A completed project review is called a postmortem

A project postmortem is a completed project review session.

A postmortem is essential to make sure that you’ve learned something from the process. And if you’re worked with others on your project, the postmortem is a great forum for knowledge sharing.

The Dictionary of Corporate Bullshit defines the postmortem as:

 1. “a meeting held following the conclusion of a project to discuss its strengths and weaknesses 2. “billed as a constructive forum geared toward improving a process but really a meeting in which everyone sits around trying to blame someone else for anything that went wrong…”

Unfortunately, the second is too often true. You can read here about how to hold a successful postmortem: How to Do a Post-Project Review.

So what do you do with what you’ve learned from your completed project?

Ideally, you will be adjusting your process for the project. Here are some things that you can examine: (You can review my post on project management here: How to Stay on Top of Your Project Management).

  1. Did your project meet expectations? How would adjust those expectations next time?
  2. Did you miss any tasks that should have been done?
  3. How were your task estimates?
    • If too optimistic, how will better estimate next time? Build in more buffer? Add more resources? Improve productivity?
    • If too generous, can you commit to an earlier deadline next time?
  4. How were your communications? Were they any surprises? Any negative feedback?
  5. How happy were you and/or your team with the project?

That last question may be the most important one. This article explains how emotions are crucial to successful projects: Run a Successful Project.

The SanDisk Rolling Stones card was a project that failedIn my corporate career, I worked on many projects that failed because of unrealistic expectations and/or poor estimating. This resulted in missed deadlines and missing the market window. You probably don’t remember this product that I worked on: SanDisk Rolling Stones Card. I still keep this one on my desk to remind me of good ideas poorly executed.

The important lesson from a completed project is always to learn from your mistakes.

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