LostInSpace.com Post Mortem Meeting

Date of Meeting: 12/24/2009

Time: 9 am

Team Members attending: Lance DeCuir, Wayne Nelson, Andrea Messina, Andrea Perscher, Annie Jones, Brad Jones, Scott Henry., Tom Harper from National Astrographics (ex oficio).

Meeting

The LostInSpace.com Post mortem meeting was called to order by Wayne Nelson at 9:05 with a few opening remarks and an introduction of Tom Jones from National Astrographics. Mr. Harper expressed a word of thanks on behalf of National Astrographics and congratulations on a “job well done.” The following proposed order of business was presented, voted on and approved for the remainder of the meeting.

Outline of discussion points and response time.

  1. What aspects of the LostInSpace.com Project worked well?
  2. What are some overall opportunities for improvement, either as a team or as an organization?
  3. What are some personal opportunities for improvement?
  4. What aspects of the Project were problematic?
  5. How can we improve these for future project?

Once this agenda was improved, Wayne opened the floor for discussion on the first item for discussion. Several points were brought up regarding this point. These include:

  1. Clearly defined goals and expectations outlined in the contract, including incentives for early completion of tasks, negative consequences for undue delayed completion, clearly stated milestones and tasks, and allowances in schedule for delays of completion
  2. Positive communication at all levels. This point was especially appreciated when issues that effected completion and budgeting came about. Another point regarding this was in the area of collaboration on work between tasks. The “feeling of openness” to ask questions and float other possibilities/ideas.
  3. Communication with client at critical decision points, as well as when tasks would be delayed came about.
  4. Adaptability during project. The client appreciated the team’s willingness to consider new possibilities and suggestions during the project and the ability to incorporate them. The also appreciated the team’s forethought and contingency planning on a couple of areas that allowed for new possibilities.
  5. Ability to address potential issues and develop/implement preventative solutions.
  6. Creativity of solutions, both in initial plans and throughout each phase of project.
  7. Constant testing of solutions at every phase of project and ability to seek new solutions when proposed solutions did not meet expectations.
  8. Ability to keep project within proposed time frame and budget.
  9. Team professionalism at all phases of the project.

Once discussion was completed on this item, it was agreed to move on to the next topic. , areas of team or company opportunities. Lance opened the floor. Several items of note were a result of this discussion:

  1. Better anticipation of potential delays in project and resulting effects to the timeline and budget.
  2. Better knowledge of actual costs of outside expenditures, such as shipping costs and travel expenditures that effect the bottom line costs of the project
  3. Willingness to incorporate such tools as videoconferencing and teleconferencing for meeting with clients. Using this instead of approving travel and housing costs. Ability place limits on travel when these technologies would accomplish the same goals at a much more realistic cost.
  4. Greater insistence on obtaining prior internal approval for certain expenditures.
  5. Establish greater list of possible vendors for video and audio recording, as well as contractual relationships.
  6. Constant updating of awareness of legal constraints and compliance, copyright issues at state and local levels and how they affect project.
  7. Maintain greater list of potential PM tools for future projects

After this discussion, the floor was opened for individual areas of improvement. For this discussion, it was agreed that many of the points in the poor discussion had personal implications, as well. However, a few individual items were discussed. These included:

  1. Better communication with individual team leaders and teams regarding progress of tasks.
  2. Avoidance of temptation to micromanage project, while at same time keep teams aware of deadlines and upcoming tasks.
  3. Greater insistence on individual team members to manage time better and maintain constant communication regarding tasks.
  4. Better acceptance of constructive criticism

Once this topic was concluded, Wayne opened the floor for discussion on the issue of items that were problematic. The discussion on this area produced only a few items that were of any consequence. These were:

  1. Late in the Development phase of this project, one vendor announced that their specific portion of the project would be significantly late. This would cause a significant delay in the projected completion of the project and increase the cost dramatically. Steps were taken to ensure the resolution of this issue and reduce the negative impact of this issue.
  2. Another area proved to be problematic was that an internal department also announced that their specific task in the design phase was running behind and would not be completed until a much later date. Once again, this would affect then anticipated completion date and proposed budget. Steps were taken that prevented the delay from taking place, but still had a negative impact on the proposed budget as it increased personnel costs and temporarily removed assets from other projects..
  3. Early in the project, some members arranged out of town meetings, along with the associated travel and informed leadership after the fact. While the necessity of the meetings was accepted, two issues were a result. First, was not obtaining initial approval for the expenditures. The second was not determing whether or not using videoconferencing or teleconferencing capabilities would have accomplished the same outcomes, thusreducing the costs of the project. Steps were taken to allow for the expenditures and addressing the latter two issues for future meetings.

Once these issues were discussed, Lance led the discussion on improvements for future projects. Many important suggestions came as a result of this discussion. These include:

  1. Greater anticipation of potential issues and development of preventative solutions ahead of time.
  2. Encourage R& D to keep abreast of updates on current technologies, as well as future technologies that are being tested and their applications in the Company’s projects.
  3. Encouragement of greater creativity in solutions
  4. Become more proactive in communication of all aspects of project.
  5. Update awareness of changes in compliance and regulatory constraints as related business and human resources issues. This is to be done at local, state and national levels.
  6. Awareness of updates in copyright laws regarding text, graphic, audio, and video applications.

At the conclusion of this discussion, the floor was opened up for final thoughts and discussions. Seeing none, the meeting was adjourned and the participants were thanked for their time and congratulated on a job well done for the successful completion of the LostInSpace.com project.