Post Implementation Review – Requirements Satisfaction

The last blog post looked at the need to conduct an analysis of corrective actions that can be taken to refine the operation of the system with experience in the live environment with the new system and business process. Once the system has been in place for a long enough period, the post implementation review team is able to judge the actual impact on the organisation.

The next two steps of the post implementation review are to cover off three major issues:

• How well do the results match the requirements?
• How well do the results match the expectations of stakeholders?
• Are there gaps in the requirements that should be reviewed?

Using a comprehensive approach to reviewing the results allows you to judge the technical success of the project, recognise gaps in requirements gathering that need to be addressed in future projects, and the project’s real impact on the organisation. As in previous blog post we will break this step down into two process – the discovery process and the reporting process.

Post Implementation Review Discovery Process

It is important to conduct the Post Implementation Review after the project’s deliverables have been in service for an adequate period of time so that the team can evaluate the product or service’s successful integration into the business. The starting point here should be to review the project charter to evaluate how closely the project results match the original goals, objectives, and deliverables. This stage of the post implementation review process should look at the following areas of interest:

• Perform a gap analysis between planned versus delivered requirements
• Document schedule variances, their timing and causes affecting interim deliverables and the project end date schedule
• Document budget variances, their timing and causes affecting interim deliverables and the project end date schedule
• Are the level and number of faults identified acceptable?
• Are adequate system controls in place and could they be improved to reduce future risk?
• Is data integrity being maintained within the system and in relation to integrated or interfaced systems?
• Does the system process transactions at an adequate speed?
• Are staff members following critical, supportive operational procedures
• Has the system demonstrated an ability to handle peak loads expected mid or long-term?
• Have appropriate project close-out activities been completed?
• How does the actual operating cost of the system compare with what was anticipated?

Post Implementation Review Reporting Process

The main item to bring out in the reporting process is to ensure users of the system are satisfied with its performance and capabilities and to the degree they find it easy to use and better than the system and process that it replaced. Ensure that any findings and recommendations are reported with an eye toward causes (not blame, but a description of influential factors). Report findings to both project sponsors and current system owners

JMR Consulting UK Ltd has core project management expertise based on its Financial Services heritage and 15 years of operating in the Finance and IT sectors. Over this period, JMR staff have developed key project management programs and a constant focus on our service philosophy which is at the core of JMR’s business operation.

Tags: project management, project management lessons, project post implementation review, Project Stakeholders