How to Best Learn from a Big Project Failure

A cartoon man with a pick axe walks away from the mine having missed  reaching the money goal

What can you learn from a failed project? Lots.

Sometimes the most valuable aspect of a project is what you can learn from its failure. This may not be a “happy place” for the project leader but, done right, a well-designed project post mortem can help you and your key project stakeholders reduce and overcome problems on the next, and perhaps even more critical, project. 

The key to an effective project post mortem is being rigorous about asking the hard and relevant questions that will highlight exactly what went well, what went wrong and how can we do it better next time. The objective, of course, is to learn what happened and why in a way that makes sense for your business strategy and unique organizational culture. You and your team want to be smarter next time so you can bring in projects faster, smoother, better and with each and every milestone met.

Here are some guidelines for an effective project post mortem session:

1. Start at the beginning. 
What was the original business case, context and purpose of the project? So that the conversation stays on target, restate the project goals and objectives. Set the stage for some uncomfortable discussions but be clear on the reason for the post mortem exercise—avoiding the pain of making the same mistakes again.

2. Appreciate what went well.
It can be tempting, especially for engineering teams, to focus on all of the problems and mistakes.  This is a mistake.  Even brutally failed projects provide something of value in terms of what went well, what was learned, what barriers were broken and what new team members were added.  Take the time to appreciate and celebrate the bright spots—no  matter how small they may be—or  be at risk for dis-engaging your project team members.

3. Agree upon the facts – where and how badly did you fail?
Make a prioritized and agreed-upon list of the key objectives, deliverables and targets you missed.   It is difficult to identify opportunities for improvement until everyone agrees upon where and how badly you failed. 

4. Then talk about why you failed at achieving those project targets. 
Here is where you can garner some of the most value from a formal project review. Dig deep to uncover root causes in the areas of project definition, project planning, project execution and project change control. For example, if Jim and his team did not meet their delivery target, find out why. Did they not have the resources they needed in time? Did the scope change unexpectedly?  Were project constraints underestimated?  Did the project sponsor not pull their weight?  Was the plan or schedule not clear? Was the team leader up to the task?  Did Jim fail to communicate the timing to his crew?  You get the idea…have the tough and transparent discussions to uncover what happened so that you do not repeat the same mistakes.

5. Then move to the critical few lessons learned. 
What could have been done differently that would actually be implementable in your unique organizational culture? What needs to change next time that is possible? It could be as simple as sharing the schedule on SharePoint across the entire team so everyone knows their deadlines. Or Jim may need either access to more skilled employees or better leadership, communication and decision making skills. Each goal missed should have clear plans to change behaviors or planning so that the team learns how to do it better next time.

6. Finalize the session with barriers to success going forward. 
Assuming that you have agreement on what to continue doing, what to stop doing and what to start doing to better ensure project success, it is now time to rank potential barriers to success and a clear plan to overcome them.  Use this time to identify and implement only the critical few changes that have a chance for success in your unique performance environment.

It may be tempting to avoid the pain of reviewing a highly strategic, visible, political or complex project that failed. But keep the project post mortem in the context of getting better, faster, cheaper and smarter in the future.

Learn more at: http://www.lsaglobal.com/project-post-mortem-training-consulting/

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