Project Close Out, Essay Example

Purpose

The main objective of the project close out is to feature appropriate acceptance and a systematic process for finishing the project and handing it offer to the client.

Overview

According to Cacciatore (2007), the project close-out must be carried out at the end of the project once all the objectives, goals, and deliverables have been met and also when the project has been closed impulsively. The close out phase of the project is very essential for documenting the completion of the project and to give the project the direction thus preventing it from getting out of its main objective and budget as is in the baseline of the plan (Peter, 2007).

For the project to be considered complete, it should transform the remaining pieces of the established project to the client for usage. A proper documentation of the project including its teachings and the post implementation report should also be completed.

Objectives: 

• Accept the products of the projects by sign-off from the customer, the sponsor of the project, and the navigation committee as recommended.
• Carry out a lessons learned sitting.
• Complete the post performance evaluation report.
• Recognize excellent work.
• Commemorate the accomplishment of the project team.
• Share the resources of the staff such as facilities, and the programmed systems.
• Complete and achieve all final project proceedings.
• Conduct contract closure or related inspections.

The monitoring of both the administrative and the contract closure of the project, in which both are part of close of things is very important. It is very important that the communication between these two sides of the close outlook exists to the last stage. After the demonstration and constrictions of the two closures, then this information can be detailed and fit into the PIER for future reference (Peter, 2007). Both sides should be clearly detailed and no violations should take place for this could leave the state vulnerable due to gaps.

Contract closure

The contract closure has the main function of ensuring that all the vendors have been paid for the services done as well as for the products rendered. By so doing, it ensures that all the deliverables and the objectives has been met by the vendors and that the customers have been certified by the services as it is being stated in the contract.

The contract closure follows trough and makes sure that the contractor is given the final payments and that the documentation as well as the evaluation of how the services were distributed all through the entire contract. It is as well important to detail both the positive and the negatives which arise during the time of contract. The awards must also be documented as well as the violations since all are part of the business.

Administrative closure

This sector of administrative closure in a project always focuses on ensuring that all the documentations, deliverables, as well as the scope is obtained while undertaking the project and also ensures that all the aims meet the customer approvals. At this stage of closure, it is very important for the project team to make sure that the process of documentation is complete as these documentations may also be used in future projects.

The administrative closure has a role of taking care of all official procedure with the functions of the projects while ensuring that all the documents are updated, minutes are brief and clear, and e function of more so that all analysis connected to the function of the project are well stated for future reference.

Close down process

During the process of close down, the manager and the team as a whole verify that all project objectives and the deliverables have been met. At this stage, the project is ready to be given to the customer’s total control. The team is also free if ready to conduct closure.

In the process of handing over, it is very essential for the project manager and the project team to make sure that they have adequately prepared the customer to take full control of the project. The customer on the other hand should have the necessary knowledge and the total skills to take the responsibility and to minimize the risks of misleading the prepared project. This can be attained trough knowledge transfer and the maximum training some few months before the closure.

When the team is convinced that knowledge transmit has taken place, and that the customer can be in control of the project, the signatures of the completion should be documented to ensure that the project team has acquired  all the deliverables as stated by the contract and the plan. At the final stages of the closedown process, its aim is to achieve all specified credentials so that they can be examined and stored for future use. To achieve this information, it will be different depending on the type and nature of the project and the organization specifications at large. At some instances, the achieving may only include a basic list though in some other cases it might include materials from the project team may include all the documentations (Peter, 2007).

Conduct a lessons learned session

After the communication of the closure projects in writing, it has also been discovered that it is also very crucial to develop a mechanism for the group review. The lessons learned are very important and valuable closure mechanism for the team members even if the development of the projects success is limited. According to Cacciatore (2007), what should be considered most is: if the customer was actually satisfied with the end product, if the   cost of the targeted budget was met, if the products delivered to the consumer meet the specified requirements as well as the objectives of the project, if the schedule was also manageable and if it was met on time, if in the process of producing the project some risks were identified and mitigated, if the project management methodology was worked properly as expected, what could be done to improve the process, the ups and downs that were experienced and give an impact to the project, the required procedures that should be employed in future projects and lastly what could be done to the future projects to ensure maximum success.

The lessons that could be learned session is that which include: the project team, the executive management which can be optional, the stakeholder which may include the external project supervision, the operational and maintenance staff and the project sponsor who though he/she is optional can also play a significant role. With such a session, officials can be brought closure to the project. This will act as a provision for a forum for team member recognition and can offer an opportunity for the discussion of ways to improve the future process and events.

One of the purposes of the PIER is solely to make a documentation of the lessons that have been learned. This therefore implies that the challenges faced by the Project Team are presented in an open manner (Barr & Cacciatore, 2004). The main purpose of identifying the problem on the completed project is to provide a technique to allow for the discussion of the issue with the quest to identifying a way of eliminating the recurrence of the same issue in the future operations of the business. It is crucial, however, that the issue discussions do not just blame but rather it should identify the responsibility and the ownership of the problem that is facing the system at the particular time. This is important and crucial to the process of developing recommendations that are useful in the running of the system in the future.

