What are you going to do once your investment project is complete? Are you going to move on to the next one? Well, don’t celebrate just yet – your project may be over, but the process isn’t quite done.
Studies have shown that investment is most effective when an appropriate post review phase is complete. When a project has come to completion, it is critical to review the processes that took place to complete it to learn and realize its benefits for the future. Many believe that once an investment is approved, the project is over – but, this isn’t the case. While it is you who is responsible for the processes that take place during the investment, it’s critical not to neglect the full scope of it – from start to complete finish.
A post-implementation review is a core document that has been developed after an investment has been approved. The main objective is to review and reconcile if the goals of the investment have been met, to gauge the effectiveness of the investment, and to record lessons learned and benefits achieved.
Let’s look at 3 key factors of a post-investment review and how its role in the project can help you keep traction in the post-investment stage.
1.Metrics & measurements
The post-investment phase enables you to deliberate how benefits have been realized, which works to measure and extract the metrics of the investment. This will enable you to determine the benefits that have been realized through concrete data. It is in this phase of the investment review process that your team can view side by side what was planned versus the benefits that have been realized.
2. Documentation
To assist in the process of implementing the project, it helps to hand over documented processes for review. The post-investment phase has components that include what is reviewed and signed off, and that makes it easier to mitigate the risks that could occur. At this stage, it’s possible to address who will be responsible and accountable for the business processes and changes that have been brought on as a result of the investment.
3. Lessons learned
Good endings have merit in the lessons that are presented, and this goes with every investment. All the responsibilities and tasks that have been performed, and as each investment is different, management effectiveness is mostly reflected through the post-investment phase. Furthermore, post-investment review meetings can work to be a good platform for teams to share insights on the good and bad, and other investment opportunities.
Investment success is heavily dependent on the accurate execution of the entire investment process. This gives importance to the post-investment review phase even in its initial stages.
“Completing an investment” isn’t the same thing as finishing it when we take a bird’s-eye view of the process. Simply finishing doesn’t ensure that we will benefit from its outcomes. However, when we systematically review investments, we enable our team and stakeholders to identify the successes and improvement opportunities to make better investments in the future.
