The Project Post-Mortem: A Valuable Tool for Consistent Improvement

1. The Project Post-Mortem: A Valuable Tool for Consistent Improvement When a team finally delivers a project, there is one more essential step which is to be taken post completion of a project and before the team disbands. This step is known as project post-mortem. The name may sound a bit forbidding, but it is just a meeting or process of discussing how the project went. A project post-mortem meeting is a team gathering which takes place when a project ends. In this meeting, the group examines the challenges and success of the project. There are a lot of ways of conducting this meeting, but the key focus remains the same, and that is: finding better ways of working together. Benefits Most of the teams understand the concept and value of post-mortem, but still, they don’t spend as much time as it is required to conduct them. Most common excuse of skipping the meeting ranges from being too busy, not having a sufficient budget, and lack of understanding about how to run the meeting properly. On a serious note, project post-mortems are essential, and organizations should invest in improving the process and efficiency. The benefits of post-mortem meetings are: • Gain Efficiency: It helps you to discover better ways of approaching the tasks and projects and completing them successfully. • Morale Boost: Discussing the problems and finding solutions to them, and celebrating wins bring the team together and motivate them to work harder for the upcoming projects. • Learn From Mistakes: These meetings help you to understand what went wrong and how to rectify it and find better ways of approaching the projects.

2. • Better Team Work: After understanding the different perspectives, the team becomes more empathetic towards the way they work. • Shares Information Internally: When you share the outcomes of the meeting with the rest of the organization, you’re able to inform better practices and create a valuable dialogue about your working style within the organization and not just with your team. • Celebrate the Success: It’s more than just a meeting. Here the setup is not only for discussing the negative things but also to appreciate the team for the efforts they have put in the project and to celebrate success. “A project is complete when it starts working for you, rather than you working for it.” — Scott Allen Thus, train your staff for project post-mortem and increase the overall efficiency of your organization.