Project Post-Implementation

Review Checklist

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gantthead.com Project Post-Implementation Review Checklist

The Post Implementation Review (PIR) is conducted after completion of the project, but
prior to making final improvements. Ideally, it should happen after the system has been
in place long enough to allow for judgments to be made about how it will perform long-
term. Its purpose is to evaluate how successfully the project objectives were met and
how effective project management practices were. Document the results of the PIR in a
close-out report called the post implementation review report.

Conducting a timely and thorough PIR will help identify lessons learned and previously
unidentified shortfalls. These, in turn, will assist in making final improvements to the
system being implemented. Elements of lessons learned will also assist in planning,
managing and meeting the objectives of future projects.

The checklist below is meant to be fairly comprehensive and can be pared down to suit
your needs and the scale of the project.

Focus on the project results

So in terms of project results, you want to be sure that you:

 Understand how technically successful the project really was in terms of satisfying all
requirements and the project’s main goal.

 Understand the business benefits delivered and whether they satisfied the actual
intent of sponsors and stakeholders.

 Gather lessons learned that can be used to improve the future performance of
projects and individuals in the organization.

Who should you involve?

 Take a two-pronged approach to who drives the review process, by allowing both an
internal team to drive one version of the review and an independent team to drive
another version of it. The internal/project team has a deep understanding of the
project and will uncover insider issues that are technically complex. An
independent/audit team can be more objective and will pick up on issues that the
project team has dismissed as a group. You can use elements of this checklist to
outline a common structure that both can adhere to.

 Get input from the

o entire project team,

o customers (system owners)

o and other major stakeholders

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Corrective actions to take now

With the new system and business process in place, there may be further refinement or
the system, process or other environmental factors that could result in increased
business benefits. Your recommendations here may go beyond the original scope of the
project, but be important to call out as a potential business improvement.

Discovery

 Could further training or coaching improve the level of benefits delivered or reduce
ongoing costs?

 Are there changes to system functionality that could improve benefits delivered or
reduce ongoing costs?

 Are there changes in business process that could improve benefits delivered or
reduce ongoing costs?

 Could additional documentation improve benefits delivered or reduce ongoing costs?

 Could changes to policies or procedures improve benefits delivered or reduce

ongoing costs?

 Could additional support improve benefits delivered or reduce ongoing costs?

 Could changes in staffing improve benefits delivered or reduce ongoing costs?

 Are staffing levels and skill sets appropriate to the workload?

 Could changes in management processes or structure improve benefits delivered or

reduce ongoing costs?

 Can corrective actions, process and system fixes, be handled at an adequate pace?

 Is the system structured and staffed for future flexibility?

Reporting

 Ensure that any findings and recommendations are reported with cost and future
savings implications

 Report recommendations to both project sponsors and current system owners

Requirements Satisfaction – Judging the results

Once the system has been in place for a period, everyone is better able to judge it’s
actual impact on the organization. The issues covered in this section address three
major issues:

 How well do the results match the requirements?

 How well do the results match the expectations of stakeholders?

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 Are there gaps in the requirements that should be reviewed?

Using a comprehensive approach to reviewing the results allows you to judge the
technical success of the project, recognize gaps in requirements gathering that need to
be addressed in future projects, and the project’s real impact.

Discovery

 Conduct the PIR after the project's deliverables have been in service for an adequate
period of time to evaluate the product or service's successful integration into the
business.

 Review the project charter to evaluate how closely the project results match the
original goals, objectives, and deliverables.

 Perform a gap analysis between planned versus delivered requirements

 Document schedule variances, their timing and causes affecting interim deliverables
and the project end date schedule

 Document budget variances, their timing and causes affecting interim deliverables
and the project end date schedule

 Are the level and number of faults identified acceptable?

 Are adequate system controls in place? Could they be improved to reduce future
risk?

 Is data integrity being maintained within the system and in relation to integrated or
interfaced systems?

 Are users of the system satisfied with its performance and capabilities? To what
degree do they find it easy to use and better than the system and process that it
replaced?

 Does the system process transactions at an adequate speed?

 Are staff members following critical, supportive operational procedures

(maintenance, backup, recovery, etc.)

 Has the system demonstrated an ability to handle peak loads expected mid or long-
term?

 Have appropriate project close-out activities been completed? (accounting, staff

evaluation and re-assignment , documentation recorded, equipment returned,
communications, etc.)

 How does the actual operating cost of the system compare with what was
anticipated?

Reporting

 Ensure that any findings and recommendations are reported with an eye toward
causes (not blame, but a description of influential factors)
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 Report findings to both project sponsors and current system owners

Lessons Learned - Best practices

Lessons learned are findings that could be useful as input to future projects. Many of
the items in the section above can double as lessons learned. They are particularly
useful, because they offer hard measures (performance metrics) of success of failure.
The approaches below involve gathering information that is often more subjective and
unanticipated. It can be equally valuable and often more broadly applicable to future
projects.

Discovery

 Conduct a formal lessons learned exercise with the project team, sponsors, and
stakeholders and capture the most salient points for inclusion in the PIR.

 Try to be objective, looking for hard measures and defensible facts – then make
judgments on that basis

 Capture positive as well as negative lessons.

 Focus on the future and not on blame for shortfalls.

 Conduct a customer survey to capture information from large groups where you need
to understand statistical relevance.

 Evaluate the effectiveness of the project management practices and other processes
as well as the success of the project deliverables.

 Focus on events and issues that were "unknowns" early in the project lifecycle which
may have increased implementation risks and which offer useful "hindsight" value.

 Be sure enough time has passed to draw conclusions.

 Solicit feedback from a diverse audience within each subgroup you gain input from,
rather than simply gathering data opportunistically.

 Structure the review process so that everyone in the organization has an opportunity
to review finding that may be relevant to their work.

Reporting

 Attach appropriate documentation, which may a useful addition (adding context or

support) to the PIR such as a final Quality Assurance Report, customer survey
results, etc.

 Add to your organization’s repository of best practices where you have something
new to contribute. Document specific and unique practices and procedures that led
to project successes and make recommendations for applying them to similar future
projects.

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 Provide only the level of detail necessary to offer a meaningful analysis of events and
conclusions.

 Ensure the PIR is recorded and accessible to anyone who may benefit from it in the
future.

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