A project post-mortem is a process used to identify the causes of a project failure (or significant business-impairing downtime), and how to prevent them in the future. This is different from a
Retrospective, in which both positive and negative things are reviewed for a project.
The
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) refers to the process as
lessons learned
Lessons learned (American English) or lessons learnt (British English) are experiences distilled from past activities that should be actively taken into account in future actions and behaviors.
There are several definitions of the concept. The ...
. Project post-mortems are intended to inform process improvements which mitigate future risks and to promote iterative best practices. Post-mortems are often considered a key component of, and ongoing precursor to, effective
risk management.
IEEE: A defined process for project post mortem review
Elements of a project post-mortem
Post-mortems can encompass both quantitative data and qualitative data. Quantitative data include the variance between the hours estimated for a project and the actual hours incurred. Qualitative data will often include stakeholder satisfaction, end-user satisfaction, team satisfaction, potential reusability and perceived quality of end-deliverables.
Role of time tracking
Successful analysis of project estimate variance is dependent on accurate time tracking. The greater the granularity with which time is tracked, the more detailed an analysis can be performed during the project post-mortem.
See also
* Pre-mortem
A pre-mortem, or premortem, is a managerial strategy in which a project team imagines that a project or organization has failed, and then works backward to determine what potentially could lead to the failure of the project or organization.
The t ...
* Project management
Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. T ...
* Risk management
* Retrospective#Software development
References
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External links
Nine steps to IT post-mortem excellence
– article on ZD Net
A Defined Process For Project Postmortem Review
– article on ACM Digital Library
Project management
Forensic pathology