project reviews

Project Reviews.
Project reviews are primarily a project manager’s tool for monitoring progress at a practical level. They also consider current and potential problems and can be used to consider corrective action, where appropriate. These meetings can be pre-planned or convened to address situations where there is some concern over the projects status. The task leaders should assist their sub-project manager (SPM) through ongoing monitoring of the work in hand and by assimilating the required progress information. The involvement of all relevant project team staff should be sought, to ensure that all potential problems or bottlenecks are considered. Team members should be asked to describe the progress and any problems that have occurred since the last review. The SPM is responsible for convening and chairing project reviews that relate to their sub-project. These meetings should be seen as an open forum for discussing and analyzing progress information and addressing team members concerns. The SPM is responsible for deriving the detailed content of the sub-project plans. These plans should include the suggested format and frequency of project reviews in relation to each sub-project. The progress reports should be compiled by, or on behalf of, the SPM. The bulk of the information for these reports is likely to be derived following a project review - which represents an excellent opportunity for a two-way flow of related information. It is the project manager’s responsibility to analyze and collate the progress reports and use this information, along with other intelligence to compile and present regular highlight reports to the project owner.

Project Reports.
Project reports should be used as a standard means of communicating detailed project progress information up from the project team through the appropriate sub-project manager, project manager and on to the project owner. These reports should be structured in a way that accommodates the needs of the project management staff. Project team members should maintain up-to-date timesheets and records of the activities they are involved with. This information should be passed to their task leader for analysis and assimilation. In larger project environments a project office would often undertake this data collection and analysis. Task leaders should be good communicators and be able to maintain a clear picture of the progress in their area of work. They should collect and collate progress related information and present this to the sub-project manager in an agreed format. Sub-project managers should be responsible for keeping the overall project manager updated on the status of their sub-project and its progress in relation to the plans. One of the main mechanisms for doing this is the progress report - which summarizes this information in a clear manner. It is the project manager’s responsibility to analyze and collate the progress reports and present regular highlight reports to the project owner. Highlight reports may be produced at regular intervals, typically monthly, and/or in response to exceptional circumstances.

Project Closure Meeting.
The project closure meeting is concerned with reviewing the project and ensuring the completeness of all of the major project deliverables. It is the final formal control point - apart from the post implementation review and should be attended by the project owner and the overall project manager. The basic question facing the attendees is: 'Did the project deliver its intended end-product within the time and budgetary limits set?' The responsibilities of the project manager should include fixing the project closure meeting venue and drawing up a list of who should attend. The project manager should also prepare the end project report, which should be tabled at the meeting.

Product Controls.
Product controls aim to ensure that the project maintains its technical integrity and delivers the overall end-product required. The focal point of product controls should be a suitably detailed quality review procedure, which should be supported by both a change control mechanism and a configuration management method. Quality reviews are the formal mechanism for the planned and documented inspections of a review item. The review item can be a product, a group of related products or a component part of a product. Quality reviews aim to identify and correct errors as early as possible by inspection of the review item against pre-defined quality criteria as detailed in the relevant product description. At any time during the project life cycle, project team members should be able to raise any concern that they have, regarding any project issue, via an appropriate change control mechanism. This mechanism should ensure that all such issues are analyzed and dealt with at the appropriate level. Configuration management is a method for administering an evolving, often inter-related, set of products and documents that are vital to the successful outcome of the project. It typically encompasses the reports generated during the project as well as all product design and review documentation.

Quality Reviews.
The quality review is a formal procedure for reviewing a product, or group of related products, against an agreed set of quality criteria, normally included in the relevant product descriptions. The review meeting should be run by a designated chairman who should ensure that 'personalities' and 'politics' are kept out of the review. It is essential that the review remains focused on the review item and not on the presenter. If the initial quality review does not end satisfactorily then it will be necessary to schedule a re-review. In this case, the supporting documentation should be passed, along with the chairman’s recommendation, to the appropriate project manager who then decides on subsequent action. Following the quality review meeting there should be a follow-up period during which the errors identified at the review are rectified and signed off. This follow-up period is normally restricted to one working week, although this may be extended where complex products are involved.

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