Post-Implementation Review For Project Success

People often say moving forward and not looking back gives you success. But how can you learn from your mistakes if you do not look back? When talking about project management, a post-implementation review is crucial for future growth. You have to collect feedback from everyone involved in the project, from the client to the project team members, stakeholders, and end-users. This blog will give you a fair idea of how important post-implementation review is for project management. So keep reading for more insights!

Key Takeaways

• What is a Post-implementation Review?
• Why Should A PIR be Conducted?
• What are the key steps in PIR?
• Who should be involved while conducting the PIR?
• What are the challenges while conducting PIR?
• How do we overcome these challenges?
• Tips for successful PIR

What is a Post-Implementation Review?

Post-implementation review is the process of identifying whether a project met its objectives or not. It helps to analyze how effectively a project was managed and completed. PIR is conducted after the project execution. During a PIR, the following criteria are checked:

• Were the project able to meet its goals?
• How successful was the implementation of the project roadmap?
• How did your team perform during the project?
• Was the client happy with the project?
• What is the reason behind a project’s failure?

Post-implementation review not only helps you identify the drawbacks of a project but also gives you an idea about various things to take care of during the next project.

Why Should A Post-implementation Review be Conducted?

Imagine a software development company launching a new mobile app for shopping. After the app launch, users initially enjoyed the shopping experience. But later on, users started experiencing back-to-back crashes, high loading times, and poor navigation. Now the company is at a stage where either they have to fix the issue as soon as possible or they will experience a huge customer loss. But will this happen if they have conducted a post-implementation review? Never.

Conducting a PIR will help the company to go back to the first stage which is project initiation. All the steps from the planning to execution will be analyzed thoroughly and any issue which has gone unnoticed will be taken care of. Thus a PIR will make the company prepared for technical or user issues.

What Can Be Achieved Through Post-implementation Review?

1. Resolve Technical Issues: The review will help to identify several technical bugs and performance issues. This timely identification allows you to come up with instant solutions.
2. Find User Experience Flaws: After any project implementation, user acceptance testing should be conducted. Following the UAT, the users will give their feedback about the app’s performance.
3. Identify Communication Gaps: PIR helps to identify any loss of communication between your teams. For example, after PIR you found out that the design requirements were not properly communicated to UI designers by developers.
4. Plan Projects More Effectively: The project management team can employ better strategies in their future projects from the PIR of the previous project.

What are the key steps in Post-implementation Review?

Plan the review

Firstly, you have to plan the PIR. If you are thinking what would be the exact time to launch the post-implementation review, the ideal time would be after the successful implementation of a project. While planning the review, you have to set goals, decide participants, and schedule meetings.

Collect feedback

Use PIR surveys or questionnaires to collect feedback from participants. Make sure that the survey consists of all important questions from planning and development to implementation and outcomes. Analyze the survey results before going to the next step.

Conduct review meeting

Based on the results of the PIR survey conduct a meeting with the team members of the project. The objective of the meeting is to discuss in detail the feedback received during the post-implementation review. It is important to conduct such sessions with the project team to be aware of the project’s drawbacks.

Recognize issues

Take notes during the meeting, discuss with the team, and prioritize the issue on a low, medium, and high level. Identify patterns in the feedback and note whether there are any recurring issues that need to be addressed at the earliest.

Develop recommendations

Collaborate with the team and decide the next steps. After successful identification of issues, discuss possible solutions to be employed for resolving the issue. The project managers should allow a diverse approach to find solutions. Ask all team members to provide their suggestions or opinions and finally arrive at conclusions.

Document the PIR report

PIR is also about the future. Whatever you have done so far, document everything. Prepare a detailed PIR report including project details, implementation challenges, solutions, and feedback. Documenting this will help you to refer to the report in future projects. This report can serve as a guide for other projects as well.

Who should be involved while conducting the PIR?

The more participants, the better will be the outcome. But it also depends upon the project requirements. Usually, the Project Manager is the one who initiates the review process and also acts as a facilitator. Other reviewers can be:

• Team Members
• Clients
• Stakeholders
• Sponsors
• Partners
• Subject Matter Experts

What are the challenges while conducting Post-implementation Review?

Well, post-implementation review also comes with a fair amount of challenges. Some of the major challenges include:

Zero trust in the process

Some people perceive PIR as just a game of blaming. Another set of people tends to dump their opinions on others. So the value of such a review decreases and people lose trust. To overcome this the project management team should make the team aware of how important the review is for the project’s overall success.

Time Constraints

The project management team often moves to the next project immediately after the project completion. Also, the review will consume a lot of time and effort from everyone involved. Therefore, the chances of skipping the post-implementation review are higher.

Undefined Objectives

When you are not sure about what you want to achieve through the review process, the chances are very low that you will achieve anything. Unclear objectives will lead to ineffective outcomes.

Lack of Budget

The PIR process sometimes needs revenue to move forward. It will use a lot of resources including money for the successful completion. The best practice is to include it as a part of your project from the beginning.

How do we overcome these challenges?

• Conduct timely meetings with your team and make them understand the importance of post-implementation review
• Allot time for PIR and include it in the project roadmap before starting with the project
• Sit with your team members and discuss the objectives before initiating the review
• Discuss with the clients about PIR and claim proper budget allocation

Tips For Successful Post-implementation Review

1. Involve All Key Stakeholders

- Ensure comprehensive feedback by including all relevant parties in the review process.

2. Prepare Thoroughly

- Gather all necessary data and feedback before the review meeting to facilitate informed discussions.

3. Encourage Honest Feedback

- Foster an open environment where participants feel safe to share their true opinions and experiences.

4. Focus on Both Successes and Failures

- Highlight what went well and what didn’t to provide a balanced view and learn from all aspects of the project.

5. Document Everything

- Record all findings, discussions, and insights to create a comprehensive report for future reference.

6. Develop Clear Action Plans

- Translate insights into actionable steps with assigned responsibilities and timelines for implementation.

7. Follow Up on Recommendations

- Regularly review the progress of implemented recommendations to ensure continuous improvement.

8. Keep the Review Constructive

- Focus on learning and improvement rather than assigning blame, to maintain a positive and productive atmosphere.

Make Post-Implementation Review Easier With SurveySparrow

SurveySparrow is a leading survey platform designed to transform small, mid-size, and large enterprises to create conversational, user-friendly surveys with ease. You can create conversational PIR surveys easily through this platform. Using SurveySparrow for post-implementation review will help to:

• Easily create PIR surveys and brand them as your own
• Share across various platforms via unique links, website embed, social media, Slack or QR code
• Integrate the survey with 25+ native apps and 1500+ integrations via Zapier
• Analyze and share results using the executive dashboards
• Manage tasks and collaborate with the team using the ticket management feature