Chapter 12 Closing the Project and Applying Professional Responsibility

THE PMP^® EXAM CONTENT FROM THE CLOSING PERFORMANCE DOMAIN COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING:

✓ Task 1: Obtain final acceptance of the project deliverables from relevant stakeholders in order to confirm that project scope and deliverables were achieved.

✓ Task 2: Transfer the ownership of deliverables to the assigned stakeholders in accordance with the project plan in order to facilitate project closure.

✓ Task 3: Obtain financial, legal, and administrative closure using generally accepted practices and policies in order to communicate formal project closure and ensure transfer of liability.

✓ Task 4: Prepare and share the final project report according to the communications management plan in order to document and convey project performance and assist in project evaluation.

✓ Task 5: Collate lessons learned that were documented throughout the project and conduct a comprehensive project review in order to update the organization’s knowledge base.

✓ Task 6: Archive project documents and materials using generally accepted practices in order to comply with statutory requirements and for potential use in future projects and audits.

✓ Task 7: Obtain feedback from relevant stakeholders using appropriate tools and techniques and based on the stakeholder management plan in order to evaluate their satisfaction.

✓ Knowledge and Skills:

• Archiving practices and statutes

• Compliance (statute/organization)

• Contract closure requirements

• Close-out procedures

• Feedback technique

• Performance measurement techniques (KPI and key success factors)

• Project review techniques

• Transition planning technique

Congratulations! You’ve made terrific progress, and after finishing this chapter you will be well equipped to take the Project Management Professional (PMP)^® exam.

The Closing process group, which is the last process group we’ll cover, has two processes: Close Project or Phase and Close Procurements. The Close Project or Phase process is concerned with verifying that the work of the project was completed correctly and to the stakeholders’ satisfaction. Close Procurements supports the Close Project or Phase process and also verifies that the work of the project was completed correctly and the deliverables accepted.

Once you’ve obtained the PMP^® designation, you have an obligation to maintain integrity, apply your subject matter and project management knowledge, and maintain the code of conduct published by the PMI. You’ll also be required to balance the interests and needs of stakeholders with the organization’s needs. The exam might include questions on any of these topics.

As a project manager, you’ll find yourself in many unique situations, different organizations, and possibly even different countries. Even if you never get involved in international project management, you will still come in contact with people from cultures and backgrounds different than yours. If you work as a contract project manager, you’ll be exposed to many different organizations; each will have its own culture and ways of doing things. You should always strive to act in a professional, courteous manner in these situations.

I’ll talk about each of these topics in this chapter.

Formulating Project Closeout

All good projects must come to an end, as the saying goes. Ideally, you’ve practiced all the topics I’ve talked about that have led up to this point, and you’ve delivered a successful project to the stakeholders and customers. You’ve also put some of the vital tools of project management into play—planning, executing, controlling, and communicating—to help you reach that goal.

But how do you know when a project has ended successfully? Delivering the product or service of the project doesn’t mean it has been completed satisfactorily. Remember back to the opening chapters, where I said a project is completed successfully when it meets stakeholders’ expectations and satisfies the goals of the project. During the Closing processes—Close Project or Phase and Close Procurements—you’ll document the acceptance of the product of the project with a formal sign-off and file it with the project records for future reference. The formal sign-off is the way stakeholders indicate that the goals have been met, that the project scope and deliverables were achieved, and that the project meets their expectations so the project ends.

Characteristics of Closing

A few characteristics are common to all projects during the Closing processes. One is that the probability of completing the project is highest during this process and risk is lowest. You’ve already completed the majority of the work of the project—if not all of the work—so the probability of not finishing the project is very low.

Stakeholders have the least amount of influence during the Closing processes, while project managers have the greatest amount of influence. Costs are significantly lower during this process because the majority of the project work and spending has already occurred. Remember those costly S curves we talked about in the Determine Budget process? This is where they taper off as project spending comes to an end.

One last common characteristic of projects during closing is that weak matrix organizations tend to experience the least amount of stress during the Closing processes. This is because, in a weak matrix organization, the functional manager assigns all tasks (project-related tasks as well) so the team members have a job to return to once the project is completed and there’s no change in reporting structure.

All projects do eventually come to an end. You’ll now examine a few of the reasons for project endings before getting into the Close Project or Phase and Close Procurements processes.

Project Endings

Projects come to an end for several reasons:

• They’re completed successfully.

• They’re canceled or killed prior to completion.

• They evolve into ongoing operations and no longer exist as projects.

Four formal types of project endings exist that you might need to know for the exam:

• Addition

• Starvation

• Integration

• Extinction

You’ll look at each of these ending types in detail in the following sections.

Addition

Projects that evolve into ongoing operations are considered projects that end because of addition; in other words, they become their own ongoing business unit. An example of this is the installation of an enterprise resource planning system. These systems are business management systems that integrate all areas of a business, including marketing, planning, manufacturing, sales, financials, and human resources. After the installation of the software, these systems can develop into their own business unit because ongoing operations, maintenance, and monitoring of the software require full-time staff. These systems usually evolve into an arm of the business reporting system that no one can live without once it’s installed.

A project is considered a project when it meets these criteria: It is unique, has a definite beginning and ending date, and is temporary in nature. When a project becomes an ongoing operation, it is no longer a project.

Starvation

When resources are cut off from the project or are no longer provided to the project, it’s starved prior to completing all the requirements, and you’re left with an unfinished project on your hands. Starvation can happen for any number of reasons:

• Other projects come about and take precedence over the current project, thereby cutting the funding or resources for your project.

• The customer curtails an order.

• The project budget is reduced.

• A key resource quits.

Resource starving can include cutting back or withholding human resources, equipment and supplies, or money. In any case, if you’re not getting the people, equipment, or money you need to complete the project, it’s going to starve and probably end abruptly.

In such cases, documentation becomes your best friend. Organizations tend to have short memories. As you move on to bigger and better projects, your memory regarding the specifics of the project will fade. Six months after the fact when someone important wonders why that project was never completed and begins the finger-pointing routine, the project documents will clearly outline the reasons the project ended early. That’s one of the reasons project documentation is such an important function. I’ll talk more about documenting project details shortly.

Integration

Integration occurs when the resources of the project—people, equipment, property, and supplies—are distributed to other areas in the organization or are assigned to other projects. Perhaps your organization begins to focus on other areas or other projects, and the next thing you know, functional managers come calling to retrieve their resources for other, more important things. Again, your project will come to an end due to lack of resources because they have been reassigned to other areas of the business or have been pulled from your project and assigned to another project.

Again, good documentation describing the circumstances that brought about the end of a project because of integration should be archived with the project records for future reference.

Extinction

This is the best kind of project end because extinction means the project was completed and accepted by the stakeholders. As such, it no longer exists because it had a definite ending date, the goals of the project were achieved, and the project was closed out.

Closing Out the Project

The key activity of Close Project or Phase is concerned with completing all the activities associated with closing out the project management processes in order to officially close out the project or phase. In this process, you will review the scope baseline and other project documents to make certain the work reflected in the documents is complete and accurate. The work of the project was accepted and validated in the Validate Scope process. Remember that the project scope is measured against the project management plan, so by this point in the project, the project management plan and associated project documents should be complete and up-to-date. For example, perhaps some scope change requests were implemented that changed some of the characteristics of the final product. The project information you’re collecting during this process should reflect the characteristics and specifications of the final product. Don’t forget to update your resource assignments as well. Some team members will have come and gone over the course of the project; you need to double-check that all the resources and their roles and responsibilities are noted.

Once the project outcomes are documented, you’ll request formal acceptance from the stakeholders or the customer. They’re also interested in knowing whether the product or service of the project meets the goals the project set out to accomplish. If your documentation is up-to-date, you’ll have the project results at hand to share with them.

