IT Project Retrospectives: Learning from the Past through a Program of Action Research

Project management has emerged as a strong discipline practiced by highly trained, certified professionals as organizations have come to realize they cannot stay in business if they cannot manage their projects effectively. However, most companies are still unable or unwilling to perform the most basic of continuous improvement activities – identifying and learning from past mistakes and successes. To help address this shortcoming, this paper provides a framework for conducting project retrospectives that has evolved through the analysis of 130 IT projects over the past ten years. By integrating the findings of several previous studies, the paper provides guidance on mapping project momentum, evaluating project success, identifying and avoiding classic mistakes through best practices, performing root cause analysis, and delivering actionable recommendations.