Closing a Project
by Teresa S. Stover, Bonnie Biafore, and Andreea Marinescu
Microsoft® Project 2010 Inside Out
- Microsoft® Project 2010 Inside Out
- SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly
- A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
- Introduction
- I. Project Fundamentals
- 1. Introducing Microsoft Project 2010
- 2. Understanding Projects and Project Management
- II. Developing the Project Plan
- 3. Starting a New Project
- Getting from Idea to Proposal to Project
- Focusing the Project Vision
- Creating a New Project Plan
- Entering Tasks
- Sequencing and Organizing Tasks
- Organizing Tasks into an Outline
- Setting Up Your Work Breakdown Structure
- Adding Supplementary Information to Tasks
- 4. Viewing Project Information
- Understanding Project Information Categories
- Accessing Your Project Information
- Switching Between Views
- Using Views
- Scheduling with Gantt Charts
- Highlighting Tasks with the Timeline
- Flowcharting with Network Diagrams
- Visualizing the Project with the Calendar
- Reviewing Assignments with the Team Planner
- Charting Team Availability with the Resource Graph
- Tabling with Sheet Views
- Timesheeting with Usage Views
- Seeing Details with Forms
- Cross-Referencing with Combination Views
- Using Tables
- Using Fields
- Arranging Your Project 2010 Window
- Navigating to a Specific Location in a View
- Rearranging Your Project Information
- 5. Scheduling Tasks Manually or Automatically
- 6. Building Your Schedule
- 7. Setting Up Resources in the Project
- Understanding the Impact of Resources in the Plan
- Adding Resources to the Project
- Removing a Resource from the Project
- Identifying Tentative, Generic, or Budget Resources
- Setting When Resources Are Available for Work
- Adding Detailed Resource Information
- 8. Assigning Resources to Tasks
- Assigning Work Resources to Tasks
- Assigning Material Resources to Tasks
- Assigning Cost Resources to Tasks
- Reviewing Assignment Information
- Changing Resource Assignments
- Contouring Resource Assignments
- 9. Planning Resource and Task Costs
- 10. Checking and Adjusting the Project Plan
- Working with the Critical Path and Critical Tasks
- Controlling Schedule Changes with Task Types
- Bringing in the Project Finish Date
- Reducing Project Costs
- Balancing Resource Workloads
- Changing Project Scope
- Reviewing the Impact of Changes
- Obtaining Buyoff on the Project Plan
- 3. Starting a New Project
- III. Tracking Progress
- 11. Setting a Baseline and Updating Progress
- Saving Original Plan Information Using a Baseline
- Updating Task Progress
- Updating Actual Costs
- 12. Responding to Changes in Your Project
- 11. Setting a Baseline and Updating Progress
- IV. Reporting and Analyzing Project Information
- 13. Reporting Project Information
- Establishing Your Communications Plan
- Using Views to Report Project Information
- Generating Text and Visual Reports
- Generating the Right Reports
- Summarizing with Overview Reports
- Focusing on Tasks with Schedule Progress Reports
- Using the Unstarted Tasks Report
- Using the Tasks Starting Soon Report
- Using the Tasks In Progress Report
- Using the Completed Tasks Report
- Using the Should Have Started Tasks Report
- Using the Slipping Tasks Report
- Using the Baseline Report in Visio
- Using the Baseline Work Report in Excel
- Using the Task Status Report in Visio
- Using the Budget Work Report in Excel
- Analyzing Budget Status with Cost Reports
- Using the Cash Flow Report
- Using the Cash Flow Report in Excel
- Using the Cash Flow Report in Visio
- Using the Baseline Cost Report in Excel
- Using the Budget Report
- Using the Budget Cost Report in Excel
- Using the Resource Cost Summary Report in Excel
- Using the Overbudget Tasks Report
- Using the Overbudget Resources Report
- Using the Earned Value Report
- Using the Earned Value Over Time Report in Excel
- Evaluating Resource Allocation with Assignment Reports
- Using the Who Does What Report
- Using the Who Does What When Report
- Using the To-Do List
- Using the Overallocated Resources Report
- Using the Resource Availability Report in Visio
- Using the Resource Work Availability Report in Excel
- Using the Task Usage Report
- Using the Resource Usage Report
- Using the Resource Work Summary Report in Excel
- Using the Resource Remaining Work Report in Excel
- Using the Resource Status Report in Visio
- Revising a Built-In Report
- Building a Custom Report
- Saving Project Data Fields
- Sharing Project Reports Electronically
