An Assessment of Post Project Reviews

Question: Discuss about An Assessment of Post Project Reviews? Answer: Summary This paper focuses on the benefits and drawbacks of post project reviews of various organizations. The main objectives of post project reviews are to make the employees learn from their previous mistakes, spread the knowledge obtained as the outcome among the workers and make workers, who are not experts in a specific task, more efficient on attempting any task. There are several drawbacks like, workers need time to acquire outcome knowledge, it is more acceptable to forget past embarrassments or blames and look for a positive future, etc. In addition, employees should learn automatically from mistakes, instead of post project review outcomes. As outcomes of this study suggests, post project review is strongly recommended for all organizations in spite of its drawbacks. All organizations should follow a proper structure of activities, which include a post project review, to inculcate the workers to learn from the past mistakes and work more efficiently and correctly in the future. 1. Most companies tend to ignore post project evaluations due to several reasons. Firstly, in many cases, the outcomes of the evaluations are not clear to the company. Secondly, for the new employees, the companies feel hesitant to criticize for their mistakes, as this will lower the morale of the new employees. Thirdly, in long term projects, memory problems arise, which cannot be rectified by post project evaluations. Finally, too much reliance on specifications of details might cause loss of original subject matter. For these reasons, many companies avoid post project evaluations and implements periodic reviews to rectify errors before completing the project (Archibald, Di Filippo Di Filippo, 2012). 2. The mandatory project reviews can be implemented by using several steps. Firstly, the reviews should be conducted mostly in a periodic manner during the ongoing project. This will enable workers to correct their mistakes before completion of the project. Secondly, in the post project reviews, the focus should be on the type of mistakes instead of sticking to strict details. Thirdly, the post project reviews should mainly focus on teaching the workers to rectify errors in future, instead of demoralizing them by strictly pointing to their errors. In addition, workers should also be praised for the success of their specific expertise. Companies should follow these aspects while implementing mandatory post project reviews (Sherman, 2013). 3. According to the advices provided for post project evaluations, the periodic evaluations instead of post project evaluation enables workers to rectify errors before conclusion of project. This helps to complete a perfect project task. Moreover, workers can instantly learn about their mistakes so that they will not do similar mistakes in the future (Myers et al., 2014). Strict detailing of mistakes might cause loss of emphasis on the basic subject matter; hence, this is to be avoided. Workers should be praised for their efforts instead of criticizing their mistakes. This will help to raise their morale and better work can be expected in future (Chun et al., 2016). 4. The understanding of how people learn affects the reflection of their work on the project. When they learn quickly and effectively, they tend to do less errors in the future projects as they can rectify quickly. When workers take time to learn, they cannot immediately provide errorless works. These workers should be given time to rectify. In addition, they should be praised for their efforts rather than criticizing them for their errors. This way, they will learn to provide more accurate works instead of submitting large number of errors (Secker Karnad, 2014). 5. To avoid shortfalls, several steps are to be taken by the company. Firstly, the outcomes of evaluations are to be properly analyzed and clarified by the company so that workers can learn the exact point of their mistake. Secondly, the new employees are to be encouraged to provide works with less errors instead of just criticizing them for the mistakes. Thirdly, periodic evaluations should be conducted in long term projects to avoid memory errors. Finally, instead of sticking to specifications, the subject details are to be focused for evaluating errors (Archibald, Di Filippo Di Filippo, 2012). 6. The author provides some recommendations for the post project evaluations. According to the author, deep analysis of the project is needed, which should include a cause-effect figure and significant reference to history. This should also involve analysis of the greater system beyond the area of the project (Ping Zeng-long, 2014). Some measures need to be taken to avoid communication errors so that anyone can understand what is incorporated to him. Moreover, rectifications should be suggested after evaluating their effects and side effects. Some expert outsiders are also to be appointed for cross-examination of reviews to avoid discrimination within the company (Sherman, 2013). References Archibald, R. D., Di Filippo, I., Di Filippo, D. (2012). The six-phase comprehensive project life cycle model including the project incubation/feasibility phase and the post-project evaluation phase.PM World Journal,1(5), 1-40. Chun, D., Hong, S., Chung, Y., Woo, C., Seo, H. (2016). Influencing factors on hydrogen energy RD projects: An ex-post performance evaluation.Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews,53, 1252-1258. Myers, B., Fisher, R., Pickering, S., Garnett, S. (2014). Post-project evaluation of the sustainability of development project outcomes: a case study in eastern Indonesia.Development in Practice,24(3), 379-389. Ping, X. U., Zeng-long, L. I. (2014). Application of Post Evaluation in the Project Management of Oilfield Productivity Construction.Value Engineering,10, 049. Secker, J., Karnad, A. (2014). SADL project evaluation report. Sherman, R. (2013). Comparing Ongoing Post-Project Evaluation Methods Carried out within the PCM department of MondelÄâ€Å"z International.