Preparing for Handover
Although the majority of work has been done, projects can sometimes stall at the implementation stage. You may run out of budget or lose members of your team to other projects, or there may be last-minute changes from the client as they realize that implementation is imminent. Careful management at this stage ensures that your handover to the end users goes as smoothly as possible.
Managing the final stages
As a project nears completion, team members can often feel jaded; the novelty that drew them to the project in the first place has become a distant memory. To reinvigorate your team, hold a pre-implementation meeting with all those involved, including clients and end users wherever possible. The core purpose of this meeting is to produce a detailed route map through to completion, but a well-run meeting can do wonders for your team’s motivation and focus—especially if they see the client’s enthusiasm for what you are about to deliver.
Hold a pre-implementation meeting
Review the original scope of your project, and talk through the plan you have used to achieve it.
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This serves as a reminder of why the project is important and highlights how much has been achieved.
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Make a detailed implementation plan, using the Team Planning technique that you used to generate the overall plan.
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Encourage creativity, and make it your business to secure the resources needed to deliver a successful handover.
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Create a project closure checklist, with detailed timings and responsibilities, in a form that can be used to chart progress.
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Make sure everyone leaves the meeting knowing precisely what they have to do and by when.
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Steering the end game
Your role in the lead up to implementation is primarily one of problem solving and coordination of the activity required for the project to “go live”. Go around and see all stakeholders, particularly team members. Show an interest in what they are doing but resist the temptation to step in unless they really cannot do what has been asked of them without your help. Increase the frequency of review as you get close to your final date, but do not allow these meetings to get in the way of the work they should be doing. If everyone is in the same building, for example, a 10-minute “stand-up” meeting may work best, while conference calls are a sensible alternative for multisite projects.
Running final tests
For some projects, User Acceptance Testing[] is one of the last steps before implementation. Most frequently found in software development, UAT can be applied in a variety of situations. The testing is carried out by a representative panel of end users, who work through as many different scenarios as necessary to be sure that the product will perform as expected when it goes live. UAT must not be used to confirm that the product is what the end users want—that should have been defined in the project scope and any subsequent “changes to scope” documents.
User Acceptance Testing (UAT)—the final technical test of a product, to make sure that it works as it is supposed to.
TIP
Tell team members that they are finished on your project only when you are absolutely clear that this is the case.