Chapter 45
Project Close-Out Report and Review
Abstract
The last task of the project manager is described in this chapter. The task involves writing a close-out report which lists all the important topics and occurrences during the life of the project. The chapter contains a list of 22 such topics which should be commented on. This must be followed by a close-out review which discusses the performance of the project team and the contribution of the other stakeholders.
Keywords
Project close-out report; Project close-out review; Stakeholder review; Team review
Close-Out Report
Currently, most organizations require the project manager to produce a close-out report at the end of the project. This is often regarded by some project managers as a time-consuming chore, as in many cases the project manager would already have been earmarked for a new project which he or she is keen to start as soon as possible.
Provided a reasonably detailed project diary has been kept by the project manager throughout the various stages of the project, the task of producing a close-out report is not as onerous as it would appear. Certainly if the project included a site construction stage, the site manager’s diary, which is in most companies an obligatory document, will yield a mass of useful data for incorporation in the close-out report. The information given in the report should cover not only what went wrong and why, but also the successes and achievements in overcoming any particularly interesting problem.
The following is a list of some of the topics that should be included in a close-out report:
• Degree to which the original objectives have been met
• Degree of compliance with the project brief (business case)
• Degree to which the original KPIs have been achieved
• Level of satisfaction expressed by client or sponsor
• Comparison between original (budgeted) cost and actual final cost
• Reasons for cost overruns (if any)
• Major changes incorporated due to:
• Client’s approved requirements
• Internal modifications caused by errors or omissions
• Other possible reasons (statutory, environmental, legal, health, and safety, etc.)
• Comparison between original project time and actual total time expended
• Reasons for time overruns or underruns
• Special actions taken to reduce or mitigate particular delays
• Important or interesting or novel methods adopted to improve performance
• Performance and attitude of project team members in general and some in particular
• Performance of consultants and special advisers
• Performance of contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers
• Attitude and behaviour of client’s project manager (if there was one)
• Attitude and behaviour of client’s staff and employees
• Comments on the effectiveness of the contract documents
• Comments on the clarity or otherwise of specifications, data sheets, or other documents
• Recommendations for actions on future similar projects
• Recommendations for future documentation to close loopholes
• Comments on the preparation and application/operation of major project management tools such as CPA, EVA, and data gathering/processing
The report will be sent to the relevant stakeholders and discussed at a formal close-out meeting at which the stakeholders will be able to express their views on the success (or otherwise) of the project. At the end of this meeting the project can be considered to be formally closed.
Close-Out Review
Using the close-out report as a basis, the final task of the project manager is to carry out a post-project review (or a post-implementation review), which should cover a short history of the project and an analysis of the successes and failures together with a description of how these failures were handled.
The review will also discuss the performance of the project team and the contributions (positive and negative) of the other stakeholders. All this information can then be examined by future project managers employed on similar projects or working with the same client/stakeholders, so that they can be made aware of the difficulties and issues encountered and ensure (as far as is practicable) that the same problems do not arise. Learning from previous mistakes is a natural process developed from childhood. Even more beneficial and certainly wider reaching, is learning from other people’s mistakes. For example, where a new project manager finds that he has to deal with people, either in the client’s or contractor’s camps, who were described as ‘difficult’ in a previous close-out report, he or she should contact the previous project manager and find out the best ways of ‘handling’ these people.
For this reason the close-out review, together with the more formal close-out report, has to be properly indexed and archived in hard copy or electronic format for easy retrieval.
The motto is: ‘Forewarned is Forearmed’.
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