Chapter 44
Project Close-Out and Handover
Abstract
This chapter discusses the phase of a project when commissioning has been completed, i.e. project close-out. Particular attention has been given to the documentation that has to be completed and handed over for the final operation of the facility. Care must be taken that there is no end of project ‘creep’ and the need to have all the handover documents and operating/maintenance instructions collated and bound well before the handover date is stressed. The chapter includes a full list of these documents culminating with the acceptance certificate.
Keywords
Acceptance certificate; Documentation; Handover; Handover certificate; Maintenance instructions; Operating instructions; Spares list
Close-Out
Most projects involving construction or installation work include a commissioning stage during which the specified performance tests and operating trials are carried out with the objective of proving to the client that the deliverables are as specified and conform to the required performance criteria. The snagging process, which should have taken place immediately prior to the start of commissioning, often overlaps the commissioning stage so that adjustments and even minor modifications may be necessary. Commissioning is often carried out with the assistance of the client’s operatives, to ensure that the person who runs the plant or system learns how to operate the controls and make necessary adjustments. This is as true for a computer installation as a power station.
On more complex projects, it may be necessary to run special training and familiarization programmes for clients’ staff and operatives, in both workplace and classrooms.
When the project is complete and all the deliverables are tested and approved, the project must be officially closed out. This involves a number of checks to be made and documents to be completed to ensure that there is no ‘drip’ of man-hours being booked against the project. Unless an official, dated close-out instruction is issued to all members of the project team, there is always a risk of time and money being expended on additional work not originally envisaged. Even where the work was envisaged, there is the possibility of work being dragged out because no firm cut-off date has been imposed.
All contracts (and subcontracts) must be properly closed out and (if possible) all claims and back charges (including liquidated damages) agreed and settled.
A few unpopular, but necessary, tasks prior to commissioning are collation, indexing and binding of all the operating and maintenance manuals, drawings, test certificates, lubrication schedules, guarantees and priced spare lists that should have been collected and stored during the course of the project. Whether this documentation is in electronic format or hard copy, the process is the same. Indeed some client organizations require both, and the cost of preparing this documentation is often underestimated.
Many of these documents obtained and collated during various phases of the project have to be bound and handed over to the client enabling the plant or systems to be operated and maintained. It goes without saying that all these documents have to be checked and updated to reflect the latest version and as-built condition.
The following list gives some of the documents that fall into this category:
• Stage acceptance certificates.
• Final handover certificate.
• Operating instructions in electronic or hard copy format or both.
• Maintenance instructions or manuals.
• A list of operational and strategic spares with current price lists and anticipated delivery periods as obtained from the individual suppliers. These are divided into operating and strategic spares.
• Lubrication schedules.
• Quality-control records and audit trails.
• Material test certificates including confirmation of successful testing of operatives’ (especially welders’) test certificates and performance test results.
• Radiography and other non-destructive testing (NDT) records.
• A dossier of the various equipment, material and system guarantees and warranties.
• Equipment test and performance certificates.
On completion, the site must be cleared; all temporary buildings, structures and fences have to be removed and access roads must be made good.
Arrangements should be made to dispose unused equipment or surplus materials. These may be sold to the client at a discounted rate or stored for use on another project. However, certain materials, such as valves, instruments and even certain piping and cables, cannot be used on other jobs unless the specified test certificates and certificates of origin are literally wired to the item being stored. Materials that do not fall into these categories will have to be sold for scrap and the proceeds credited to the project.
Project managers who want to appreciate their team may decide to use this money for a closing-down party. The team will now have to be disbanded, a process that is the ‘mourning’ stage of the Tuckman team phases. On large projects that required the team to work together for many months or years, the close-out can be a terrible anticlimax and the human aspect must be handled diplomatically and sympathetically.
Handover
The formal handover involves an exchange of documents, which confirm that the project has been completed by the contractor or supplier and accepted by the client. These documents, which include the signed acceptance certificate, will enable the contractor to submit his final payment certificate, subject to agreed retentions. If a retention bond has been accepted by the client, payment has to be made in full.
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