Pre-mortem analysis
(Created page with "The concept of pre-mortem analysis consists in identifying the possible causes of failure of a project. The peculiarity is that the analysis takes place in the very early stag...") |
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| + | ==Abstract== | ||
The concept of pre-mortem analysis consists in identifying the possible causes of failure of a project. The peculiarity is that the analysis takes place in the very early stages of the project, immediately after the conception of the idea. In fact, we all know the meaning of post-mortem analysis, which in medicine is the process that allows to identify the causes of the patient's death. The same happens with projects. After the failure of a plan, the team tries to understand what went wrong, what may have been the causes of the crash and what led to the "death" of the project. The results of this analysis will certainly be useful in the future because they will allow us not to repeat the same mistakes but one thing is certain: the project died. The time spent, the resources used and the efforts made are now lost. The purpose of the pre-mortem analysis is to prevent this. The basic concept is to assume that the project will fail and, starting from this assumption, to research the causes of death. This method requires negligible application costs and is also inexpensive in terms of time. Furthermore, it has been proven that a psychological factor can bring benefits not obtainable with the more classic post-mortem analysis. | The concept of pre-mortem analysis consists in identifying the possible causes of failure of a project. The peculiarity is that the analysis takes place in the very early stages of the project, immediately after the conception of the idea. In fact, we all know the meaning of post-mortem analysis, which in medicine is the process that allows to identify the causes of the patient's death. The same happens with projects. After the failure of a plan, the team tries to understand what went wrong, what may have been the causes of the crash and what led to the "death" of the project. The results of this analysis will certainly be useful in the future because they will allow us not to repeat the same mistakes but one thing is certain: the project died. The time spent, the resources used and the efforts made are now lost. The purpose of the pre-mortem analysis is to prevent this. The basic concept is to assume that the project will fail and, starting from this assumption, to research the causes of death. This method requires negligible application costs and is also inexpensive in terms of time. Furthermore, it has been proven that a psychological factor can bring benefits not obtainable with the more classic post-mortem analysis. | ||
This tool is very useful in project management and allows you to have a greater awareness of the complexity of a project and to reduce the uncertainty factor that is often linked to new plans. | This tool is very useful in project management and allows you to have a greater awareness of the complexity of a project and to reduce the uncertainty factor that is often linked to new plans. | ||
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| + | ==Relevance of the tool== | ||
| + | It is important to understand why pre-mortem analysis is relevant in project management. The reasons are to be found in some concepts of social psychology, the so-called cognitive biases. | ||
| + | Cognitive bias refers to a systematic (that is, nonrandom and, thus, predictable) deviation from rationality in judgment or decision-making [ ]. | ||
| + | In other words, in project management, teams can be unconsciously influenced by certain factors that lead to a wrong perception of the project. | ||
Revision as of 16:31, 21 February 2021
Abstract
The concept of pre-mortem analysis consists in identifying the possible causes of failure of a project. The peculiarity is that the analysis takes place in the very early stages of the project, immediately after the conception of the idea. In fact, we all know the meaning of post-mortem analysis, which in medicine is the process that allows to identify the causes of the patient's death. The same happens with projects. After the failure of a plan, the team tries to understand what went wrong, what may have been the causes of the crash and what led to the "death" of the project. The results of this analysis will certainly be useful in the future because they will allow us not to repeat the same mistakes but one thing is certain: the project died. The time spent, the resources used and the efforts made are now lost. The purpose of the pre-mortem analysis is to prevent this. The basic concept is to assume that the project will fail and, starting from this assumption, to research the causes of death. This method requires negligible application costs and is also inexpensive in terms of time. Furthermore, it has been proven that a psychological factor can bring benefits not obtainable with the more classic post-mortem analysis. This tool is very useful in project management and allows you to have a greater awareness of the complexity of a project and to reduce the uncertainty factor that is often linked to new plans.
Relevance of the tool
It is important to understand why pre-mortem analysis is relevant in project management. The reasons are to be found in some concepts of social psychology, the so-called cognitive biases. Cognitive bias refers to a systematic (that is, nonrandom and, thus, predictable) deviation from rationality in judgment or decision-making [ ]. In other words, in project management, teams can be unconsciously influenced by certain factors that lead to a wrong perception of the project.
