VIEWPOINTS

Does your company need a Project Council?

By Abid Mustafa

UAE

On completion of projects, it is customary to convene a ‘lessons learnt session’, or conduct post implementation reviews. Both activities are regarded as an integral part of project closure, and in their simplest form examine whether or not the delivered outcomes are in accordance with the projects’ objectives.  The recommendations which accrue from such reviews are typically published in the form of reports and shared with specific audiences.

Usually, only a handful of people are privy to the contents of the report and benefit from its recommendations. Once these privileged few have finished with the report, it is either archived away, or ends up in a project knowledge base system, unlikely to see the light of day again. If the company has a number of projects that close in a similar fashion then the net benefit derived from such reports is negligible in the best of circumstances.

In most cases, the approach inadvertently enforces siloism and fails to prevent the wider audience from repeating mistakes. The aim of this article is describe an alternative mechanism that can really help companies benefit from the closure of their projects.

A better way to use project closure reports is to sift through the recommendations (from various projects) and then consolidate the recommendations into categories, which are then discussed and debated by a much wider audience. This audience should not be limited to the project teams, but must include shareholders, board members, executives, line managers, sponsors and project teams, quality assurance teams, vendors, regulators, environmentalists, customers, and other participants who are either beneficiaries of the project work, or affected by it. The centralised PMO should prepare the findings and recommendations, as well as the agenda for the meeting. The PMO should take care not to dilute, or conceal the veracity of the findings and recommendations collated from various project closure reports. Nor should the PMO employ prejudice, to make the finding and recommendations palatable for a particular group at the expense of other participants.


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About the Author Abid Mustafa Author Abid Mustafa is a seasoned professional with 18 years' experience in the IT and Telecommunications industry, specializing in enhancing corporate performance through the establishment and operation of executive PMOs and delivering tangible benefits through the management of complex transformation programs and projects. Currently, he is working as a director of corporate programs for a leading telecoms operator in the MENA region.  Mr. Mustafa can be contacted at corporatethinking@hotmail.com.