Symbian for Software Leaders: Principles of Successful Smartphone Development Projects

Chapter 23. The essential role of renewal

The role of the post partum

Whether your smartphone development project meets, or falls short of, your expectations, you owe it to yourself to conduct a formal review of the lessons you can learn from that project:

• What aspects went well?

• What aspects went badly?

• What would you do differently in the future?

• What immediate changes should you make to your organization to increase the chances of greater success in future smartphone projects?

Inside Symbian we regularly hold such reviews. In the case of a failed project – for example, if the smartphone was cancelled prior to launch – we call the review a "post mortem". In the case of a successful project, we call the review a "post partum". In either case, we produce a written document, containing both analysis and recommendations. For example, I've just taken a few minutes' break from writing this chapter to read through a 23-page document written within the last month, at the end of a major project support engagement by Symbian technical consultants. The document makes a total of 21 separate recommendations.

Hold these reviews about a month after the end of the project. A month is long enough for the participants to have gained some perspective – they're no longer wrapped up in project minutiae. But it's not so long that people will have forgotten their key experiences.

To get the best value out of a post partum, you should prioritize the recommendations that it makes. Otherwise there's a risk that ...