Project Retrospective; Part 4

Continuation of Project Retrospective: Part 3

After Project Retrospective Review

After the Project Retrospective the facilitator shall compile their notes in a clear and concise summary of their findings. 

Share this preliminary summary with the project team for review and correction. Include in the summary actions items and recommendations that will improve future projects. Identify tasks and topics requiring leadership attention.

Organize a meeting where you can summarize these findings with the entire company so everyone can see the benefits of these retrospectives.

this is the final posting in the Project Retrospective series.

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Project Retrospective: Part 3

Continuation of Project Retrospective: Part 2

Discussion techniques may include:

• Asking each participant to identify their own issues and discuss their impact and what solution they see would resolve the issue
• Drilling further into the process or resources behind each event.
• Simply ask “what went well and what didn’t”.
• Ask what had the greatest impact on the success of the project.
• Ask participants to be specific about topics and avoid generalization.
• Focus on solutions.

Suggested Project Retrospective Questions:

• Did we have the right team?
• Did the team work well together?
• Were the external consultants/client cooperative?
• Were there clear and measurable project milestones/goals that everyone understood and worked towards?
• Was the appropriate technology used on this project? Outside resources such as point cloud, civil survey, photography etc.
• Ask the “What” questions:
• What can be improved and how?
• What could we have done better?
• What would you do differently next time?

It is important that the participants focus on what information can be utilized from the recent project process with the intent in making the process better for the next project, hence full participation by all team members is encouraged.

The facilitator should review with the team their notes at the end of the session where corrections can be made and to verify that the notes are correct.

Part 4: After Project Review

Project Retrospective: Part 2

Continuation from previous posting Project Retrospective Part 1:

Conducting a Project Retrospective Meeting

The task of the facilitator is to guide the team through the review of the project.

• Conduct the meeting if possible in person rather than by teleconference.
• Encourage participation by all team members.
• Use the Project Retrospective guide at the back of this document to facilitate the meeting.
• Select a facilitator. An outside facilitator is recommended as they are less likely to get caught up in the content of the conversation and can encourage participation by all team members. If the BIM manager is not available to facilitate ask the Office Manager to facilitate the meeting.

Plan ahead your discussion points according to the phases of the project. If there are known issues include this in your planned discussion point, cover all discussion points in chronological order of events.

Facilitator approach:

At the start of the meeting the facilitator should start by reminding the team of the purpose of the meeting including:

• The goal is to guide and improve the process and project strategies for a successful project for future project teams.
• Always start with the good points. Begin by asking what went well, what were the successes of the project and why. Identify strategies to ensure successful practises are built into processes and future projects.
• The purpose of the Project Retrospective is not to grade success or failure.
• There are always ways to improve a projects delivery and we all can learn from one another’s experience.
• Participants should share honest observations; everyone has something valuable to contribute.
• Create an atmosphere of openness and ease of voicing their input into the session.
• Go around the room to give everyone the opportunity to speak, prompt quieter members for their input and comments.

The facilitator should employ a variety of discussion techniques to fully explore the discussion topics and to facilitate honest accurate conversation between team members.

Part 3:

Facilitators Approach cont.

Discussion techniques may include...

Suggested Project Retrospective questions.....

Project Retrospectives: Part 1

After every project we try to have a project retrospective meeting to ask ourselves what went well and what can we improve upon.

Here are some tips for developing your own Project Retrospective Guide which can help review the successes and failures of a project so you can learn from your efforts. 

Sharing your results from the project retrospective with your team can help future teams learn from the successful strategies and avoid the pitfalls you may have overcome, I thoroughly recommend that if you are not currently reviewing your projects upon completion that you do so, it will help you not to repeat past mistakes and allow you to take away lessons learnt from each project. 

The following blog postings are a series on how to run a Project Retrospective meeting.

Who should use the Project Retrospective?

This process is recommended for Project Managers. It is recommended that all members of the team participate in the Project Retrospective and include the Partner in charge of the project as well as your BIM Manager and/or Production Manager.

When should we use the Project Retrospective?

It is recommended that the Project Retrospective be undertaken at the end of a project and include all stages from conceptual design to contract administration, it is crucial that all participants can have input of their experience. A Project Retrospective may be undertaken at any time during the project as a tool to check the current status of a project and to identify possible issues and develop solutions to keep the project profitable. Periodic Project Retrospectives may be completed at project milestones and summarized at the end of project Retrospective meeting.

A Project Retrospective should only take about a hour and can offer insight into project participation and provide a guide for future teams. Using this approach frequently will contribute to a culture of continually improving project delivery and profitability by understanding and solving issues that may arise during a project.

Part 2:

Conducting a Project Retrospective Meeting. The task of the facilitator is to guide the team through the review of the project.

Facilitator approach. At the start of the meeting the facilitator should start by reminding the team of the purpose of the meeting......

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