I’ve discussed project closure before here and in other forums. I recently ran across some information from a book entitled Integrated Project Management and thought I would share some information from that books view on how to best close out the project as the work is being completed.
Here it is as a mix of my thoughts and text from the book. As a project nears completion, the project manager continues to support the team by checking in with them to monitor their progress and to track their tasks. This should continue to be a weekly effort even as work is winding down – actually, ESPECIALLY as work is winding down because it can also be a common time to start to lose focus.
The final steps that the project manager is responsible for are:
1) ensuring that the project's achievement is demonstrated,
2) getting the sponsor to sign off on a project after having successfully met the objectives, and
3) preparing a project report.
Project Closure
Managing a significant project is usually a full-time job unless you’re unlucky enough to be carrying four or five of these as is often all too common place. The project manager is kept extremely busy near a project's end, monitoring its progress and preparing for shutdown. When checking in with project team members, the project manager must re-emphasize the need for good communication among task leaders; encourage the give and take that supports the internal customer principle; be attentive to the project timetable; actively help task leaders get their tasks started and completed on time; monitor the project schedule; and as some original estimates overrun, alert downstream task leaders to the scheduling changes.
If a task finishes early, which occasionally happens, more time is bought for the risk factor. With an early finish, the project manager must help downstream task leaders readjust their start time; when a task overruns, he or she helps marshal the resources identified in the task notes file to cover the overrun. The project manager must be alert to not allow changes that were initiated within tasks sneak into the project. Engineers and other technical people have a tendency to "over-engineer" their work to make their product exquisite.
Generally, "good" is all that is needed; exquisite takes longer. While monitoring tasks with team members, the project manager must watch out for "exquisite" and keep the task leaders focused on "good." As the project nears the finish line, the project manager must keep the team focused on the project achievement demonstration that proves the specifications have been met. Often, team members tend to move toward a kind of "we did it; we know we did it; let someone else test it and prove it works" thinking.
However, the demonstration is built into the project plan, and the project manager must ensure that the workers and other resources assigned to it are ready, and that the demonstration begins as scheduled. The sponsor, or a chosen representative of the sponsor, must be present at the specification's demonstration to formally accept the project's completion and to sign off on the project.
The project manager must ensure that the demonstration is efficiently and effectively presented and that the official is there and actually signs off on the formal acceptance of the project's completion. Remember, "If it isn't in writing, it hasn't been said."
The Project Report and Other Documentation
Any organization that is serious about completing projects to specifications, on time and within budget, makes a project report mandatory. Written by the project manager, this report explains how the project was done and why specific procedures were used. The information in the report is helpful to anyone using the project's product, and it serves as resource material for a project manager embarking on a similar project in the future.
One copy of this report goes to the project sponsor, and another is filed in the organization's archives. The most important piece of documentation for future project planning is the project operation Gantt chart and its associated software products. Two versions should be preserved: The baseline Gantt chart that displays details of the original project plan; and the operation Gantt chart that displays the actual time and effort, task by task, used in executing the project. Anyone undertaking a similar project, or a project with similar work packages and tasks, can learn a great deal by looking at these charts.
The project manager must see to it that these documents are archived, along with important project elements, such as parts and assembly drawings, data dictionaries, data tables, and the results of technical analysis. An unfortunate tendency exists for project managers and team members to walk away from a completed project without capturing its basic project information and without reflecting upon what they have learned and how this can help others within their organization.
Two final responsibilities remain for the project manager: To distribute the project report (or a summary of it) to every team member and to convene the team to discuss lessons learned – a session that likely should include the customer as well if you want to thoroughly document this helpful information.
This discussion should be documented and amended to the project report. All too often, what was learned in a project is lost – the formal lessons learned activity is an often overlooked project closure task. The review will help the team members recognize and retain the project's information, which then becomes a resource for future project planners. After the review has ended, it is time to celebrate!
Summary
The project manager and the customer must have agreed at the beginning of the project how successful project completion will be demonstrated. As closure approaches, the project manager focuses the project team on successfully performing this demonstration and creating the necessary project closure documentation in order to obtain that coveted final signoff. It’s never over till the customer formally accepts the project in writing. Remember that… Information for this article was derived, in part, from Hall and Johnson’s book entitled, “Integrated Project Management.”