One place I worked the performance review was mostly a vehicle to formalize the bullshit "official" reason you weren't getting a good raise. The real reason was always "we reward politics, not hard work."
Another place used it as a quarterly tool to rehabilitate underperformers. That way management could point to the reviews as action they were taking to improve their underlings. If you were a good performer you could write down any recycled goals or nonsense and no one cared.
Good summary. I have worked at both of the above places. Annual reviews are BS.
My favorite year was the year there was a salary freeze, so my "score" on the review was irrelevant. My lazy self-promoting boss had all of us write his portion for him. He gave us about a month's notice to do his part. So, I got out the thesauraus and used all of the words I could find for fantastic, exceptional, visionary, etc. Every minor thing I had done, no matter how trivial, I mentioned as if it was extremely important. I spent the whole month remembering things and adding them until it was probably 4 times as long as a normal review. Mostly I wanted to see what his reaction would be, if he would even take the time to edit it, or if we would really sit down to talk about it like we were supposed to. He just signed it and never scheduled our meeting to talk it over but forwarded it to me for my signature on my part. Then by the time the next review rolled around he had left the company and I had a brand new boss who was using what I wrote the previous year as a template because he seemed to have no clue about what I did for a living or that my ex-boss didn't write what was in the file. I got a huge raise that second year. ;-)
Now I keep a running file. Every time I do anything that could go on the form, any time I get a compliment, it goes in the file. Makes it a snap to write my part when the time comes, which is good since I'm in an environment where what I put on the paper is irrelevant to advancement and pay increases anyway (really it just boils down to numbers you produce, how much you whine about getting paid more, and how much people like you), so I'm just trying to make doing it quick and easy.
Mozar, I know bragging isn't really your thing, but have fun making your part of the review an account about how incredibly awesome you are. Keep it totally positive (even the weakness part, find some way to twist it around to a strength.) Use the thesaurus function to find more words for polite, timely, efficient, dependable, whatever. Make a list of every single customer or project to create a log of your work. Steadfastly succinct, punctual, and businesslike, which many customers appreciate? That seems like you. Good luck.