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Are you getting the most out of your projects in these tougher economic times?

With the tightening of the economy, it is important to provide greater rigour into the processes we use in delivering projects.

Organisations are using a variety of means to achieve better project outcomes (project proposal assessments, methodologies, health checks, Post-Implementation Reviews, governance, mentoring and training).    Often however these are applied in ways that fail to maximise the value that can be achieved. Project Minds have developed a new approach called Project Forensics™ that drives better value outcomes from projects.

Project Forensics™ is a new level of project analysis.  It derives from the natural sciences where the term forensics refers to the gaining of evidence.  Applied to project reviews it provides a new level of rigour on gaining evidence in determining the status of the project and deriving recommendations.

Let us look at the Post implementation Review (PIR) process , and as we do so  ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does your organisation hold PIRs for all projects?

   Many organisations just move on, and miss a great opportunity to improve the way projects are performed.

2. How well are PIRs undertaken?

Many of the PIRs held are just providing “lip-service” to the process.  In one large organisation we saw that although PIRs were compulsory on all projects, many of the key participants did not turn up, the process was poorly executed, and the report produced was of little value.

3. Do you act on the recommendations from the PIR?

Many of the PIR reports end up gathering dust on the shelves, without any of the recommended actions being taken.   Many organisations will put the findings into a “lessons learned” database, but I have yet to meet a Project Manager who looks at this before undertaking a project.   If you are going to ignore the lessons of the past then you are likely to repeat the mistakes.  Take the findings and recommendations and action them to improve the processes.

4. How well are the recommendations defined?

Most recommendations are poorly thought through.  Often the recommended actions are too vague, not practical, too expensive,  not addressing the problem or providing an incomplete solution or likely to lead to other problems that have not been considered.

Some examples of these problems from some real-life PIRs are;

 1. Failing to align with the findings…

it was recommended that “a standard financials tracking tool be developed for all Project Managers” however no reference was made in the project to there being problems in this area. In fact the report stated that “Project Financials were well managed – the project came in under budget.”

2. Vague recommendations…

 It was recommended that “Need to have more clarity around authorisation in relation to use of project funds.” 

3. Impractical solutions…

It was recommended that “Need to have clear processes from the supplier regarding order requirements” .

The Project Forensics™  approach developed by Project Minds puts a discipline in place that improves the whole process around PIRs so that they are executed effectively, the findings and recommendations are well formed, the actions are implemented and improvement is achieved.  Similarly the Project Forensics™  approach  has been applied to Project Health Checks (reviews) and other processes.

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