ABSTRACT

Instead of “all good things must come to an end,” perhaps the program manager’s mantra should be “all good things come to a new beginning.” That new beginning is moving into a world where strategic objectives have been met and recognized, and the organization is reaping the benefits of all of the hard work you and your team put in over the course of the program. There is nothing more satisfying than closing out a successful program. But wait, before you sail off into the sunset, even after your program is operational, you still are not quite done. There are a few remaining important steps that should not be overlooked to have fully met your obligations to your stakeholders and the organization. These areas include a post-launch review, holding a lessons learned session, and celebrating success. This chapter focuses on best practices and tips relating to these three post-launch activities.

Not all organizations take the extra step of performing a post-launch review, but to really measure the success of the program against stated objectives, it makes sense to take some time to review what has actually happened since the go-live date of a program. The timing is largely determined by the schedule of benefits. Enough time needs to have passed to have measurable data. Essentially, what you want to review is whether or not the intended benefits have actually been achieved at the pace anticipated. If not, it may be worthwhile to determine why and what adjustments may need to be made to get things back on track. All of the effort is wasted if the expected benefits do not come to fruition.