The Close Project or Phase process is also responsible for analyzing the project management processes to determine their effectiveness and to document lessons learned concerning them. One of the other key functions of the Close Project or Phase process is to archive all project documents for historical reference and to perform administrative closure procedures for the project. This may include documenting the exit criteria for the project or phase, transferring the results of the phase or project to the operations area of the organization, and/or collecting project records and performing audits and lessons learned. You can probably guess that Close Project or Phase belongs to the Project Integration Management Knowledge Area since this process touches so many areas of the project.

Every project requires closure. According to the PMBOK^® Guide, the completion of each project phase requires project closure as well. Before we dive into the inputs of this process, let’s examine some of the administrative closure procedures you will perform as part of the project or phase closeout.

Administrative Closure Procedures

Administrative closure procedures involve collecting all the records associated with the project, performing a comprehensive analysis of the project success (or failure), documenting and gathering lessons learned, archiving project records, and updating the organization’s knowledge base. The project records may include legal, financial, procurement, and other administrative records. Keep in mind that when projects are performed under contract, the archiving of financial records is especially important. These records might need to be accessed if there are payment disputes, so you need to know where they are and how they were filed. Projects with large financial expenditures also require particular attention to the archiving of financial records for the same reasons. Financial information is especially useful when estimating future projects—so again, be sure to archive the information so it’s easily accessible.

All of these documents should be indexed for reference and stored in a safe place. Don’t forget to include electronic databases and electronic documents as part of your project archives as well. These records can be stored on a network drive or other data repository. When records are stored electronically, don’t forget that they are subject to your organization’s retention policies, and depending on the organization, they may also be subject to statutory requirements regarding their storage, retention, and destruction. These policies will describe when it is appropriate to archive and eventually delete the records.

Administrative closure procedures also document the project team members’ and stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities in performing this process. According to the PMBOK^® Guide, this should include the processes and methodologies for the following:

• Approval requirements of the stakeholders for project deliverables and changes to deliverables.

• Assuring and confirming that the project meets the requirements of the stakeholders, customers, and sponsor. This includes documenting necessary actions to verify that the deliverables have been accepted and exit criteria have been met.

• Assuring that all activities associated with transferring the product, service, or result to the operations area (or next phase of the project) are complete.

• Assuring and confirming that the exit criteria for the project are satisfied.

Next, we’ll look at the inputs of the Close Project or Phase process.

Close Project or Phase Inputs

The Close Project or Phase process gathers all the project records and verifies that they are up-to-date and accurate. According to the PMBOK^® Guide, the overall purpose of this process is to finalize all the activities associated with all of the project management process groups in order to formally complete the project or project phase.

The project records must correctly identify the final specifications of the product or service the project set out to produce. Close Project or Phase is the place to ensure that this information accurately reflects the true results of the project.

The inputs to the Close Project or Phase process are as follows:

• Project management plan

• Accepted deliverables

• Organizational process assets

I’ve talked about all of these inputs previously.

Close Project or Phase Tools and Techniques

The three tools and techniques of Close Project or Phase are expert judgment, analytical techniques, and meetings. When you’re conducting administrative closure activities, which we talked about earlier, the subject matter experts can help assure that the process is performed according to the organization’s and project management standards. Analytical techniques in this process might include regression analysis and/or trend analysis. Meetings in this process are used for final reviews, lessons learned, and closeout.

Close Project or Phase Outputs

Sometimes you’ll work on projects where everything just clicks, your project team functions at the performing stage, the customers and stakeholders are happy, and things just fall into place according to plan. I often find it difficult to perform Close Project or Phases on projects that have progressed particularly well, just because I don’t want them to end. Believe it or not, the majority of your projects can fall into this category if you practice good project management techniques and exercise those great communication skills.

The Close Project or Phase process has the following outputs:

• Final product, service, or result transition

• Organizational process assets updates

We’ll take a brief look at each in the following sections.

Final Product, Service, or Result Transition

The name of this output is somewhat misleading. This actually refers to the turnover of the product, service, or result of the project to the organization. This usually requires a formal sign-off (I’ll talk about that next), and in the case of a project performed on contract, it definitely requires a formal sign-off or receipt indicating acceptance of the project.

Formal acceptance includes distributing a notice of the acceptance of the product or service of the project by the stakeholders, customer, or project sponsor to stakeholders and customers. You should require formal sign-off indicating that those signing accept the product of the project. It’s important to note that you’ll want financial, legal, and administrative sign-off so that you can communicate formal project closeout and transfer liability to the owner of the product of the project. You will use the communications management plan as your guide in distributing the final project report and the notice of acceptance.

Organizational Process Assets Updates

The organizational process assets updates output is where the formal sign-off of the acceptance of the product is documented, collected, and archived for future reference. Documenting formal acceptance is important because it signals the official closure of the project, and it is your proof that the project was completed satisfactorily.

Another function of sign-off is that it kicks off the beginning of the warranty period. Sometimes project managers or vendors will warranty their work for a certain time period after completing a project. Projects that produce software programs, for example, might be warranted from bugs for a 30- or 60-day time frame from the date of implementation or acceptance. Typically in the case of software projects, bugs are fixed for free during the warranty period. Watch out, because users will try to squeeze new requirements into the “bug” category mold. If you offer a warranty, it’s critical that the warranty spells out exactly what is covered and what is not.

This is also where the other project records and files are collected and archived. This includes the project planning documents (for example, the project scope statement, budget, schedule, risk responses, and quality plan and baselines), change records and logs, issue logs, lessons learned, and so on.

Project or phase closure documents are included in this output. These include documentation showing that the project or phase is completed and that the transfer of the product of the project to the organization (or department responsible for ongoing maintenance and support) has occurred in accordance with the project plan. In the case of a phase completion, the transfer would be the official hand-off to the next phase of the project rather than to an operations or maintenance group. If your project is canceled or ends prematurely, you should document the reasons for its premature end as well as the procedures for transferring the completed and uncompleted deliverables.

Historical information and lessons learned are used to document the successes and failures of the project. You should collate all of the lessons learned throughout the project and hold one last comprehensive review of the project. As an example, lessons learned document the reasons specific corrective actions were taken, their outcomes, the causes of performance variances, unplanned risks that occurred, mistakes that were made and could have been avoided, and so on.

Unfortunately, sometimes projects do fail. You can learn lessons from failed projects as well as from successful projects, and you should document this information for future reference. Most project managers, however, do not document lessons learned. The reason for this is that employees don’t want to admit to making mistakes or learning from mistakes made during the project. They do not want their names associated with failed projects or even with mishaps on successful projects.

You and your management team will have to work to create an atmosphere of trust and assurance that lessons learned are not reasons for reprimanding or dismissing employees but are learning opportunities that benefit all those associated with the project. Lessons learned allow you to carry knowledge gained on this project to other projects you’ll work on going forward. They’ll also prevent repeat mistakes in the future if you take the time to review the project documents and lessons learned prior to undertaking your new project.

Post-implementation audits aren’t an official output, but they are a good idea. They go hand in hand with lessons learned because they examine the project from beginning to end and look at what went right and what went wrong. They evaluate the project goals and determine whether the product or service of the project satisfies the objectives. Post-implementation audits also examine the activities and project processes to determine whether improvements are possible on future projects.

Organizations might conduct post-implementation audits instead of lessons learned sessions. Documenting and gathering information during this procedure can serve the same function as lessons learned if you’re honest and include all the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let’s hope there’s very little ugly.

Closing Out the Procurements

Procurements have life cycles of their own—just like projects. I talked about the contract life cycles in Chapter 9, “Conducting Procurements and Sharing Information.” As such, procurements and contracts come to a close just as projects come to a close. As you might guess, there is a process that deals with procurement closings; it’s called Close Procurements.

The Close Procurements process is concerned with completing and settling the terms of the procurement. It supports the Close Project or Phase process because the Close Procurements process determines whether the work described in the procurement documentation or contract was completed accurately and satisfactorily. This is called product verification. Projects that have multiple deliverables may have procurements for some of the deliverables but not all. Obviously, this process applies only to those phases, deliverables, or portions of the project that were performed under some form of procurement.