The problems and the challenges that were encountered in the process should be arranged in the order of the need for prioritization. The first five to ten problems or issues are to be accorded a high degree of focus. It is not advisable to address every problem. A lesson matrix can help in the addressing of the issues that arise in the process. In the matrix the management ought to provide such concepts as the item to be discussed, how the item was done in the project, the recommendation for further or future project, the individuals and sectors that can be influenced, as well as the actions that can be done to reduce the negative influence accrued out of the undertaking of the project.

The steps in the lessons learned session are represented in the diagram below:

Each of these factors or aspects that are to be undertaken should be given their due dates and the changes that are to follow. For instance in regards to how an item was done in project, the project sponsor should give the due dates which should have little analysis if any. On the adjustment of these issues, little or no allowance to changes in the schedule or budget is given.   On the issue of recommendations for future projects, the due dates should be part of the calculations of the time span for the baseline of the scope of the project (Barr & Cacciatore, 2004).

The changes side of this part of the matrix should involve the impact of analysis that determine the effect on the schedule and the budget of the project. The part of the influence entails the dates that the project sponsors wishes they might not control the deadlines for their projects, their changes sides of the matrix would therefore involve the specification of the ability of the sponsor or even the customer to make the make the necessary alterations which they might feel unable to undertake such changes. On the part of the actions needed for the reduction of the negative influence out of the project, the sponsor as well as project team should have their hand into the due date. Meeting ought to be held to discuss the quantity of resources that are needed to meet the deadlines for the project as agreed. On the other hand the changes to this section of the matrix should be made through meetings so as to illustrate to the sponsor and the customers the way to conduct an analysis of an impact.

The lessons learned matrix can be represented in the diagram below:

Post Implementation Evaluation Report (PIER)

A Post Implementation Evaluation Report is a document containing the historical background of the project. It is a documentation that provides for a record of the outlined or rather the planned and real or actual schedule and budget for the project. This document as well contains the recommendations for other projects as that fall under the same scope as well as those that fall under the same size as the project that is to be undertaken.

The Post Implementation Evaluation Report (PIER) would always be stored in the database of the state agency. There would also be a link to the agency in which the report would be stored. The link would be at ITSD.

The Post Implementation Evaluation Report should have a table of contents. The table of contents should have a number of items on it; it should contain the project organization which should include the staffing and their skills, the schedules, WBS; a successful risk assessment as well as the mitigation methods, that is , what the kind of risks that occurred and the methods that were used to mitigate the risks; the processes that were used for the change of the management and assurance of quality; the general strategies that were used in the managing the expectations of the customers; the short-term factors that led to the success of the project and the way in which the factors were met; the fincial information;  the cultural environment; the lessons learned.

As suggested by Barr & Cacciatore (2004), certainly the successes as well as the challenges and problems on the project are detailed in the Post Implementation Evaluation Report. New ideas should be included in the Post Implementation Evaluation Report. These are the ideas that were successful on the project. The recommendations on how these systems or processes could be incorporated for other projects are extensively and clearly made.

The success of the project should be shared with other related organizations. This is done successes can be repeated the same way in which the identification of problem may lead to improvements. Successes should be translated into procedures that would be followed in the events of the project that are set to be undertaken in future (Barr & Cacciatore, 2004).

Report preparation

The responsibility of making the Post Implementation Evaluation Report is vested in the Project Manager. The Project Manager is responsible for getting the input from the Project Team as well as from the customers and other stakeholders especially those who play major roles in the project. Different individuals taking part in the different capacities in the project will have different perceptions on the successes as well as on the failures of the project. They will as well have varied outlooks on the possible solutions to the challenges and the problems incurred during the undertaking of the project.

The Project Manager should ensure that at least all the major areas of the project participate by having them represented by members. This is the case if all every member of the project cannot take part or rather cannot be consulted. The overall view of the project as well as its final product is equally a major point of focus of the project.

Celebrating

The success of the project is an important occurrence in the process of the project has it leads to the ultimate closure of the project which is the last stage that a project ought to go through in order to be termed has been successfully implemented o over seen. During this celebrating period, every effort put forward by the worker is recognised and celebrated. Their specific contributions and achievement towards the accomplishment or completion of the project is recognised. As a common tradition, it is a universally accepted thing to have a universal recognition which results in the positive enforcement which in most cases referred to rewarding behaviour.

