
	"Dig For Victory" - The Intranet Portal Guide

Post Investment Appraisal




Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. Billy Wilder (1906-2002) Wilder was one of the first to realise what lay ahead when Hitler came to power in 1933; fleeing eventually to Hollywood. He begged his family to join him - without success - and many (including his mother and grandmother) died at Auschwitz. Often accused by his detractors of being overly cynical, Wilder nonetheless directed some of the greatest films ever made, and (given his own life experiences) the wry humour in this famous quotation echoes down through the years. Project-closure review (PCR) Held towards the end of the project, the key purpose of PCR is to agree when the project will end and to ensure that the business-as-usual teams are ready and willing to accept the system, process and organisational changes the project has effected. Any 'loose ends' (for example any outstanding bugs with the system) are evaluated and actions agreed in a formal hand-over process.

Post-implementation review (PIR)

Held 6-9 months after a project ends, the key purpose of PIR is to capture lessons learnt; ensuring the good is repeated - and the bad avoided - in future.

PIR is not a 'post-mortem' (as the office wag would have it) - as it does not set out to establish blame for failure; it is not akin to 'establishing a cause of death'.

Rather, it is a balanced exercise, where there is as much interest in what went will as in what did not (even on projects perceived to have been a failure).

Post-investment appraisal (PIA)

Held more than 18 months after the project ends, the key purpose of the PIA is to measure the return on investment (variously called IRR, NPV or ROI) that the project has delivered.

Key differences between PIR and PIA

Aside from the 'why' above, there are three further key differences:

1) When - the PIR is held relatively soon after the project to (a) ensure the staff involved are still around to contribute and (b) make sure learnings are quickly applied to future projects. PIAs are normally held much later, so that the full perspective of Wilder's 20:20 hindsight can be brought to bear.

2) What - A PIA is specifically concerned with the investment under review, whilst a PIR is a more general abstraction from the learnings of this project to actions relevant to future initiatives.

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3) Who - In a PIR, the views of the actual people involved really matter. However, with a PIA, independence is often both a necessity (due to people turnover and the passage of time) and a virtue (for the consistency it brings to the measurement of return).

The Benefits Realisation Plan (BRP)

A 'living' document, the BRP should be the one control item that pulls together these final three stages (and links them back to the original objectives and business case of the project). At each stage, the benefits realised and benefits still in the pipeline are identified and the BRP updated. The BRP should be closed at the PIA stage.

Holding the workshop

To make the best use of resources, a half-day workshop is usually the best way to organise the PIR or PIA, supported as appropriate by an independent facilitator.

It is vital to prepare materials in advance of the workshop, by drawing on the (by now probably archived) project library. In particular, a summary of the finances and benefits realisation statement should be prepared and circulated to attendees in advance.

Managing the legacy

The outputs from the PIR are a 'legacy' to future projects. This legacy needs to be stored in such a way that it can be readily retrieved by future projects which face similar challenges.

In this way, one can avoid the same mistakes being made over and over again in the future and (more importantly) secure the return of future investments.

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"Dig For Victory" - The Intranet Portal Guide