Close Procurements is where you’ll update records to document the final results of the contract or agreement, close out open claims, and archive the procurement information for future reference. These records detail the final results of the work of the project. I’ll talk about the specifics of this when I cover the Close Procurements outputs.

Procurement documents might have specific terms or conditions for completion and closeout. You should be aware of these terms or conditions so that project closure isn’t held up because you missed an important detail. If you are not administering the procurement yourself, be certain to ask your procurement department whether there are any special conditions that you should know about so that your project team doesn’t inadvertently delay contract or project closure.

Close Procurements Inputs

The Close Procurements process has two inputs:

• Project management plan

• Procurement documents

I’ve discussed both these inputs before, but you should know a few more things about procurement documents for this process. Procurement documents include the contract itself (or other procurement documents) and all the supporting documents that go along with it. These might include things such as the WBS, the project schedule, change control documents, technical documents, financial and payment records, quality control inspection results, and so on. This information—along with all the other information gathered during the project—is indexed and filed once the project is closed out so that anyone considering a future project of similar scope can reference what was done.

Close Procurements Tools and Techniques

The Close Procurements process has three tools and techniques: procurement audits, procurement negotiations, and records management system. The records management system here serves the same function as the records management system I talked about in the discussion of the Control Procurements process in Chapter 9. Procurement audits are reviews of procurement processes to determine whether they are meeting the right needs and are being performed correctly and according to standards. The PMBOK^® Guide says procurement audits are concerned with reviewing the procurement process, starting with the Plan Procurement Management process through Close Procurements.

The primary purpose of the procurement audit is to identify lessons learned during the procurement process. Procurement audits examine the procurement process to determine areas of improvement and to identify flawed processes or procedures. This allows you to reuse the successful processes on other procurement items for this project, on future projects, or elsewhere in the organization. It also alerts you to problems in the process so that you don’t repeat them.

Procurement audits might be used by either the buyer or the vendor, or by both, as an opportunity for improvement. Documenting the lessons learned—including the successes and failures that occurred—allows you to improve other procurement processes currently underway on this project or other projects. It also gives you the opportunity to improve the process for future projects.

Procurement negotiations occur when using an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) technique due to disagreements about deliverables, payments, performance, and so on. Reaching a negotiated settlement through the aid of ADR techniques is the most favorable way to resolve the dispute.

Close Procurements Outputs

One of the purposes of the Close Procurements process is to provide formal notice to the seller—usually in written form—that the procurement is complete. The output of Close Procurements that deals with this is called closed procurements. This is a formal acceptance and closure of the procurement. It’s your responsibility as project manager to document the formal acceptance of the procurement. Many times the provisions for formalizing acceptance and closing the procurement are spelled out in the procurement documents.

If you have a procurement department that handles contract administration, they will expect you to inform them when the procurement is completed and will in turn follow the formal procedures to let the seller know it’s complete. However, you’ll still note the procurement completion in your copy of the project records.

The other output of Close Procurements is organizational process assets updates. This includes updating the procurement file, deliverables acceptance, and lessons learned. The procurement file is simply an indexed file of all the procurement records and supporting documents. These records should be indexed for easy reference and included as part of the project files in the Close Project or Phase process.

This process is your organization’s way of formally accepting the product of the project from the vendor and closing out the procurement. The deliverable acceptance portion of the organizational process assets updates includes the formal written notice from the buyer that the deliverables are acceptable and satisfactory or have been rejected. If the product or service does not meet expectations, the vendor will need to correct the problems before you issue a formal acceptance notice. Ideally, quality audits have been performed during the course of the project, and the vendor was given the opportunity to make corrections earlier in the process than the closing stage. It’s not a good idea to wait until the very end of the project and then spring all the problems and issues on the vendor at once. It’s much more efficient to discuss problems with your vendor as the project progresses because it provides the opportunity for correction when the problems occur.

Lessons learned include information and documentation about what worked well and what didn’t work well regarding the procurement processes. You can use this information on future projects to improve performance and prevent inefficiencies.

Celebrate!

I think it’s a good idea to hold a celebration at the conclusion of a successfully completed project or a successfully completed phase on a large project. The project team should celebrate their accomplishment, and you should officially recognize their efforts and thank them for their participation. Any number of ideas come to mind here—a party, a trip to a ball game, pizza and sodas at lunchtime. This shouldn’t be the only time you’ve recognized your team, as discussed during the Develop Project Team process, but now is the time to officially close the project and thank your team members. Even if no funds are available for a formal celebration, your heartfelt “thank you” can go a long way with the members of your team. It’s tough for team members to remain disgruntled, and it’s easier to revive them, when they know their efforts are appreciated.

A celebration helps team members formally recognize the project end and brings closure to the work they’ve done. It also encourages them to remember what they’ve learned and to start thinking about how their experiences will benefit them and the organization during the next project.

Releasing Project Team Members

Releasing project team members is not an official process. However, it should be noted that at the conclusion of the project, you will release your project team members, and they will go back to their functional managers or be assigned to a new project if you’re working in a matrix-type organization.

You will want to keep the functional managers or other project managers informed as you get closer to project completion so that they have time to adequately plan for the return of their employees. Start letting them know a few months ahead of time what the schedule looks like and how soon they can plan on using their employees on new projects. This gives the other managers the ability to start planning activities and scheduling activity dates.

In all the excitement of wrapping up the project, we shouldn’t forget about our stakeholders. Let’s take a look at balancing the stakeholders’ interests and assuring we’ve met their expectations in the next section.

Balancing Stakeholders’ Interests at Project Close

I know we discussed Manage Stakeholder Engagement in Chapter 9. Although stakeholder satisfaction is the key to project success and acceptance, I want to add some closing thoughts on this topic and discuss a few new concepts.

Projects are undertaken at the request of customers, project sponsors, executive managers, and others. You’ll recall that stakeholders are those who have something to gain or lose by implementing the project. As such, stakeholders have different interests and needs, and one of your jobs is to balance the needs of the stakeholders.

Customer satisfaction is probably the primary goal you’re striving for in any project. If your customer is satisfied, it means you’ve met their expectations and delivered the product or service they were expecting. You’ve got a winning combination when the customer is satisfied with the product, and you’ve also provided excellent customer service along the way. Satisfied customers tell others about your success and will most likely use your services in the future.

One of the key ways to ensure that customer satisfaction is achieved is to apply appropriate project management techniques to your project. This includes taking the time to discover all the requirements of the project and documenting them in the scope statement. You will find that stakeholders who have a clear understanding of the requirements and have signed off on them won’t suffer from faulty memory or pull the ever-famous “I thought that was included” technique. Take the time to define your requirements and get stakeholder sign-off. You can’t forget or fudge what’s written down.

At project closure, you will once again meet with the stakeholders to obtain their observations and feedback on the project processes and evaluate their satisfaction with the project results. The stakeholder management plan will be your guide for this meeting because it describes the strategies for encouraging stakeholder participation and the process for decision making. Together, you will examine if these processes were successful and document what worked well and what needs improvement on future projects.

In the following sections, I’ll discuss how to juggle the competing needs of stakeholders, how to handle the issues and problems with stakeholders, and finally, how to balance project constraints against stakeholder needs.

Competing Needs

Stakeholders come from all areas of the organization and include your customer as well. Because stakeholders do not all work in the same areas, they have competing needs and interests. One stakeholder’s concern on a typical IT project might take the form of system security issues, while another stakeholder is concerned about ease of use. As the project manager, you will have situations in which stakeholder needs compete with each other, and you’ll have to decide between them and set priorities. Sometimes you’ll be able to accommodate their needs, and sometimes you’ll have to choose. You want to examine the needs against the project objectives and then use your negotiation and communication skills to convince the stakeholders of priorities.

Individual stakeholders might or might not have good working relationships with other stakeholders. Because of this, office politics come into play. I advise you to stay away from the politics game but get to know your stakeholders. You’ll want to understand their business processes and needs in order to make decisions about stakeholder requirements.

