Construction Informer

Doing the project autopsy can be as complicated, or as simple, as the process you use. The project is over and there it lies on the table holding secrets that could not only reveal just how well you managed it, but also how well you didn’t manage it. There are no external visible signs that would tell you anything – you have to cut into it to get to its essence.

In Part 1 you figured out just what vital signs you wanted to track and record during the course of the project. Sure, you chose some of the common ones like profitability, but you also chose some that are unique to your business. Now, very carefully you reopen the project and peer inside, reading the data you accumulated in specific areas.

You might discover, if you had tracked the right information, that client meetings tended to be longer when compared to other projects of similar size, design, and so forth. That discovery could lead to a host of questions. Were people who met with the client fully prepared for the meetings? Were there some issues that kept cropping up that had to be covered over and over again in the meetings? Just what was the origin of those issues? Was the client more demanding than typical?

The answers to the questions might lead you to adjust the post-project client survey so you could get a clearer picture from the client’s perspective. Likewise, you might meet informally with those who attended the meetings and inquire about how they perceived them. Somewhere within your new found information may lie some answers that will lead to changes in how, when, and why client meetings are held. That in-turn, could increase productivity as well as client satisfaction.

As you disassemble the project you will undoubtedly discover much that went right, and perhaps much that didn’t. But as you close the project for the last time you will at least have found its essence, a good idea of just how well the project met your company’s most-treasured goals, and a wealth of ideas for improving processes.