ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at each of these four roles for reviews. In particular, it focuses on the feedback loop for organizational learning. All reviews provide support for this process of reflection, and then retrospectives and post-project reviews are particularly focused on capturing and learning from experience. As the case study Post-Project Reviews and Retrospectives shows, well-structured retrospectives provide a very active opportunity to explore what has happened on a project and hence define and prioritize potential improvements. Review teams that actively manage their checklists through retrospectives and related feedback may start out with fairly generic lists of questions, but they will rapidly tailor these lists to focus on the issues that are important to their organization. Many organizations frame reviews as a control mechanism, a way to ensure that their projects are under control. The chapter suggests an alternative and potentially more powerful framing: reviews as a way to enhance and accelerate organizational learning.