Dealing with Issues and Problems

Problems will occur on your project—they’re part of the process. Throughout this book, I’ve talked about how to deal with problems and risks and how to use conflict resolution techniques in handling problems. Balancing stakeholder needs comes into play here also.

You’ll have to determine alternatives that will meet the key requirements of the project without jeopardizing the competing needs of stakeholders. Once you’re into the Executing processes of the project and beyond, redefining scope becomes less and less of an option. So your responsibility is to resolve issues and determine alternative solutions to problems as they occur without changing the original objectives of the project. Enlist the help of your project team members and stakeholders during these times. Use some of the techniques I talked about in Chapter 6, “Risk Planning,” such as brainstorming and the Delphi technique, to find solutions.

You might also have difficulty trying to make stakeholders understand your decision or the technical nature of a problem. Again, this is where communication skills help you immensely. Take the case of a technical problem that’s cropped up on your project. You should not expect your stakeholder to understand the technical aspects of rocket science if they work in the finance department, for example. It’s up to you to keep the explanation at a level they can understand without loading them down with technical jargon and specifications. Keep your explanations simple, yet don’t skip important details they’ll need to make decisions.

Balancing Constraints

Your toughest issues will almost always center on the triple constraints: time, cost, and scope. Because of the nature of the constraints, one of these is the primary driver, and one is the least important. Keep a close eye on stakeholders who want to switch the priority of the constraints for their own purposes. Let’s say the project sponsor already told you that time is the primary constraint. Another stakeholder tells you that a requirement of the project is being overlooked and quality is suffering. Be careful that the stakeholder isn’t trying to divert the primary constraint from time to quality to suit their own objectives.

We have officially closed out the project and hopefully satisfied our stakeholders’ expectations. We have also completed our study of all of the project management processes from Initiating to Closing. But there’s one more area you need to know about for the exam. We’ll look at it next.

Professional Responsibility

As a certified Project Management Professional, you are required to adhere to the PMI^® Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. You can find a copy of this code on the PMI^® website, http://www.pmi.org/.

You should read and understand this code because you will be agreeing to adhere to its terms as part of the certification process. The PMI^® Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct outlines four areas of focus:

• Responsibility

• Respect

• Fairness

• Honesty

You may find at least a few exam questions regarding professional responsibility on the exam, so we’ll look at each of these areas and a few others for good measure.

Responsibility

Responsibility is the act of making decisions that are for the good of the organization rather than ourselves, admitting our mistakes, being responsible for the decisions we make (or those we don’t make) and the consequences that result, along with other actions. We’ll look at several elements that fall within the responsibility arena.

Ensuring Integrity

As a project manager, one of your professional responsibilities is to ensure integrity of the project management process, the product, and your own personal conduct. I’ve spent the majority of this book discussing how to achieve project management integrity by following the project management processes.

Correctly applying the project management processes you’ve learned will ensure the integrity of the product. The effective execution of the Planning, Executing, and Monitoring and Controlling processes—including documenting scope, performing quality inspections, measuring performance, and taking corrective actions—will ensure that a quality product that satisfies the requirements of the stakeholders (and the project management plan) is produced. As you learned earlier, you will seek acceptance of the product from the stakeholders and customer during the Closing process group.

Accepting Assignments

This topic, as well as many of the others discussed in these sections, crosses two of the areas noted in the PMI^® Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct—responsibility and honesty. You should always honestly report your qualifications, your experience, and your past performance of services to potential employers, customers, PMI^®, and others. You should not knowingly accept assignments that are beyond your capabilities or experience.

Be honest about what you know and what you don’t know as it relates to your experience. For example, the Quality Management processes as described in the PMBOK^® Guide are used extensively in the manufacturing industry. However, the information technology field looks at quality issues in different ways. If you’re a project manager in the information technology field, you’ve probably never used control charts and cause-and- effect diagramming techniques. Don’t lead others to believe that you have used techniques you haven’t used or that you have experience you don’t have.

Emphasize the knowledge you do have and how you’ve used it in your specific industry, and don’t try to fudge it with processes and techniques you’ve never used. Potential clients and employers would much rather work with you and provide training where you might need it than think they’ve got someone fully experienced with the project or industry techniques needed for a project when they don’t.

If you’re working on contract or you’re self-employed, you have a responsibility to ensure that the estimates you provide potential customers are accurate and truthful. Clearly spell out what services you’re providing and let the customer know the results they can expect at the end of the project. Accurately represent yourself, your qualifications, and your estimates in your advertising and in person.

Laws and Regulations Compliance

This might seem obvious, but as a professional, you’re required to follow all applicable laws and rules and regulations that apply to your industry, organization, or project. This includes PMI^® organizational rules and policies as well. You should also follow any ethical standards and principles that might govern your industry or the state or country in which you’re working. Remember that rules or regulations you’re used to in the United States might or might not apply to other countries, and vice versa.

Confidential Information

Many project managers work for consulting firms where their services are contracted out to organizations that need their expertise for particular projects. If you work in a situation like this, you will likely come across information that is sensitive or confidential. Again, this might seem obvious, but as part of the PMI^® Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, you agree not to disclose sensitive or confidential information or use it in any way for personal gain.

Often when you work under contract, you’ll be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement. This agreement simply says that you will not share information regarding the project or the organization with anyone—including the organization’s competitors—or use the information for your personal gain.

However, you don’t have to work under contract to come into contact with sensitive or private information. You might work full-time for an organization or a government agency that deals with information regarding its customer base or citizens. For example, if you work for a bank, you might have access to personal account information. If you work for a government agency, you might have access to personal tax records or other sensitive material. It would be highly unethical and maybe even illegal to look up the account information of individuals not associated with the project at hand just to satisfy your own curiosity. In my organization, that is grounds for dismissal.

Company Data

Although it might seem obvious that you should not use personal information or an organization’s trade secrets for personal gain, sometimes the organization has a legitimate need to share information with vendors, governmental agencies, or others. You need to understand which vendors or organizations are allowed to see sensitive company data. In some cases, you might even need to help determine which individuals can have access to the data. When in doubt, ask.

Here are some examples. Maybe the company you’re working with has periodic mailings it sends to its customer base. If one of your project activities includes finding a new vendor to print the mailing labels, your organization might require the vendor to sign a nondisclosure agreement to guard the contents of the customer lists. Discovering just who should have access to this information might be tricky.

Another example involves data on citizens that is maintained by the government. You might think that because the data belongs to one agency of the government—say the Internal Revenue Service—any other agency of the government can have access to it. This isn’t the case. Some agencies are refused access to the data even though they might have good reason to use it. Others might have restricted access, depending on the data and the agency policy regarding it. Don’t assume that others should have access to data because it seems logical.

Most organizations require vendors or other organizations to sign nondisclosure agreements when the vendors or others will have access to sensitive company data. It’s your responsibility to ensure that the proper nondisclosure agreements are signed prior to releasing the data. The procurement department often handles this function.

Intellectual Property

You are likely to come into contact with intellectual property during the course of your project management career. Intellectual property includes items developed by an organization that have commercial value but are not tangible and copyrighted material such as books (including this one), software, and artistic works. It might also include ideas or processes that are patented. Or it might involve an industrial process, business process, or manufacturing process that was developed by the organization for a specific purpose.

Intellectual property is owned by the business or person who created it. You might have to pay royalties or ask for written permission to use the property. Intellectual property should be treated just like sensitive or confidential data. It should not be used for personal gain or shared with others who should not have access to it.

Respect

Respect involves several areas as well, including the way we conduct ourselves, the way we treat others, listening to other viewpoints, conducting ourselves in a professional manner, and so on. We’ll look at some of the elements of respect next.

Professional Demeanor

Acting in a professional manner is required of almost everyone who works in the business world. Although you are not responsible for the actions of others, you are responsible for your own actions and reactions. Part of acting professionally involves controlling yourself and your reactions in questionable situations. For example, a stakeholder or customer might lash out at you but have no basis for their outburst. You can’t control what they said or did, but you can control how you respond. As a professional, your concern for the project and the organization should take precedence over your concern for your own feelings. Therefore, lashing out in return would be unprofessional. Maintain your professional demeanor, and don’t succumb to shouting matches or ego competitions with others.

