We can easily get lost in procedures and processes. We can become slaves to tick boxes, forms, and the way things are “supposed” to be done. The good news is that we can avoid the abyss of project reviews. They can be done expeditiously and virtually painlessly.

Project teams, executives, and steering committees can do reviews any time. In fact, they can be as quick as a half-day to a day. If there is an effective steering committee and engaged executive sponsors, these meetings can be held rather informally, as a quarterly half-day session as a way of checking back.

You know from status reports and the project plan if you’re hitting your deliverables. If you are, in general meeting your targets, reviews are a time to ask:

• Which ones are we not meeting?
• Which ones are we having trouble with or resourcing issues with?
• Are people tired?

There are a variety of issues you can check on and review that go beyond given deliverables. Suppose you will implement a deliverable tomorrow; you’re on track. Great, but are you on track with your change management program and communications program? Are people buying into what you do? Are they happy with it? Do they understand the reorganization? Do they understand roles and policies?

Most of the time, a project is considered successful when it is on time and on budget. But success also depends on whether end users know how to use the product, service, business infrastructure, organizational design, etc., and are happy with it. It depends on people knowing their roles and responsibilities and ability to use the tools effectively.

What happens all too often is that we focus solely on our deliverables while our “patient” is slipping away. We’re doing everything right, but the patient is in critical condition. We don’t want that to happen; we want to make sure we’re checking the pulse of the patient all the way through. Are they breathing? Are they conscious? Do they understand us? Do they need a little triage to pull through? If we just go by the plan, by deliverables, we could be operating for three hours when they have been flat-lined for the past two.

Is a project completed on time? Are the requirements met? Is it on budget? This may mean a project has been “successful” at least in the very near-term, but it doesn’t mean it will be sustainable for the long-term.

Real success depends on the end-users, the effectiveness of communications and change management, as well as the more intangible aspects of projects that we can’t always tick off on a list. Reviews help us consider these factors and confirm we’re on the right track.