- 14. Analyzing Progress Using Earned Value
- 13. Reporting Project Information
- V. Managing Multiple Projects
- 15. Managing Master Projects and Resource Pools
- Structuring Master Projects with Subprojects
- Consolidating Project Information
- Opening Multiple Project Files as a Set
- Sharing Resources by Using a Resource Pool
- 16. Exchanging Information Between Project Plans
- 15. Managing Master Projects and Resource Pools
- VI. Integrating Project 2010 with Other Programs
- 17. Exchanging Information with Other Applications
- 18. Integrating Project 2010 with Excel
- 19. Integrating Project 2010 with Visio
- 20. Integrating Project 2010 with Outlook
- 21. Collaborating as a Team by Using SharePoint
- Creating a Project Tasks List on a SharePoint Site
- Exchanging Project Information with SharePoint
- Synchronizing Changes Between Project and SharePoint
- Opening and Viewing Connected Project Information
- Collaborating with Team Members on Task Updates
- Assigning Tasks to Team Members
- Updating Task Progress
- Updating Task Progress in SharePoint
- Updating Task Progress in Project
- VII. Managing Projects Across Your Enterprise
- 22. Understanding Enterprise Project Management
- 23. Administering Your Enterprise Project Management Solution
- Signing In and Out
- Configuring Project Server Security
- Administering the Enterprise Resource Pool
- Establishing the Enterprise Portfolio
- Setting Up Project Workflows
- Standardizing Enterprise Project Elements
- Setting Up Team Member Work Pages
- Managing Pages, Views, and Reports
- 24. Managing Enterprise Projects and Resources
- Connecting to Your Project Server
- Working with Enterprise Projects
- Following a Project Workflow
- Building Your Enterprise Project Team
- Finding Resources to Meet Your Needs
- Building Your Project Team in Project Professional
- Building Your Project Team in Project Web App
- Identifying Resource Attributes by Using Custom Enterprise Fields
- Using Generic Resources as Placeholders
- Adding a Team Assignment Pool to Your Project Resource List
- Finding Enterprise Resources That Meet Specific Criteria
- Review Resource Assignments and Availability
- Replacing an Existing Project Resource with an Enterprise Resource
- Matching an Existing Project Resource
- Matching and Replacing Generic Resources
- Proposing Tentative Resources
- Assigning Tasks to Enterprise Resources
- Finding Resources to Meet Your Needs
- Collaborating with Your Project Team
- 25. Participating on a Team Using Project Web App
- Getting Started with Project Web App
- Working with Your Assignments
- Submitting Text-Based Status Reports
- Logging Time by Using Timesheets
- Working with Issues and Risks
- Setting Up E-Mail Reminders and Outlook Tasks
- Managing Resources in Project Web App
- 26. Making Executive Decisions Using Project Web App
- 27. Managing and Analyzing Project Portfolios
- VIII. Customizing and Managing Project Files
- 28. Customizing Your View of Project Information
- Customizing Views
- Changing the Content of a View
- Creating a New View
- Saving a View
- Changing Text Formatting in Views
- Formatting a Gantt Chart View
- Modifying the Timescale
- Modifying a Network Diagram
- Modifying the Timeline
- Modifying the Team Planner
- Modifying the Resource Graph
- Modifying the Calendar
- Modifying a Sheet View
- Modifying a Usage View
- Customizing Tables
- Customizing Fields
- Working with Outline Codes
- Customizing Groups
- Customizing Filters
- Sharing Customized Elements Among Projects
- Customizing Views
- 29. Customizing the Project 2010 Interface
- 30. Automating Your Work with Macros
- 31. Standardizing Projects by Using Templates
- 32. Managing Project Files
- Saving Project Files
- Opening Project Files
- Saving and Opening with Different File Formats
- Comparing Project Plans Side by Side
- Safeguarding Your Project Files
- 28. Customizing Your View of Project Information
- IX. Appendixes
- D. Index to Troubleshooting Topics
- E. About the Authors
- Index
- About the Authors
- SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly
After you and your team have worked through the planning, executing, and controlling processes of the project, the final process is closing the project. At this point, you’ve fulfilled the goals of the project and it’s complete. In the closing stages of the project, you can analyze project performance with concrete data about schedule, cost, and resource use. You can also identify lessons learned and save acquired project knowledge.
