Effective Project Management

Section U Post Project Activities

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

Oscar Wilde, 1854 – 1900.

1 Completing the Records

1.1

Issue a project souvenir. Make sure that you do not leave anyone out. Include everyone who was on the project roster.

1.1.1

If you can get the client to pay for, say, half the cost, then it will be that much easier to get management to agree to the project paying the other half.

1.2

Finalise the project video.

1.3

Write an article about the successes of the project. Professional associations and institutions are always looking for articles. Get a major supplier to write an article about the specialist features of their equipment for their trade press.

1.3.1

Find an opportunity to make a presentation about the project. Again, professional institutions might welcome a presentation for one of their meetings.

2 Post‐project Appraisal – Internal Performance Review

2.1

For projects with a formal gate review procedure, the analysis of the project's performance and the lessons learned can be regarded as the last gate review activity.

2.1.1

At the end of the project, it is important to compare the final results with the original forecasts. The trend report will provide the record of changes. It is vital that detailed reasons are found for cost and programme overruns. If they are due to poor estimating or over‐optimistic scheduling, the information must be fed back to the head of estimating and/or scheduling ...