As project manager, you have a good deal of influence over your project team members. One of the items on the agenda at the project team kickoff meeting should be a discussion of where the team members can find a copy of organizational policies regarding conflict of interest, cultural diversity, standards and regulations, and customer service and standards of performance. Better yet, have copies with you that you can hand out at the meeting or have available the addresses of websites where they can find these documents.

When you see project team members acting out of turn or with less-than-desirable customer service attitudes, coach and influence those team members to conform to the standards of conduct expected by you and your organization. Your team members represent you and the project. As such, they should act professionally. It’s your job as the project leader to ensure that they do.

Reporting Ethics Violations

When you hold the PMP^® certification, one of the responsibilities that falls into this category is your responsibility to report violations of the PMP^® code of conduct. To maintain integrity of the profession, everyone who holds the PMP^® certification must adhere to the code of conduct that makes all of us accountable to each other.

When you know a violation has occurred and you’ve verified the facts, notify PMI^®. Part of this process—and a requirement of the code of conduct—is that you’ll verify that an ethics violation has occurred (in other words, don’t report bogus or unsubstantiated reports) and will assist PMI^® in the investigation by supplying information, confirming facts and dates, and so on. This includes anything listed as violations in the PMI^® Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, such as conflicts of interest, untruthful advertising, false reporting of project management experience and credentials, appearances of impropriety, and so on. This one calls for some judgment on your part, but it’s mostly based on common sense. For example, in most situations, a project manager with the PMP^® designation should not have a family member working on the project team reporting to them (unless they own and run a family business).

Cultural Awareness

More and more companies compete in the global marketplace. As a result, project managers with multinational experience are increasingly in demand. This requires a heightened awareness of cultural influences and customary practices of the country where they’re temporarily residing.

If you are used to working in the United States, for example, you know that the culture tends to value accomplishments and individualism. US citizens tend to be informal and call each other by their first names, even if they’ve just met. In some European countries, people tend to be more formal, using surnames instead of first names in a business setting, even when they know each other well. Their communication style is more formal than in the United States, and although they tend to value individualism, they also value history, hierarchy, and loyalty. The Japanese, on the other hand, tend to communicate indirectly and consider themselves part of a group, not as individuals. The Japanese value hard work and success, as most of us do.

One thing I’ve witnessed when working in foreign countries is US citizens trying to force their own culture or customs on those with whom they’re visiting or working. That isn’t recommended, and it generally offends those you’re trying to impress. Don’t expect others to conform to your way of doing things, especially when you’re in their country. You know the saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Although you might not want to take that literally, the intent is good. For example, a quick kiss on both cheeks is a customary greeting in many countries. If that is the case and it’s how you’re greeted, respond with the same.

Culture Shock

Working in a foreign country can bring about an experience called culture shock. When you’ve spent years acting certain ways and expecting normal, everyday events to follow a specific course of action, you might find yourself disoriented when things don’t go as you expected.

One of the ways you can avoid culture shock is to read about the country you’re going to work in before getting there. The Internet is a great resource for information such as this. Your local library is another place to research customs and acceptable practices in foreign countries.

When in doubt about a custom or what you should do in a given situation, ask your hosts or a trusted contact from the company you’ll be working with to help you. People are people all over the world, and they love to talk about themselves and their cultures. They’re also generally helpful, and they will respect you more for asking what’s expected rather than acting as though you know what to do when you clearly do not.

Diversity Training

Sometimes you might find yourself working with teams of people from different countries or cultures. Some team members might be from one country and some from another. The best way to ensure that cultural or ethical differences do not hinder your project is to provide training for all team members.

Team-building activities are ways to build mutual trust and respect and bond team members with differing backgrounds. Choose activities that are inoffensive and ones in which everyone can participate.

Diversity training makes people aware of differences between cultures and ethnic groups, and it helps them to gain respect and trust for those on their team. Provide training regarding the project objectives and the company culture as well.

Respecting Your Neighbors

Americans tend to run their lives at high speed and get right down to business when working with vendors or customers. It isn’t unusual for a businessperson to board a plane in the morning, show up at the client site and take care of business, and hop another flight to the next client site that night.

You’ll find that this is not that common in many other countries. People in other countries will often expect you to take time to get to know them first, building an atmosphere of trust and respect. Some cultures build relationships first and then proceed to business. Don’t expect to do that relationship building in a few hours. It could take several days, depending on the culture. They might even want you to meet their family and spend time getting to know them. Resist the urge to get right down to business if that’s not customary in the culture because you’ll likely spoil the deal or damage relationships past the point of repair.

Perceiving Experiences

All of us see the world through our own experiences. Your experiences are not someone else’s experiences; therefore, what you perceive about a situation might be very different from what others believe. Keep this in mind when it appears that a misunderstanding has occurred or that someone you’re working with doesn’t respond as you expect. This is especially true when you’re working with someone from another country. Always give others the benefit of the doubt and ask for clarification if you think there is a problem. Put your feelings in check temporarily, and remember that what you think the other person means is not necessarily as it appears.

Fairness

Fairness includes avoiding favoritism and discrimination against others, avoiding and reporting conflict of interest situations, and maintaining impartiality in a decision-making process. We’ll focus on conflict of interest in this section.

Conflict of Interest

The PMI^® Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct discusses your responsibility to report to the stakeholders, customers, or others any actions or circumstances that could be construed as a conflict of interest.

A conflict of interest is when you put your personal interests above the interests of the project or when you use your influence to cause others to make decisions in your favor without regard for the project outcome. In other words, your personal interests take precedence over your professional obligations, and you make decisions that allow you to personally benefit regardless of the outcome of the project. Let’s look at a few examples.

Associations and Affiliations

Conflicts of interest might include your associations or affiliations. For example, perhaps your brother-in-law owns his own construction company and you are the project manager who has just published an RFP. Your brother-in-law bids on the project and ends up winning the bid.

If you sit on the decision committee and don’t tell anyone about your association with the winning bidder, that is clearly a conflict of interest. If you influence the bid decision so that it goes to your brother-in-law, he benefits from your position. Alternatively, if you are not so fond of your brother-in-law, you could influence the decision against him, in which case he loses the bid. Either way, this is a conflict of interest. You put your personal interests—or in this case the interests of your associations—above the project outcome. Even if you did not influence the decision in any way, when others on the project discover the winning bidder is your brother-in-law, they will assume a conflict of interest occurred. This could jeopardize the awarding of the bid and your own position as well.

The correct thing to do in this case would be to, first, inform the project sponsor and the decision committee that your brother-in-law intends to bid on the project. Second, refrain from participating on the award-decision committee so as not to unduly influence others in favor of your brother-in-law. Last, if you’ve done all these things and your brother-in-law still wins the bid, appoint someone else in your organization to administer the contract and make the payments for the work performed by him. Also, make certain you document the decisions you make regarding the activities performed by him and keep them with the project files. The more documentation you have, the less likely someone can make a conflict of interest accusation stick.

Vendor Gifts

Some professionals work in situations where they are not allowed to accept gifts in excess of certain dollar amounts. This might be driven by company policy, the department manager’s policy, and so on. I have worked in organizations where it was considered a conflict of interest to accept anything from a vendor, including gifts (no matter how small), meals, or even a cup of coffee. Vendors and suppliers often provide their customers and potential customers with lunches, gifts, ball game tickets, and the like. It’s your responsibility to know whether a policy exists that forbids you from accepting these gifts. It’s also your responsibility to inform the vendor if they’ve gone over the limit and you are unable to accept the gift.

The same situation can occur here as with the brother-in-law example earlier. If you accept an expensive gift from a vendor and later award that vendor a contract or a piece of the project work, it looks like and probably is a conflict of interest. This violates PMI^® guidelines and doesn’t look good for you personally either.