Review your overall project and compare your baseline plan to your actual plan. You can review variances in the schedule, in costs, and in assignment work. Any large variances can help point out problem areas in the project. Some helpful reports for such analysis include the following:
Project Summary
Overbudget Tasks
Top-Level Tasks
Overbudget Resources
Milestones
Earned Value
Budget
To generate one of these reports, on the Project tab, in the Reports group, click Reports. Double-click Overview or Costs, and then double-click the name of the report.
Note
For more information about generating reports, see Generating the Right Reports.
Whether or not you continue to be involved in this type of project, others are likely to benefit from the experience and knowledge you gained. At the end of your project, gather your team together and conduct a “postmortem” session, in which you can objectively discuss what went well with the project and what could be improved next time.
It’s often helpful to have team members prepare notes in advance. For larger projects, you might find it practical to conduct a series of meetings with different groups of team members and stakeholders, perhaps those who were responsible for different aspects of the project.
Be sure to have a concrete method for recording the discussion points. After the session(s), compile the lessons learned report, including solutions to identified problem areas.
If the project plan is your repository for project-related documents, add your lessons-learned report to the closed project. You can embed the document in the plan or create a link to the document. If you’re using Microsoft SharePoint or working in an enterprise environment with Project Server 2010, you can add the report to the project’s document library.
Note
For more information about adding a document to a project, see Attaching Project Documentation. For information about using the document library, see Controlling Project Documents.
In addition to archiving the document with the rest of the project’s historical records, include it with your planning materials for the next project. Be sure to keep your solutions in the forefront so that you can continue to improve your project management processes.
Through the planning and tracking of your project, it’s likely that you’ve recorded a mass of valuable information about the following:
Task durations
Task and resource costs
Work metrics (units per hour completed, and so on)
You might want to collect information about planned or actual durations, work, and costs to use as standards for planning future projects.
Project Management Practices: Administrative Closure
As you complete each major milestone or phase, you probably receive formal acceptance of that phase by the sponsor or customer. The sponsor reviews the deliverables and checks that the scope and quality of work are completed satisfactorily, and then signs off the acceptance of that phase.
When you reach the end of the project, you obtain your final acceptance and signoff, which at this point should be a formality because the sponsor has been involved and has signed off on the interim deliverables all along.
This final project acceptance is part of the administrative closure of the project. Administrative closure also includes analyzing project success and effectiveness and archiving documents and results. At this point, contracts are closed and budget records are archived. Employees should be evaluated, and their skills in your organization’s resource pool should be updated to reflect the increase in skills and proficiencies they’ve gained as a result of working on this project.
A complete set of project records should make up the project archives, and these archives should be readily available as a reference for future similar projects.
These durations and work metrics can be included in a project template based on the closing project. Save the project plan as a project template for use by you or other project managers who will be working on a similar type of project in the future. In your template, you can remove actuals, resource names, and constraint dates, for example. But the tasks, durations, task dependencies, base calendars, and generic resources can be invaluable in a project template. In addition, any custom solutions you’ve developed—such as views, reports, filters, and macros—can also become a part of your template. Through the efficiencies you built into your project plan, you’re laying the groundwork for future efficiencies.
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