Chapter 17
IN THIS CHAPTER
Planning for a successful project completion
Addressing any remaining administrative issues
Helping your team transition to the end of your project
Evaluating successes and failures with the project retrospective evaluation
One characteristic that distinguishes a project from other work assignments is its distinct end — the point at which all work is complete and the results are achieved. However, with intense demands pulling you to your next assignment, you may be compelled to let your completed projects languish and eventually fade away instead of clearly ending them with an announcement, recognition of the results, and a “thank you” to all the people who made those results possible.
Unfortunately, not bringing your projects to full closure hurts both the organization and the people who performed the work. When you don’t assess the extent to which your project achieved the desired outcomes, you can’t determine whether you conceived, planned, and performed the project well. Furthermore, team members don’t have the chance to experience closure, achievement, and a job well done.
This chapter shows you how to close your project successfully by finishing all substantive work, performing the final administrative tasks, and helping team members complete their association with your project and move on. In addition, this chapter helps you announce your project’s end and conduct a project retrospective evaluation.
Following your project all the way through to completion helps ensure that everyone gets the maximum benefits from your project’s results. You also get the chance to compare your project’s benefits with the costs incurred, confirm the company’s return on investment, and validate its process for selecting projects.
Reduce the impact of difficult situations like these and increase the chances for your project’s success by planning for closure at the outset of your project, identifying and attending to all closure details and tasks, and refocusing your team. This section shows you how to do this (and more).
If you wait until the end of your project to start thinking in detail about its closure, it may be too late to gather all the necessary information and resources. Instead, start planning for your project’s completion at the same time you prepare your initial project plan by doing the following (see Chapter 1 for details of what goes into the project plan):
Prepare a checklist of everything you must do before you can officially close your project. Here are some examples of closure items to include on your checklist:
For each item on the project closure checklist, specify who will perform it, when it will be done, and what resources will be required.
Encourage your team members to consider the closing-the-project stage of your project to be a separate assignment with its own objectives, tasks, and resource requirements (see Chapter 1 for more on the closing-the-project stage). As you complete the main project’s work, review and update the preliminary closure plans you developed in your initial project plan (see the preceding section for details on these preliminary plans).
As team members work hard to fulfill project obligations, their focus often shifts from accomplishing the project’s overall objectives to completing their individual assignments. In addition, other audiences who were initially very interested in the project’s results may become involved with other priorities and activities as the project continues (which means they likely lose interest and enthusiasm for your project). However, successful project completion requires a coordinated effort by all key participants.
For more tips on how to keep your team motivated, turn to Chapter 16.
Just as you must have authorization for people to legally spend time, effort, and resources to perform work on your project, you must rescind this authorization when you close the project to ensure that people won’t continue to spend time, effort, or resources on it in the future. You can officially terminate this authorization by doing the following:
As part of successfully finishing your own project, you need to help your team members complete their project responsibilities and move on to their next assignments. Handling this transition in an orderly and agreed-upon fashion allows people to focus their energies on completing their tasks on your project instead of wondering where and when their next assignments will be. In particular, do the following:
Acknowledge and document team members’ contributions. Express your appreciation to people for their assistance on your project, and share with them your assessment of their performance. Take a moment to thank their supervisors for making them available to your project, and provide the supervisors with an assessment of their performance.
As a general rule, share positive feedback in public; share constructive criticisms and suggestions for improvement in private. In both cases, be sure to share your comments with team members personally and follow up your conversation in writing.
See the nearby sidebar “Using a novel approach to announce your project’s closure” to see one person’s unusual way of letting people know his project was over.
Lay the groundwork for repeating on future projects what worked on past ones (and avoiding what didn’t) by conducting a post-project evaluation. A post-project evaluation (also interchangeably called a project retrospective, post-project review, project closeout meeting, or lessons learned) is an assessment of project results, activities, and processes that allows you to:
This section helps you plan for, conduct, and follow up on a project retrospective.
Take steps in each stage of your project’s evolution (starting the project, organizing and preparing, carrying out the work, and closing the project) to lay the groundwork for your project retrospective (see Chapter 1 for more on the stages of a project):
A project retrospective is only as good as the results, expenditures, and performance information on which it’s based. The information must be complete, detailed, and accurate. Prepare for your project retrospective meeting by collecting information about the following:
You can collect this information from the following sources:
A successful project retrospective meeting (which you can conduct in person, via videoconference, or through most other meeting methods) requires that you address the right topics. People need to share their experiences and thoughts openly and honestly about the project and the processes used to manage the project.
At the project retrospective meeting, explore the following issues:
Declare at the beginning of the meeting that it’s supposed to be a learning experience rather than a finger-pointing session. As the project manager, you run the project retrospective meeting. At its outset, you need to declare that the session is a time for self-examination and suggestions for ensuring the success of future projects. If people start to attack or criticize other participants, you can immediately bring the discussion back on track by asking the participants the following questions:
If people resist your attempts to redirect their conversations, you can mention actions that you, as project manager, can take in the future to head off or deal with similar situations more effectively and then ask people to share additional ideas.
Often your busy schedule pulls you to new projects before you’ve had a chance to analyze and benefit from previous ones. However, even when people do take a few moments to review previous project experiences, they seldom incorporate the lessons learned in their future operating practices.
Consider this wrap-up report as you plan future projects to make sure you apply the lessons you learned.
Table 17-1 notes topics in this chapter that may be addressed on the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam and that are also included in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 7th Edition (PMBOK 7).
TABLE 17-1 Chapter 17 Topics in Relation to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 7
Topic | Location in This Chapter | Location in PMBOK 7 | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Activities performed when closing a project | “Staying the Course to Completion” and “Handling Administrative Issues” | 4.4.3. Meetings and Events 2.3. Development Approach and Life Cycle Performance Domain 4.2.7.4. Process Groups | Both sources identify similar activities. |
Issues addressed in a post-project evaluation | “Surveying the Results: The Project Retrospective Evaluation” | 2.5.1. Project Processes 3.6. Diagnostics 4.6.2. Logs and Registers | Both sources identify similar issues. |
Providing a transition for your team | 2.2. Team Performance Domain | PMBOK 7 states the importance of planning for a smooth release of project team members. |