Don’t accept gifts that might be construed as conflicts of interest. If your organization does not have a policy regarding vendor gifts, set limits for yourself depending on the situation, the history of gift acceptance by the organization in the past, and the complexity of the project. It’s always better to decline a gift you’re unsure about than to accept it and later lose your credibility, your reputation, or your PMP^® status because of bad judgment.

Stakeholder Influence

Another potential area for conflict of interest comes from stakeholders. Stakeholders are usually folks with a good deal of authority and important positions in the company. Make certain you do not put your own personal interests above the interests of the project when you’re dealing with powerful stakeholders. They might have the ability to promote you or reward you in other ways. That’s not a bad thing—but if you let that get in the way of the project or let a stakeholder twist your arm with promises of rewards, you’re getting mighty close to a conflict of interest. Always weigh your decisions with the objectives of the project and the organization in mind—not your own personal gain.

Keep in mind that you might not always be on the receiving end of the spectrum. You should not offer inappropriate gifts or services or use confidential information you have at your disposal to assist others because this can also be considered a conflict of interest.

Honesty

Honesty can include a lot of topics: reporting the truth regarding project status, being honest about your own experience, not deceiving others, not making false statements, and so on.

One of the aspects of honesty includes your truthfulness about your PMP^® application and certification, your qualifications, and the continuing reports you provide to PMI^® to maintain your certification. Let’s look at a few others.

Personal Gain

Honesty involves not only information regarding your own background and experience but information regarding the project circumstances as well. For example, let’s say you’re a project manager working on contract. Part of your compensation consists of a bonus based on total project billing. Now, let’s suppose your project is finishing sooner than anticipated, and this means your personal profit will decrease by $1,500. Should you stretch the work to meet the original contracted amount so that your personal bonus comes in at the full amount even though your project team is finished? I think you know the answer is of course not.

Your personal gain should never be a consideration when billing a customer or working on a project. Personal gain should never be a factor in any project decision. If the project finishes sooner than planned, you should bill the customer according to the terms of the procurement agreement. Compromising the project for the sake of your personal gain shows a lack of integrity, which could ultimately cost you your PMP^® status and even your job.

Truthful Reporting

As a project manager, you are responsible for truthfully reporting all information in your possession to stakeholders, customers, the project sponsor, and the public when required. Always be up front regarding the project’s progress.

Tell the truth regarding project status, even when things don’t look good. Stakeholders will likely go to great lengths to help you solve problems or brainstorm solutions. Sometimes, though, the call needs to be made to kill the project. This decision is usually made by the project sponsor or the stakeholders based on your recommendation and predictions of future project activities. Don’t skew the reporting to prevent stakeholders from making this decision when it is the best solution based on the circumstances.

Truthful reporting is required when working with the public as well. When working in situations where the public is at risk, truthfully report the facts of the situation and what steps you’re taking to counteract or reduce the threats. I recommend you get approval from the organization regarding public announcements prior to reporting the facts. Many organizations have public relations departments that will handle this situation for you.

Role Delineation Study

In addition to the areas covered in the PMI^® Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, you should be aware of four other focus areas that PMI^® discusses in its role delineation study. This study was published in PMI^®’s publication Project Management Professional (PMP^®) Examination Specification. The four focus areas are as follows:

• Ensure personal integrity and professionalism.

• Contribute to the project management knowledge base.

• Enhance personal professional competence.

• Promote interaction among team members and other stakeholders.

Throughout this chapter, I’ve covered most of the concepts surrounding these focus areas with the exception of contributing to the project management knowledge base. We’ll look at that topic next.

Applying Professional Knowledge

Professional knowledge involves the knowledge of project management practices as well as specific industry or technical knowledge required to complete an assignment.

As a PMP^® credential holder, you should apply project management knowledge to all your projects. Take the opportunity to educate others by keeping them up-to-date on project management practices, training your team members to use the correct techniques, informing stakeholders of the correct processes, and then sticking to those processes throughout the course of the project. This isn’t always easy, especially when the organization doesn’t have any formal processes in place. But once the stakeholders see the benefits of good project management practices, they’ll never go back to the “old” way of performing their projects.

One way to apply professional knowledge is to become and remain knowledgeable in project management best practices techniques. I’ll cover this topic next, along with how to become a PMI^® education provider and the importance of having industry knowledge.

Project Management Knowledge

Project management is a growing field. Part of the responsibility when you hold the PMP^® designation is to stay abreast of project management practices, theories, and techniques. You can do this in many ways, one of which includes joining a local PMI^® chapter. There are hundreds of local chapters throughout the United States and in other countries as well. You can check the PMI^® website to find a chapter near you.

Chapter meetings give you the opportunity to meet other project managers, find out what techniques they’re using, and seek advice regarding your project. Usually, guest speakers appear at each chapter meeting and share their experiences and tips. Their stories are always interesting, and they give you the opportunity to learn from someone else’s experiences and avoid making wrong turns on your next project. You might have a few stories of your own worth sharing with your local chapter. Volunteer to be a speaker at an upcoming meeting, and let others learn from your experiences.

One of the things you’ll get when you join the PMI^® organization and pay your yearly dues is its monthly magazine. This publication details real-life projects and the techniques and issues project managers have to deal with on those projects. Reading the magazine is a great way to learn new project management techniques or reinforce the information you already know. You might discover how to apply some of the knowledge you’ve already learned in more efficient ways as well.

PMI^® offers educational courses through its local chapters and at the national level as well. These courses are yet another way for you to learn about project management and meet others in your field.

Education Providers

PMI^® has a program that allows you or your organization to become a Registered Education Provider (REP). This enables you—once you’re certified—to conduct PMI^® - sanctioned project management training, seminars, and conferences. The best part is that your attendees are awarded professional development units (PDUs) for attending the training or seminar. As a PMP^® credential holder, and especially as an REP, you have a responsibility to the profession and to PMI^® to provide truthful information regarding the PMI^® certification process, the exam applications, the PDU requirements, and so on. Keep up to date on PMI’s certification process by periodically checking the website.

Industry Knowledge

Contributing and applying professional knowledge goes beyond project management experience. You likely have specific industry or technical experience as well. Part of applying your professional knowledge includes gaining knowledge of your particular industry and keeping others informed of advances in these areas.

Information technology has grown exponentially over the past several years. It used to be that if you specialized in network operations, for example, it was possible to learn and become proficient in all things related to networks. Today that is no longer the case. Each specialized area within information technology has grown to become a knowledge area in and of itself. Many other fields have either always had individual specialties or just recently experienced this phenomenon, including the medical field, bioengineering, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals, to name a few. You need to stay up-to-date regarding your industry so that you can apply that knowledge effectively. Today’s fast-paced advances can leave you behind fairly quickly if you don’t stay on top of things.

Earlier in the book, I mentioned that as a project manager you are not required to be a technical expert, and that still holds true. But it doesn’t hurt to stay abreast of industry trends and knowledge in your field and have a general understanding of the specifics of your business. Again, you can join industry associations and take educational classes to stay on top of breaking trends and technology in your industry.

Understanding How This Applies to Your Next Project

Closing out the project should always include a formal sign-off (from the project sponsor and key stakeholders at a minimum) that the work of the project is acceptable and complete. You’ve probably experienced, as I have, stakeholders with short-term memory lapses. For example, I’ll get to the end of the project and find that a stakeholder has a list of additional requirements longer than their arm. Some of this goes back to ensuring that requirements are accurately defined during the Planning processes and that ongoing communication regarding project status, along with feedback from the stakeholders, is occurring on a regular basis. Another key here is making certain you are managing stakeholder expectations throughout the project. You might indeed have identified all the requirements and accurately documented the objective of the project. However, if the stakeholder had expectations that weren’t captured or that took shape after the work of the project began, you could end up with a very unhappy stakeholder on your hands and, potentially, a failed project. In my experience, stakeholder expectations tend to stray midway through the project. That’s because they are beginning to see nearly completed deliverables and new possibilities for the product are developing that weren’t thought of during the Planning stage. It’s similar to buying a new house based on blueprints and then going on that first walk-through when the framing is finished. It’s during walk-through that you think, “Gee, I thought that closet was bigger than this.” Tune into what your stakeholders are saying and get at the basis of their questions (dig deep) so that there are no hidden expectations and you’re able to manage any new expectations that pop up.

