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Project technical reviews are formal decision meetings between team members and a panel of subject matter experts.
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Quick reference
Technical Reviews
Project technical reviews are formal decision meetings between team members and a panel of subject matter experts. The purpose is to review the technical approach, technical documentation, the solution to technical risks, and to approve technical results.
When to use
Technical reviews are conducted at technical milestones when a key technical deliverable has been completed. Examples would include a concept selection, the completion of design or coding, or the completion of verification testing. Depending upon the project, there may not be any technical reviews or there may be as many as a dozen. Technical reviews are normally held as a single meeting, but for large complex technical projects, there may be interim reviews leading up to the final review or the review may be divided into subgroups.
Instructions
Meetings occur for one of three purposes. They are to convey information, solve a problem, or make a decision. Most technical review meetings are to make a decision about the technical approach or solution used in the project. . Be careful not to mix purposes within a meeting unless you have clearly explained what you are doing. Otherwise, some meeting attendees will be confused and unprepared.
- Use organizational templates and checklists to prepare for the review.
- Identify and invite an independent panel of technical experts – either in-house or industry experts.
- Collect the technical documentation supporting the deliverables that are to be reviewed.
- Provide the documentation to the panel before the meeting so that they have time to review the material. (If material is classified or confidential, be certain to provide appropriate protection.)
- Schedule enough time for the meeting to allow the panel to review and comment on all information.
- Start the meeting by reviewing the technical requirements and appropriate standards.
- Review a summary of technical documentation in a presentation.
- Review the details of the actual technical documentation – break into smaller subgroups if appropriate.
- Collect the findings from the panel and clarify whether the review is complete or needs to be repeated.
- Assign action items and follow-up with the panel as actions are closed.
Hints & tips
- Prepare for the meeting. Review your documentation to be sure everything is ready.
- If you have known risks or open issues, prepare a discussion to address them. Explain the issue, options, and your proposed path for resolution.
- Let the core team member with responsibility for the area being reviewed lead the presentation and discussion of the topic. Include extended team subject matter experts.
- 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen,
- 00:06 let's talk now about an aspect of project control known as technical reviews.
- 00:10 If your project has technical development,
- 00:12 you will probably need to do a technical review.
- 00:16 If not, then this session won't have much for you.
- 00:19 You may recall there's several types of meeting.
- 00:24 We often characterize them is one or more types.
- 00:26 Information meetings,
- 00:28 these are regular scheduled meetings that focus on updates and status.
- 00:31 Problem solving meetings,
- 00:33 these specially called meetings that focus on a specific issue and it's resolution.
- 00:37 And decision meetings which occurs at certain times in a project and are focused
- 00:42 on making a significant decision about the direction or progress of the project.
- 00:47 The technical review is a decision meeting.
- 00:49 It's goal is to approve a set of technical deliverables on the project.
- 00:54 Let me caution you about mixing meeting types, this leads to confusion for
- 00:58 the team and the reviewers.
- 01:00 They don't know what is expected of them during the meeting or
- 01:03 at the end of the meeting.
- 01:05 So let's dig into technical reviews.
- 01:08 Technical reviews are normally between the Core Team on the project and
- 01:11 a group of independent technical experts.
- 01:14 These experts can be internal subject matter experts or
- 01:18 external industry experts.
- 01:20 By independent,
- 01:21 we mean people who have not been part of the project development effort.
- 01:24 They don't get to check their own work.
- 01:27 The purpose of the review is to do an in depth analysis of the technical activities
- 01:31 on the project and review the technical documentation.
- 01:35 This review is to make sure that the approach and results made through
- 01:38 requirements and the standards that are embedded in the project objectives.
- 01:42 These reviews are at major technical milestones or
- 01:45 decision points on the project.
- 01:47 Normally, there's a set of deliverables that can be reviewed and a decision can be
- 01:51 made although the technical work done to create those deliverables is acceptable.
- 01:56 Some of the more common technical review milestones are concept selection,
- 02:00 design freeze, demonstration of successful qualification, or
- 02:05 demonstration that the product is ready to the market.
- 02:08 By the way I have been in review to shortest an hour,
- 02:11 when there are only a few items to review.
- 02:13 And I have been in several reviews that took as two weeks to cover everything.
- 02:18 Preparations is the key to a successful technical review.
- 02:21 First, reviews are conducted when a set of technical deliverables are ready.
- 02:26 So, make sure that all the work is done before you have the review.
- 02:29 Many organizations have checklists that indicate what is required for
- 02:32 each type of technical review, use it.
- 02:36 Second, these are formal meetings, not hallway conversations.
- 02:40 Set up an agenda, take minutes, record the action items.
- 02:43 If you're developing products for a regulated industry, the minutes for
- 02:47 these meetings are required to be in the product file.
- 02:50 I also recommend sending the documentation to the reviewer several days before
- 02:54 the meeting so they'll have a chance to prepare.
- 02:57 Expect an in depth discussion on the technical approach.
- 03:00 These experts are supposed to analyze your work and
- 03:03 ensure that you didn't overlook anything.
- 03:05 They're expected to find what you missed.
- 03:08 They'll want to look at every drawing, every test, and every document.
- 03:12 As I indicated, most organization have checklists or
- 03:14 templates to assist the project team in preparation.
- 03:17 If your organization has one, use it, if not, check online for some examples.
- 03:23 Finally, if it's a large review, I'll often divide it up.
- 03:27 I might divide it into categories of deliverables like mechanical, electrical,
- 03:31 and software.
- 03:32 I've also divided large reviews into several interim reviews
- 03:36 that occurred over a several weeks or
- 03:37 months, ending with a final review that brings everything together.
- 03:42 Let me finish off wit a template for the way I like to run technical reviews.
- 03:47 Start with an introduction of the team members and reviewers.
- 03:50 I then review the charter to align the reviewers with the project goals and
- 03:54 constraints.
- 03:55 Followed by the specific requirement documents or
- 03:57 standards that the reviewers are to be using in their analysis.
- 04:01 Now, provide all the technical information.
- 04:04 I usually summarize first, and then dig into each area that is being reviewed.
- 04:08 You should have on hand a copy of all the technical artifacts created in
- 04:12 the project, such as drawings and specifications, analyses and
- 04:15 test results, and any quality plans or process flow documentations.
- 04:20 If it's a product development project have the product there also.
- 04:23 Then discuss open technical issues or risks remaining with respect to those
- 04:28 deliverables, including your approach for how you'll resolve those issues.
- 04:32 If this is a large review,
- 04:33 you probably will break this into sections where you'll cover mechanical first,
- 04:37 electrical, software, logistics, whatever things are being reviewed at this meeting.
- 04:42 Now ask for the decision, the experts should either approve or
- 04:46 reject the technical package that has been reviewed.
- 04:49 Finally, compile your action item list and file your minutes.
- 04:53 Technical reviews are used to manage progress on technical projects.
- 04:58 Their goal is to ensure that the project results would perform as required
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