by reviewing the current status against the planned
outcomes, evaluating the project against the original business case.

Generally, the overarching benefit of spending time reviewing your project is that you
get to be certain that you are doing the right things in the right way. Reviews provide
decision support information to decision-makers, ensuring the portfolio remains
healthy and only projects are providing a suitable return consuming resources.