The professional responsibility section of this chapter can easily be boiled down to the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I wish I could tell you that everything I talked about here is practiced by all project managers everywhere. Unfortunately, you’ve likely read, as I have, the endless stories in the news about corporate execs acting in their own best interest rather than that of their organizations. Project managers make the news as well, especially when they’re working on projects that involve public funds or charitable organizations. In my humble opinion, ignoring the practices and advice in this chapter isn’t worth the damage it might cause to my organization, to the project, or to my career.

I’d also add that if your first thought on a new project is what a great résumé builder it’s going to be for you and how you’ll likely score that next big promotion after the project is complete, you’ve started off on the wrong foot. Although I’m the first to admit big projects (when they are executed well and satisfy the stakeholder expectations) are résumé builders, it’s the wrong reason to take on a project. Consider your experience level and how and what you’ll be able to contribute to the project to make it a success. It’s okay if the project is a stretch for you—you can’t grow your experience without taking on more complex projects as your career progresses. But also be wise enough to know when you might be in over your head.

There’s no substitute for integrity and honesty when conducting your projects. Once you’ve tarnished your integrity, whether intentionally or not, it’s almost impossible to regain the trust of your stakeholders and management staff. Because of this, I’m never afraid of telling anyone, “I don’t know,” but I always follow it up with, “But I’ll find out.” You’re a project manager, not a miracle worker. No one expects you to have all the answers any more than they expect you to perform every single task on the project.

I had the unfortunate experience of being instructed to lie about project status and to purposely withhold project information from oversight boards. I spent a few sleepless nights worrying about where I’d find my next job because I immediately disobeyed those orders and reported the truth. I knew it would cost me my job. But I also knew it was better for me to lose the job than to compromise my integrity. As it turned out, I found a new job quickly. In retrospect, if I had not left the position when I did, my reputation would have taken a hit—not because of anything I had done but through association with the people on the project who compromised when they shouldn’t have.

I hope you’ve found this study guide helpful both for your studies for the PMP^® exam and for your next project. Thank you for spending some time with me in the pages of this book. I wish you the best of luck in your project management endeavors.

Summary

Project closure is the most often neglected process of all the project management processes. The two processes in the Closing process group are Close Project or Phase and Close Procurements. The four most important tasks of closure are as follows:

• Checking the work for completeness and accuracy

• Documenting formal acceptance

• Disseminating project closure information

• Archiving records and lessons learned

Close Project or Phase involves analyzing the project management processes to determine their effectiveness and to document lessons learned concerning them. It also involves archiving all project documents for historical reference and performing administrative closure procedures for the project. Documenting the formal acceptance of the project product is an important aspect of project closure as well because this ensures that the project scope, compared to the project management plan, is complete and accurate and meets the exit criteria. Ultimately, you want to assure that the stakeholder or customer is satisfied with the work of the project and that it meets their needs.

Projects come to an end in one of four ways: addition, starvation, integration, or extinction. Addition is when projects evolve into their own business unit. Starvation happens because the project is starved of its resources. Integration occurs when resources are taken from the existing project and dispersed back into the organization or assigned to other projects. Extinction is the best ending because the project was completed, accepted, and closed.

Close Project or Phase is performed at the end of each phase of the project as well as at the end of the project. Close Project or Phase involves documenting formal acceptance and disseminating notice of acceptance to the stakeholders, customer, and others. All documentation gathered during the project and collected during this process is archived and saved for reference purposes on future projects.

Close Procurements is concerned with settling the contract and completing the contract according to its terms. Its primary outputs include the contract file and formal acceptance and closure (both are components of the organizational process assets updates).

Lessons learned document the successes and failures of the project and of the procurement processes. Many times lessons learned are not documented because staff members do not want to assign their names to project errors or failures. You and your management team need to work together to assure employees that lessons learned are not exercises used for disciplinary purposes but benefit both the employee and the organization. Documenting what you’ve learned from past experiences lets you carry this forward to new projects so that the same errors are not repeated. It also allows you to incorporate new methods of performing activities that you learned on past projects.

Project management professionals are responsible for reporting truthful information about their PMP^® status and project management experience to prospective customers, clients, employers, and PMI^®. As a project manager, you’re responsible for the integrity of the project management process and the product. In all situations, you are responsible for your own personal integrity.

Personal integrity means adhering to an ethical standard. As part of your PMP^® designation, you’ll be required to adhere to the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct established by PMI^®. Part of this code involves avoiding putting your own personal gain above the project objectives.

As a professional, you should strive to maintain honesty in project reporting. You’re required to abide by laws, rules, and regulations regarding your industry and project management practices. You should also report any instance that might appear to be a conflict of interest. It’s always better to inform others of an apparent conflict than to have it discovered by others and have your methods called into question after the fact.

You will likely come across confidential information or intellectual property during your project management experiences. Respect the use of this information and always verify who might have permission to access the information and when disclosures are required.

Stakeholders have competing needs and business issues and as such will sometimes cause conflict on your project. You will be required to balance the needs and interests of the stakeholders with the project objectives.

Many project managers today are working in a global environment. It’s important to respect and understand the cultural differences that exist and not try to impose your cultural beliefs on others. Culture shock is an experience that occurs when you find yourself in an unfamiliar cultural environment. Training is a good way to provide project team members with relationship management techniques regarding cultural and ethnic differences.

Exam Essentials

Be able to name the primary activity of the Closing processes. The key activity of these processes is concerned with completing all the activities associated with closing out the project management processes in order to officially close out the project or phase.

Be able to describe when the Close Project or Phase process is performed. Close Project or Phase is performed at the close of each project phase and at the close of the project.

Be able to define the purpose of lessons learned. The purpose of lessons learned is to describe the project successes and failures and to use the information learned on future projects.

Be able to name the publication that describes the ethical standards to which PMP^® credential holders are required to adhere. The ethical standards PMP^® credential holders are required to adhere to are described in the PMI^® Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

Describe the areas in which PMP^® credential holders must apply professional knowledge. PMP^® credential holders must apply professional knowledge in the areas of project management practices, industry practices, and technical areas.

Know the key activity that ensures customer satisfaction. The key activity that ensures customer satisfaction is documenting project requirements and meeting them.

Define how multinational project managers must manage relationships. Multinational project managers manage relationships by building relationships based on mutual trust and acceptance and by recognizing and respecting diverse cultures and ethnic beliefs.

Review Questions

You can find the answers to the review questions in Appendix A.

1. You are the project manager for a top-secret software project for an agency of the United States government. Your mission—should you choose to accept it—is to complete the project using internal resources. Finding contractors with top-secret clearances takes quite a bit of time, and waiting for clearances would jeopardize the implementation date. Your programmers are 80 percent of the way through the programming and testing work when your agency appoints a new executive director. Slowly but surely your programmers are taken off this project and reassigned to the executive director’s hot new project. Which of the following types of project ending is this?

A. Starvation

B. Extinction

C. Addition

D. Integration

2. You are a project manager for Cinema Snicker Productions. Your company specializes in producing comedy films for the big screen. Your latest project has just been canceled because of budget cuts. Which of the following statements is true?

A. This project ended due to starvation because the funding was cut off.

B. This project ended due to integration because the resources were distributed elsewhere.

C. This project ended due to starvation because the resources were distributed elsewhere.

D. This project ended due to integration because the funding was cut off.

3. You are a project manager for Cinema Snicker Productions. Your company specializes in producing comedy films for the big screen. Your latest project has just been completed and accepted. You’ve been given your next project, which starts right away. Which of the following statements is true?

A. This project ended due to extinction because it was completed and accepted.

B. This project ended due to integration because it was completed and accepted and the project manager moved on to a new project.

C. This project ended due to addition because it was completed, accepted, and archived into the company’s catalog of available films.

