Appendix 2: Post-implementation review checklist

A checklist for organisations considering carrying out a post-implementation review (PIR).

Roles and responsibilities

□ Ensure that roles and responsibilities for the PIR are clearly outlined and communicated.

Timing

□ Assess whether the project has had enough time to achieve the benefits outlined in its business case and is ready for a PIR.

Scope

□ Decide whether the PIR will look at achievement of the intended benefits.

□ Decide whether further work is needed to achieve the intended benefits.

□ Assess whether intended benefits were achieved within the project budget.

Process

□ Ensure that the process has distinct phases: planning the PIR, gathering evidence, analysing evidence, quality assurance, and reporting the findings.

□ Check that the timeline for the completion of the PIR is appropriate and realistic.

Resourcing

□ Ensure that the PIR team is independent and can carry out an objective review.

□ Ensure that resources are planned based on anticipated workload (amount of evidence to be collected and analysed) and timeline for completion of the review.

□ Decide how to resource governance, management, advisory, and quality assurance roles that will support the core PIR team.

□ Consider whether it would be helpful and appropriate to have anybody from the project being reviewed to work in an advisory capacity for the PIR.

Planning

□ Meet before starting the PIR to ensure that everyone involved clearly understands the PIR process.

□ Meet with the project team being reviewed to ensure that the PIR is communicated to them.

Collecting evidence

□ Plan what evidence is needed and how it will be collected.

□ Ensure that interviews and focus groups are planned and focused on collecting information that is needed for the PIR.

□ Record all the information the PIR team has considered in reaching its conclusions.

Analysing information

□ Ensure that there is enough time to analyse all the evidence collected from the various sources in a systematic and objective way.

□ Ensure analysis provides, where possible, a clear audit trail between the PIR’s findings and conclusions and the evidence to support these views.

Quality assurance

□ Ensure that there is a quality assurance phase in the process that challenges findings from the PIR.

□ Ensure that quality assurance is carried out by those who were not part of the core PIR team to ensure independent oversight.

□ Record that quality assurance has been undertaken.

Consultation and communication

□ Communicate regularly with the project team about the progress of the PIR.

□ Ensure a transparent approach is adopted.

□ Share draft conclusions and findings with the project team to ensure fairness and natural justice and consider their comments.

Reporting

□ Report clearly and concisely. The main findings and recommendations should be easy to identify.

□ Recommend further action needed to achieve the intended benefits.

Follow-up

□ Record lessons that will improve the PIR process.

□ Communicate other lessons learned from carrying out the PIR to support organisational performance management and make continuous improvements.