Post mortem project analysis

As the dust settles after the second major BLA submission (on time) and there is a little time for reflection, the team is wondering how to consolidate the lessons learned. One of my interests is in tools that can help this effort.

A feature of a BLA, Biologic (drug) License Application, is that there are scores of different documentary components to the overall submission package. Each of these components has its own sub-project, with its own drivers, deliverables, risk profile, etc. But they all contribute to the single program deliverable. The completion date for this deliverable is a big deal to the entire organisation and is closely tracked. One tracking method we used was to calculate a critical path for the program on a weekly basis. The key deliverables on the critical path would change from time to time as some deliverables suffered set-backs and others enjoyed positive risk outcomes.

We are still looking for ways of representing this project history. The idea is to be able to show the areas where process improvement would make future programs less prone to surprises. The chart at the top represents snapshots at different status dates during the project. Looking at a combined view across multiple sub-projects, we get an overall critical path. And we get values of total slack for some of the major components, referred to by their module number (e.g. 4.2.3). The chart shows how the total slack for these components varies over time as the progress on different components deviates from the planned schedule. Also shown is the submission date (the final deliverable) which changed slightly over the months.

There's more work to do in this area, both in refining the lessons learned question and in honing the presentation tools. For now, I offer this as snapshot of work in progress and invite readers to comment.