D. This project ended due to integration because it was completed and accepted.

4. You are a project manager for Dutch Harbor Consulting. Your latest project involves the upgrade of an organization’s operating system on 236 servers. You performed this project under contract. You are in the Close Procurements process and know that you should document and file which of the following?

A. Administrative closure procedures

B. Close Procurements procedures

C. Formal acceptance

D. Product verification

5. You are a project manager for Dutch Harbor Consulting. Your latest project involves the upgrade of an organization’s operating system on 236 servers. You performed this project under contract. You are in the Close Procurements process and have reviewed the contracting process to identify lessons learned. What is the name of the tool and technique you will use to perform this function?

A. Procurement audits

B. Performance reviews

C. Performance audits

D. Procurement reviews

6. Your project was just completed. Because of some unfortunate circumstances, the project was delayed, causing cost overruns at the end of the project. Which of the following statements is true?

A. You should document the circumstances as lessons learned.

B. You should pay particular attention to archiving the financial records for this project.

C. Your project ended because of starvation because of the cost overruns.

D. You should document the circumstances surrounding the project completion during the Scope Verification process.

7. Procurement audits review which of the following?

A. The procurement processes from Plan Procurement Management through Close Procurements

B. The procurement processes from Plan Procurement Management through Control Procurements

C. The Plan Procurement Management and Conduct Procurements processes

D. The procurement processes from Plan Procurement Management through Close Project or Phase process

8. As a project manager, you’re responsible for maintaining and ensuring integrity for all of the following except which one?

A. Personal integrity of others

B. Project management process

C. Personal integrity

D. Product integrity

9. You are a project manager working on contract. You’ve performed earned value analysis and discovered that the project will be completed on time and under the original estimated amount. This means the profit to your company will decrease, as will your personal bonus. Which of the following should you do?

A. Add activities to the project to increase the cost enough to meet the original estimated amount.

B. Tell the customer you’re adding requirements to the project that were originally cut because of cost constraints.

C. Upon completion, inform the customer the project has come in under budget.

D. Bill the customer for the full amount of the contract because this was the original agreed-on price.

10. You are a project manager for a manufacturing firm that produces Civil War–era replicas and memorabilia. You discover a design error during a test production run on your latest project. Time is a critical constraint on this project. Which of the following is the most likely response to this problem?

A. Reduce the technical requirements so that the error is no longer valid.

B. Go forward with production and ignore the error.

C. Go forward with production, but inform the customer of the problem.

D. Develop alternative solutions to address the error.

11. You are a project manager for a telecommunications firm. You’re working on a project that entails upgrading technical hardware and equipment. The estimated cost of the hardware and equipment is $1,725,000. You are reviewing products from three different vendors. One of the competing vendors invites you to lunch. What is the most appropriate response?

A. Thank them, but let them know this could be a conflict of interest since you haven’t made a decision about which vendor you’re going to choose.

B. Thank them, and decline. You know this could be considered personal gain, which could call your integrity into question.

C. Thank them, and accept. You don’t believe there is a conflict of interest or a personal integrity issue.

D. Thank them, and decline. You believe this could be a conflict of interest on the part of the vendor, and you don’t want to encourage that behavior.

12. You are a project manager for a telecommunications firm. You’re working on a project that entails upgrading technical hardware and equipment. The estimated cost of the hardware and equipment is $1,725,000. You are reviewing products from three vendors. One of the vendors offers you and your family the use of the company yacht for the upcoming three- day weekend. What is the most appropriate response?

A. Thank them, and accept. You don’t believe there is a conflict of interest or an integrity issue at stake.

B. Thank them, and decline. You know this could be considered personal gain, which could call your integrity into question.

C. Thank them, and accept. Immediately report your actions to the project sponsor so that your motives are not called into question after the fact.

D. Thank them, and decline. You know this could be considered an integrity issue on the part of the vendor.

13. You are a project manager working on contract with a company in a foreign country. At the project kickoff meeting, you are given an expensive-looking gift. The person who presented this to you said that it is customary in their country to give their business partners gifts. What is the most appropriate response?

A. Thank them, and decline. Explain that this is considered personal gain, which is unacceptable in your country.

B. Thank them, and accept. You don’t believe there is a conflict of interest or an integrity issue at stake.

C. Thank them, and decline. Explain that this is considered a conflict of interest, which is unacceptable in your country.

D. Thank them, and accept because you know that it would be considered offensive to decline the gift in their culture. Immediately report the acceptance of the gift to the appropriate parties at your company so that your actions are not called into question later.

14. Life seems to be going very well for your close friend, a project manager, who like you has PMP^® certification. She has taken a trip to France, purchased a new car, and stocked her wine cellar with a couple dozen expensive bottles of wine, all within the last six months. After a few cocktails one evening, she tells you her secret. The vendor she’s working with on the $4 billion project she’s managing has given her all of these items as gifts. Which scenario is the most appropriate?

A. You tell your friend these gifts probably aren’t appropriate and leave it at that.

B. You and your friend have a long conversation about the gifts, and she decides to return them (with the exception of the trip) and not accept any more gifts in the future.

C. You’re happy for your friend and say nothing.

D. Your friend doesn’t see a problem with accepting these gifts at all. You know this is a conflict-of-interest situation and should be reported as an ethical violation.

15. As a project manager, you know that the most important activity to ensure customer and stakeholder satisfaction is which of the following?

A. Documenting and meeting the requirements

B. Documenting and meeting the performance measurements

C. Reporting changes and updating the project plan and other project documents where appropriate

D. Reporting project status regularly and in a timely manner

16. Your upcoming project includes project team members from a foreign country. To make certain that cultural differences don’t interfere with team performance, thereby affecting the success of the project, your first course of action is to do which of the following?

A. Provide diversity training to all the team members.

B. Co-locate the project team.

C. Perform team-building exercises.

D. Inform the team members of the organization’s rules and standards.

17. You are a contract project manager working with the State of Bliss. Your latest project involves rewriting the Department of Revenue’s income tax system. One of the key stakeholders is a huge movie buff, and she has the power to promote you into a better position at the conclusion of this project. She has discovered that one of her favorite superstars lives in the State of Bliss and, therefore, must file income tax returns in that state. She asks you to look up the account of this movie star. What is the most appropriate response?

A. Report her to the management team.

B. Refuse to comply with the request, citing conflict of interest and violation of confidential company data.

C. Look up the information she has requested. Because the data is considered part of the project, there is no conflict of interest.

D. You believe that tax records are public information, so you comply with the request.

18. You are a contract project manager working with the State of Bliss. Your latest project involves rewriting the Department of Revenue’s income tax system. As project manager, you have taken all the appropriate actions regarding confidentiality of data. One of the key stakeholders is a huge movie buff, and she has the power to promote you into a better position at the conclusion of this project. She’s reviewing some report data that just happens to include confidential information regarding one of her favorite movie superstars. What is the most appropriate response?

A. Report her to the management team.

B. Request that she immediately return the information, citing conflict of interest and violation of confidential company data.

C. Do nothing, because she has the proper level of access rights to the data and this information showed up unintentionally.

D. Request that she immediately return the information until you can confirm that she has the proper level of access rights to the data.

19. You are a project manager with several years of experience in project management. You’ve accepted your first project in a foreign country. You’ve been in the country a week or two and are experiencing some disorientation. This is known as which of the following?

A. Co-location

B. Diversity shock

C. Global culturing

D. Culture shock

20. You are a project manager for a software manufacturing firm. The project you just finished created a new software product that is expected to become a number-one seller. All prerelease of software is handled through the marketing department. A friend of yours, who is a certified software instructor, asks you for a copy of the software prior to the beta release so they can become familiar with it. What is the most appropriate response?

A. Decline the request because the software is the intellectual property of the company.

B. Ask them to sign a nondisclosure agreement before releasing a copy of the software.

C. Decline the request because you stand to gain from this transaction by receiving free training.

D. Because your friend is certified to teach your company’s brand of software, provide them with a copy of the software.