After a project our company makes it a practice to sit down together, go over our successes and short-comings, and develop a plan of action to avoid reoccurring issues in future projects, as well as spread the word to the rest of the agency about what works best. This meeting is called a postmortem. Not all projects are the same, and not all postmortems should be handled the same. In this 2-part article, I explain when and why a postmortem is important, explore best practices in our agency, and how you develop action to learn from your experience.
When should a postmortem be done?
A postmortem needs to happen after and as close to the final sign-off as possible. People will move on to other projects, and it’s good to get them in the meeting while the project is still fresh in their minds. Sometimes projects span over several months and issues in the beginning are easily forgotten. It is good practice to take notes throughout a project when problems (or successes) arise. This will be valuable when it comes time to meet in the postmortem.
A postmortem should always happen, whether the project was a complete success, a small project or small team. A postmortem doesn’t just have to happen at the end. You can have a mid-project check-in where the team can share any concerns or issues, and thus enable you to improve on the process before the project is complete.
Why should it be done?
Even successful projects have areas we can learn from. Not all points brought up need to be negative items. If a new way of accomplishing a task was really successful, it should be noted as well for helping those in the agency who are unaware or follow alternative methods.
Often times, we learn most from the pain points throughout a project. If every project keeps detailed notes on these issues from the postmortem and the management team is able to review these notes and compare to other projects, we can identify reoccurring problems within the agency and find ways to address them.
Who should be invited?
Every team member involved in the project should attend the postmortem. This is very important. Sometimes scheduling a postmortem can be tough because people move on to other projects. If you have to, make it during lunch and see if you can get lunch delivered. Come up with something to encourage participation. For example, ask everyone to bring a list of two items they thought were done well and two items they felt could be improved on.
OK, so great — we know when to have this discussion, why we’re having it, and who is invited. What is the best strategy for reviewing a project when you have so many people involved and multiple phases of the work?
In Part II, we will go over important items to cover in a postmortem, some questions to ask yourself and team members regarding a completed project, and find out what we can take away from the meeting to be successful in the future.