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About this lesson

Understand the purpose of a project management review and learn how to prepare for one.

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Quick reference

Project Management Review 

Project Management Reviews are the formal documented meetings held periodically between senior management and the project team.  The purpose is to inform senior management of project status and risks to achieving the project objectives. 

When to use

Most organizations have a business calendar with regularly scheduled Management Review meetings (typically monthly).  A project team should prepare for the meeting two or three days ahead of time in order to have current status, but also have time to integrate all inputs to the meeting.  If a project has an unexpected issue arise between regularly scheduled meetings which requires immediate senior management attention, a special meeting should be called.  In this case, the standard template for management reviews does not need to be followed, the presentation should focus on the issue and its impact to the project and the organization.  

Instructions

Meetings occur for one of three purposes.  They are to convey information, solve a problem, or make a decision.  Most regular management review meetings are to convey information. 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.

  1. Use the standard organization template when preparing for the meeting.
  2. Update the project status charts within the presentation.
  3. Update the issue/risk items within the presentation.
  4. Review the action items from previous meetings and ensure a response has been prepared.
  5. Determine the key message(s) of the presentation and how you would get to that point if your time was cut short.
  6. Dry run the presentation – look for inconsistencies.
  7. If required, distribute the presentation prior to the meeting.
  8. On the day of the meeting be prepared to go earlier or later than the assigned time.

Hints & tips

  • Most senior managers will make their judgments about the project based upon these meetings.  Ensure you are correctly communicating status and issues.
  • Managers are far more concerned about whether the project objectives will be met than they are about some intricate or obscure technical challenge that the team overcame.  You are presenting to the managers – not to the project team members – so know your audience.
  • Be polished and professional.  Your presence conveys confidence or distress to the managers.
  • It is OK to talk about risks and problems.  All projects have them and if you don’t mention them, the managers may think you are either clueless or lying.
  • When presenting a risk or problem that you have known about for more than 24 hours, you should have a risk response path that you are following.  The risk doesn’t need to be resolved but you should have a path that will lead to a solution for the risk.
  • Take action items from the meeting and quickly respond.  Even if it is a stupid or irrelevant action, respond to it.  Ignoring requests from senior management creates animosity towards you and the project.
  • If the team is not in agreement about an issue, don’t hide it.  Present both sides (fairly) and your approach to get to a resolution.   Be prepared to receive “help” from managers on the issue.
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  • 00:04 Hello again.
  • 00:05 I'm Ray Sheen and I'll be talking about Management Reviews in this lesson.
  • 00:12 These reviews help us to control projects throughout the life cycle of the project.
  • 00:17 Project meetings can be one of three types.
  • 00:19 Each type has a different purpose and focus.
  • 00:22 The first is an information meeting.
  • 00:24 In this meeting, the focus is on update in the current plans and status so
  • 00:27 management knows how the project is proceeding.
  • 00:30 The second type of meeting focuses on resolving issues or
  • 00:33 risks that have been identified.
  • 00:35 These are more likely problem solving meeting.
  • 00:38 The third type of meeting is a decision meeting.
  • 00:40 Project has achieved some major milestone or
  • 00:42 is at a major branch requiring a decision or approval.
  • 00:46 Management reviews are primarily information meetings.
  • 00:49 This doesn't mean people won't try to solve problems or
  • 00:52 make decisions. Rather, that the primary focus is on the exchange of information.
  • 00:57 Be careful mixing meeting types.
  • 00:59 This can lead to confusion, wasted preparation time, and
  • 01:02 frustrated expectations on the part of the management team and the project team.
  • 01:07 Let me be a little bit more specific about what to expect from a management review.
  • 01:12 Management reviews are normally conducted between the project core team and
  • 01:15 the senior management or stake holders.
  • 01:18 The purpose of these reviews is actually fourfold.
  • 01:21 First, monitor project status and
  • 01:24 provide corrective action to the project being reviewed if needed.
  • 01:27 Second, after assessing the risk, consider the likelihood that the project is going
  • 01:32 to actually achieve it's goals and objectives.
  • 01:34 There is always risk.
  • 01:36 Has the team taken appropriate risk response action?
  • 01:39 Third, review the overall portfolio projects and the strategy to ensure
  • 01:43 the priorities and resource allocation is correct between the projects.
  • 01:48 And finally, identify common themes and risk across all projects in the portfolio,
  • 01:53 and develop an organizational response that will cut across multiple projects.
  • 01:58 Here are some guidelines for preparing for a management review.
  • 02:01 Reviews are normally done at a set time in the calendar.
  • 02:05 Most commonly, either monthly or weekly, but
  • 02:07 it is whatever time the stakeholders set.
  • 02:10 Since you know the time, allow time for adequate preparation.
  • 02:14 These meetings are usually formal meetings that means there's an agenda,
  • 02:18 meeting minutes and someone records the action items.
  • 02:21 This is true whether the meeting is face to face or
  • 02:23 virtual, such as a teleconference or video conference meeting.
  • 02:27 Remember the presentations are a reflection of the project, so
  • 02:30 make sure that yours tells the right story.
  • 02:33 If your presentation is unclear and
  • 02:35 confusing, that causes the stakeholders to think the project is unclear.
  • 02:39 If your presentation is not well integrated but
  • 02:42 rather a series of functional presentations that are not connected, that
  • 02:47 may cause the Senior Management to think that the project is not well integrated.
  • 02:51 Is the presentation proactive or they can do spirit?
  • 02:54 Or does it seem paralyzed and the project team sounds like victims not leaders?
  • 03:00 At management reviews, the stakeholders are often reviewing multiple projects, so
  • 03:04 make sure that you stay within your time constraint.
  • 03:07 Also, be prepared to cut your presentation short if someone ahead of you goes long.
  • 03:12 Be able to get straight to your key points, and nail it.
  • 03:16 Finally, I'd like to review a typical template that I've used for
  • 03:19 a 20-to-30-minute long Management Review presentation.
  • 03:23 I start by introducing all the Project Team Members who are present at
  • 03:26 the meeting, and a very quick review of the project approved charter,
  • 03:30 the goals objective and constraints.
  • 03:32 I do this to bring management team into alignment with project expectations.
  • 03:36 They see many projects, so
  • 03:37 providing them with the baseline of this project is a good idea.
  • 03:41 Next is the current project status compared to the approved plan.
  • 03:45 This is a high level locate project deliverables schedule and budget.
  • 03:50 Risk are now reviewed.
  • 03:51 First, the risk that have being resolved or
  • 03:53 lowered since the last review, followed by any risk identified since the last review
  • 03:58 where the status of any open risk response plans.
  • 04:01 My last presentation pointers is any change to the Project Charter or
  • 04:04 baseline that I'm requesting due to the scope, creep or resource shortages.
  • 04:09 Finally, since this is a formal meeting,
  • 04:11 there are action items that should be reviewed.
  • 04:13 These are assigned to the responsible person and a date set for closure.
  • 04:19 Management reviews are nothing to be afraid of.
  • 04:21 When used properly, they are a quick status check with management and
  • 04:25 are used for minor course corrections to the project.

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