This has always been seen and has proven overtime that it’s the best management tool that has been in use by most of the project managers. This is because of the fact that it has been the aim of most the of the project managers that they have most if not all their projects successfully implemented with the attainment of the project aims and objectives as being one of the their leading aims (Barr & Cacciatore, 2004). For this to happen, there should be full recognition of the of the specific teams in charge of specific tasks in the project for their specific achievement in attaining specific goals and objectives that results in the aggregate  result of the project.

Despite the recognition of the specific individuals for the specific achievement made in the areas that have made major contributions to the success of the entire project, its it very critical that the project management recognises that may recognise the entire group or team that has worked together towards the realization of the overall objective of the project. This means that the entire team that had been set up to achieve overall objective of the firm should be recognised in the same way that the individuals that contributed to the specific attainment are recognised for their efforts towards the success of the project.

Cacciatore (2007) said that for these recognitions to be fully recognised and get the desired attention, one has to have the recognition done during large gathering or meeting when the entire staff and management of the project are in attendance. This will go a long way in making sure that the stage for future recognition of the efforts made by every participant of the project is set. With the efforts of the senior management and that of the junior staff fully recognised through praising them in a large gathering means that there is a well set stage for future successful work to be done since there is a strong will of the management and everyone involved to have the project which as act a source of strong motivation to the entire team (Barr & Cacciatore, 2004). If there is need for formal recognition to be made that involves the relevant authorities like the government authorities in charge of licensing of such projects, proper prior coordination are made. This may also among many other forms of recognition involves the publication of the projects in the industry journals and other periodicals in the industry. This is also done through giving regular updates to the data concerning the project marking these data available with the legislature.

What is success?

During the early stages of the planning process of the project, the success factors those are specific to the achievement of specific projects are established. According to Cacciatore (2007),  there is also the common fact that is established which include but not limited to the on-budget and on-time that have  been defined as the primary and key factors that determine the success of the of the project. This does however means that budget and schedule are the only determinate of the success of the project. This is because of some of the realities that include having successful projects that ultimately cost more or less than the amount that was expected or anticipated. This is however only possible with proper and close look at the business problems that needed to be addressed in order to achieve the desired project results (Barr & Cacciatore, 2004).

There are some critical questions that project managers should put into serious consideration if they are keen at making sure that the project achieves its intended goals and objectives. They are but not limited to:

• Was the project well managed?
• Was there team work during the project?
• Was the project both on budget and on time?
• Were the objectives and goals of the project arrived at?
• Were the changes in the project handled in a controlled way?
• Was therefore a complete success factors achieved during the project?
• Is the project viewed positively especially by the shareholders and customers?
• Was there a proper communication system that is timely throughout the project?
• Were there some challenges during the project period? And how did you manage them?

A project database is achieved through the preparation of the PIER. This database is then achieved for future reference. This acts as a good source of information on historical project data that can be used to help in the valuation of the improvement in future projects.

Ideally, some of the project data that can be achieved include but not limited to some information on the following:

• Risk analysis
• Project plan
• Risk contingency
• Risk registry
• Mitigation plans for risk
• Report on variance
• Closeout plan
• Status report
• Change orders
• Customer and other sign-off documents
• Minutes from meetings
• Lessons learned
• Communication plans
• Checklists
• Work breakdown structure
• Technical documents etc

Records on the above both hard copy and soft copy (electronic) must be stored following the stipulated records retention guides.

Maintenance of Archive

To achieve both a good and recognizable status like most successful projects, there is need for both internal and external guidelines to be followed with the use of the agency that work on the project. Archive material is therefore very important in trying to achieve this. It is therefore paramount that one keeps a good record/ maintenance of the archive.

Use of Archived material 

The use of archived material plays a critical r. its role in determining how far one can go in making sure that he or she achieves the best possible results in a project. It’s therefore important that one develops a repository of past and present projects that serves as both the training tool and kit as well as the resources of reference that can be used by both managers and other important stakeholders in any project (Cacciatore, 2007). Future projects are therefore guided by this very important source of information hence improving the quality of the future projects (Cacciatore, 2007).

Estimating  of both the budget requirement and schedule required for future projects is made easy by use of this information in this archive. It’s therefore easy to develop a metrics on likely productivity of the new project teams and how best they can be handled in order to produce the best results that go beyond the expectations of the project. This because the use of past estimates and performance metrics provide the best estimates to be used both in the current and future estimates (Barr & Cacciatore, 2004).

Reference

Cacciatore, J. (2007). Principal project Management. Project Management. Daniel’s Architectural Foundation.

Cacciatore, J., Froen, J.F., et al. (2005).Co-principal investigator. MOMStudy. Collected data on 5,000 World best Projects. Norweigan Institute of Certified Architects and Civil and    Structural Engineering, MISS Foundation.

Barr, P., & Cacciatore, J. (2004-2005). Guidelines of Best Project Study. Collected data on 400 best Award Winning Projects.

Peter Fredrick. (2007). The Practise of Project Management. New York, Butterworth Heinemann, Print.