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Volume 9 Issue 2 November 2006
Evaluating the evaluations: Preconceptions of Project Post-Mortems
John McAvoy,
University College Cork, Ireland
j.mcavoy@ucc.ie
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For future projects to improve, it is necessary to evaluate the lessons from previous projects. The majority of software methodologies recommend a review of the project to evaluate what worked and what needs improvement. These reviews are commonly referred to as project post-mortems. Existing research into post-mortems has found problems with the actual process itself and the use of the output from the process – the lessons learned. This research does not argue against the previous findings on post-mortems, in fact initial survey results concur with much of the earlier research. What differentiates this research from earlier research is a concentration on attitudes concerning the post-mortem that are prior to the post-mortem itself – it is an examination of the beliefs and attitudes that project members bring with them into post-mortems. These attitudes can ultimately cause the failure of a post-mortem, even before it has begun.
It is somewhat paradoxical that team members initially espoused positive views about post-mortems in a survey, yet further examination of key informants showed that these espoused views did not translate into reality. It is shown how hierarchical groupthink can help to forge negative beliefs and attitudes about post-mortems that will have a detrimental affect on the process itself. Hierarchical groupthink can be considered as a desire to please a leader, specifically the desire not to disagree with them. If the project manager has negative views of post-mortems then it becomes likely that the project team will adopt these negative attitudes, especially in a highly cohesive team. It appears contradictory that cohesion in the project team, something that is striven for as a positive benefit, could ultimately lead to attitudes and beliefs that are ultimately negative. If the project team bring negative biases and beliefs about post-mortems into the post-mortems then the likelihood of success is greatly reduced
Keywords:
project evaluation; hierarchical groupthink; project post-mortem; espoused theory
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