At the end of large and complex projects there should be a full review so that success can be celebrated and lessons learnt from both success and failure. If it went well there is, hopefully, a celebration, generally followed by a quick switch of a tired team to the next difficult project.
But if it went badly then generally the top three items on the agenda are: “what went wrong?”, “what lessons have we learnt?”  “How do we avoid making those mistakes again?” If the project went badly wrong this may be followed by the search for the guilty and the avoidance of blame.

But what lessons do we want to learn? My starting list would be:
Question 1:   Did we have the right people with the right skills at the right time?
Question 2:  Did we have the right support in the organisation for this project?   
Question 3:  Did we start with the right budget for time and cost?
Question 4:  Was this the right project at the right time? 

Question 1: Did we have the right people with the right skills at the right time?
If the answer is YES, then dig a little deeper:
Were those people having to work 24/7 to complete the project? Do they need time to recover?
Was this project just something they were doing alongside their day job (i.e. in the spare time they don’t have)?
Are these skills vital to the future and if so, how do we grow them?
Are these people vital to the organisation and if so, how do we grow them? 
Do we need more of these people with these skills?
 
If the answer is NO, then ask:
Will we need these skills/people in the organisation in the future for similar projects?
If yes, then how are we going to find/train/enthuse them? 

Question 2:  Did we have the right support in the organisation for this project?
If the answer is “Yes” then dig deeper.
Was there a clear, unanimous direction from a very senior body – the Board, the ExCo who have the power to commit the money and resources? Was anyone trying to undermine it? I often hear “well xx (a senior person) thinks we shouldn’t be doing this, so their department isn’t really supporting it”.  If the project has been authorised by the senior team, then they need to get themselves and their people behind it and be genuine in their support.
·     Was it clear where the project sat in the organisation’s priorities so that it could be properly resourced?
·     Was the project critical for the organisations stakeholders? If it wasn’t then how did it get started at all?
·     If the project needed external support (from a regulator for example) then was that support there?
If the answer to these questions is “No” then the project had very little chance of succeeding so there are lessons to be learnt and communicated. 

Question 3:  Did we start with the right budget for time and cost?
Too many projects start by the relevant departments laying out their costs and timescales but when, after the necessary reasonable challenges, the final times and costings emerge, the cry goes up from managers, governments, or any other stakeholders, that these are “unacceptable”.

“Unacceptable” is a wonderful word, much used by politicians, the media and anyone else that doesn’t know what they are talking about.

Translated from the gibberish it means:
I can’t think of a better way of doing this- but I’m going to criticise it anyway.
I am not going to provide the necessary time and funding, even though I’m not going to tell you that now.
I am distancing myself so when it fails, I can say “I told you so.”
Inevitably it leads to exhausted people, failed projects, cost over-runs and the punishment of the innocent.

If this project is one of those, then learn the lesson quickly that the “unacceptable” may just mean “this is way beyond our capability”. 

Question 4:  Was this the right project at the right time?
Too many projects are started out of vanity.  It’s a senior person’s great idea or a politicians great idea.  I have heard the words “well, he’ll get his knighthood if he can pull this one off” before now, in the context of resource-wasting public project.  
It’s not unusual for the project team to feel that the project does not bring much benefit for anyone and may damage their careers if they are involved.   If organisations are to inspire their people than they need to make sure that their projects are inspiring too.
This is a question that must be asked before a complex project is started and this is down to the governing body, the Board or whoever else has ultimate control of the company. 

Ask:
1.     Why are we doing this? If this was our money, would we spend it this way?
2.    Do we have the people and expertise to make this a success?
3.    What damage will this project do to the rest of the organisation? Will it rob us of the resources we need to run the company?
4.    Are we doing this because we think it will damage our reputation if we say no?
5.    If we say yes and fail what is the reputational damage? Although I have heard one cynical Chairman say, “it doesn’t really matter because I’ll be retired long before they find out”.
Sometimes you cannot say no because the project must be done – think war or the Covid vaccine, but mostly the short-term pain of saying no is so much less than the long-term agony.