The Role of the Client in the Post-Mortem
Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.
To some project managers, the thought of letting a client take part in a post-mortem exercise is horrifying. The prospect of involving clients in discussions about all of the areas that need to improve is counter-intuitive--not only will you be faced with the need to reveal the deepest, darkest secrets, you will also hear all of the client’s complaints. Additionally, your team will have a hard time being completely honest with the client present.
On the flip side, if you don’t involve the client then you will miss some of the improvement opportunities, and have only an incomplete view of others. If the session is structured correctly, then clients can add tremendous value to the post-mortem process.
Clarifying terminology
I want to be completely clear what I’m referring to here. This article is about post-mortems, not post-implementation reviews (PIRs). A PIR is an exercise focused on a review of the outcome of the project--the product, process, etc., that the initiative delivered. While many PIRs also delve into the way that the project was executed, I see that as a distinct process--the post-mortem. I hope that no one reading this believes that a successful PIR can occur without the client!
As I alluded to in the previous paragraph, I see the post-mortem as a process, not an event or meeting. It will likely include a meeting, but …
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