Project Post-Mortem / Review
A blameless look back at a finished project: goals against results, plan against actual for time and budget, what went well and badly, root causes, and recommendations with owners and dates.
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Country versions
- International
- Korea
- Japan
A template, not advice.
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What it is
A project post-mortem is a written look back at a project once it has ended or been stopped, held soon enough that people still remember why things happened. It answers four questions: did we reach the goals, how did time and money compare with the plan, what went well and what went badly, and what do we change next time. The value is in the last question. A review that ends with recommendations, each with an owner and a date, changes how the next project runs.
You enter each goal with a target and an actual figure and say whether higher or lower is better; the form works out the difference, the percentage and whether the goal was met. Milestones are compared as planned and actual dates, in days late, and the budget and effort variances are counted for you. The lessons are kept in short tables: what went well, what went badly, the root cause behind each problem and the lesson drawn from it. The tone is blameless on purpose, because causes are found in process, information and tools, not in people. It is a general template, not professional advice.
When to use it
- A project has been delivered, handed over or stopped.
- A client or sponsor asks for a closing report.
- A project ran late or over budget and the team wants to learn from it.
- You want successful projects reviewed too, so that what worked gets repeated.
- You are about to estimate a similar project and want the real numbers from the last one.
How to fill it in
- Name the project, the sponsor, the date and how it ended. Write a short summary that others can read on its own.
- List the goals with a target and an actual figure, and mark whether higher or lower is better. Read the results the form works out.
- Enter the planned and actual dates and the milestones, then the budget and the effort.
- Hold the review with the team. Collect what went well and what went badly in the tables, one short line each.
- For each real problem, ask why until you reach a cause in process or information, and write the lesson.
- Turn the lessons into recommendations with an owner, a due date and a priority.
- Print or save the report, share it with the sponsor and look at the open items at the next team meeting.
Common mistakes
- Holding the review months later, when memory has faded and the numbers are hard to find.
- Naming people instead of causes. "Sam was late" teaches nothing; "the hand-over had no checklist" does.
- Writing goals that cannot be measured, such as "better quality", with no figure.
- Summarising a late or over-budget project as "went fine" while the numbers say otherwise.
- Producing a long list of recommendations with no owners and no dates.
- Reviewing only the failures. Successful projects show which habits are worth keeping.
Steps at a glance
- Fill in
- Check the preview
- Save as PDF, Word or Excel
Country versions
Pick the country you need. Each version uses the wording and layout commonly found there; a version marked “check with local advice” should be read by someone who knows the local rules before it is used.
- International (XX): Written in English, Korean, Japanese, German
- Korea (KR): Written in Korean, English
- Japan (JP): Written in Japanese, English
Designs
The same form in several designs. The fields and the wording stay the same; only the look changes.
- Ledger
- Banner
- Executive
- Classic
- Modern
- Formal
- Minimal
- Side band
- Compact
- Boxed form
- Warm
- Plain (black and white)
Your details fill it in
Fields that ask for your name, address or company details are filled from My details, so you do not type them again; you can still change any field for one form. Signed in, your details stay in your account; otherwise they stay in this browser only. A passport, identity or social security number is never saved.
Questions
- How soon after the project should the review be held?
- Within a few weeks, while people remember why things happened and the numbers are at hand. For a long project it also helps to hold a short review at each major milestone.
- What if a goal has no number?
- Give it one. A yes-or-no goal can use 1 for yes: target 1, actual 1 or 0. A vague goal such as "better quality" should become a figure, for example defects per month, so that the review can say whether it was reached.
- How does the form decide that a goal was met?
- If higher is better, the goal is met when the actual figure is at least the target. If lower is better, it is met when the actual figure is at most the target. A goal with no target or no actual figure is left out of the count.
- Should the client see the review?
- Often the sponsor does see it, especially when the project had a fixed price or changed along the way. Decide that before you write, and remove internal remarks first if the review is shared outside the team.
- What does "blameless" mean here?
- People make mistakes inside a system, so the useful question is what in the system made the mistake easy or hard to catch. It does not mean nobody is accountable: owners still take the recommendations and do them by the date.
- Is this form legal, tax or accounting advice?
- No. It is a template: it gives you the usual structure and wording, not advice. Rules differ by country and case, so have someone qualified read anything that matters before you sign, send or file it.
- Which countries and designs does it come in?
- It comes in 3 country versions: International, Korea, and Japan. 12 designs.
A form is a template, not legal, tax or accounting advice. Rules differ by country and case.