Why Conduct Project Management Reviews?
Project management reviews provide opportunities for you to report project schedule and budget status, highlight project accomplishments, identify problems, escalate issues, and elicit management support. The main purpose of a project management review is to provide general guidance to you as the project manager with an objective assessment of a project's health. Reviews should be conducted by an independent group of skilled reviewers outside of the project who can view the project objectively.
Different Types of Project Management Reviews
Different types of project management reviews are held based upon the timing of the review. Project review types are:
- Contract readiness review. Some business units hold this type of review within two to eight weeks after the contract is signed. Other organizations complete a contract readiness review later in the cycle or do not require one at all.
- Periodic review. Some business units hold this type of review every three to six months.
- Completion review. This is a project management review that is completed at the end of the project.
- Special review. This type of review is held when there appears to be a serious problem or when the project manager has reason to request one, such as when there has been a project management turnover.
- Compliance review. This review ensures that policies and procedures are being followed by the project and identifies improvements that can be made to procedures. Compliance reviews might be conducted by an IBM organization, external to the project, by the sponsor, or by an outside body.
- Deliverable review. This is a review of a deliverable or key component. The review is held before the deliverable or key component is released to the sponsor to ensure that no open items remain and that delivery is appropriate.
In addition, WWPMM defines the following types of health reviews:
- Business reviews. This type of review focuses on financial and business exposures.
- Project management reviews. This is a review that focuses on the planning and control aspects of the project.
- Technical reviews. Technical reviews focus on the technical aspects of the project, including work products, deliverables, and subcontractor reviews. This review covers areas such as traceability of requirements, architecture, and technology competitiveness.
As the project manager, you must not rely totally on prescribed reviews but should exercise judgment in determining which reviews are necessary and when they should be held to make the project a success.
There is a WWPMM subdomain, work pattern, and work product that can assist you with project reviews. The WWPMM subdomain, titled Reviews, is under the Quality domain.
The WWPMM work pattern is titled Participate in Audit or Review and the work product is the Quality Review Documentation work product description.
The documents, as well as descriptions and templates for all WWPMM work products, are located at the WWPMM Web site.