Clarifying Some Key Points

The following points are ones which people studying PRINCE2 don’t always get clear the first time around. Have a look through the section. If you read a sentence or two of an item and decide that you already know the point well, just skip the rest of that item and move on to the next one.

Having a closure stage . . . or not

PRINCE2 used to be very keen on having the closure work as just work that you carried out towards the end of the last delivery stage. Other approaches, such as the PRIME project management method and the Project Management Institute (PMI) approach have a dedicated closure stage. One of the improvements to the method in the 2009 edition of the PRINCE2 manual is that the door’s been left open to have a closure stage in a PRINCE2 project. That makes sense, because although products have been handed over, team members often still need to be on hand to make final adjustments and to assist operational users who are learning to use what the project has delivered. In larger projects, this can be a significant stage of some length. In the project to build Hong Kong airport – my favourite international destination – the support period lasted for some weeks after the move of operational flights to the new airport site at Chek Lap Kok. Project staff remained involved until they were sure that everything had settled down in this highly successful project.

Understanding follow-on actions

To be precise, this section is about follow-on action recommendations. The follow-on actions relate to things that the organisation is being asked to do after the project has shut down. The project is in no position to dictate to the organisation what it should or shouldn’t do, so the action is ‘recommended’. The Project Manager prepares the follow-on action recommendations and passes these to the Project Board, which in turn distributes them to the appropriate people in the organisation.

Follow-on action recommendations may include:

Suggested changes to project management procedures in the organisation.

Ongoing risk management actions concerned with the operational life of deliverables such as dangerous machinery.

Ongoing requirements for configuration management (version control) of working products – especially, but not solely, in engineering and IT environments.

Issues that were not dealt with in the project. For example, a team member may have had a great idea, but there wasn’t time to implement it during the project. The idea is passed forward as a follow-on action recommendation so that it isn’t forgotten. The organisation can then consider it for implementation as part of day-to-day work or add it to a future project.

In PRINCE2, the benefit reviews held after closure are, strictly speaking, follow-on actions, because the project has shut down and the review will be conducted by organisational staff who may or may not have been involved in the project.

Seeing why benefits reviews can come later

Most projects deliver business benefits such as higher sales, cost savings and staff time savings. These benefits may be seen – realised – at different points, as covered in Chapter 11 on the Business Case. One of those points is after the project. In some cases, it will be a while before the benefits build up to their full level or are clear enough to be measured.

An example of the need for a benefits review post project is with a project that introduces a new business procedure. When the products are handed over and the project closes down, staff are still unfamiliar with the new procedure and so are working more slowly than will be normal. It makes sense to measure the benefit six to eight weeks after the project. At that time, staff should be familiar with the new procedure and an accurate measure can be taken of just how much faster it is (hopefully) than the old one and what the saving in staff time is.

There may be more than one benefits review post project if, for example, different benefits are coming on stream at different times.

Updating the Benefits Review Plan

This is a slightly strange update in Closing a Project, because the manual refers to checking that the plan includes the reviews which are to happen post project. Checks aren’t exactly an update, and if post-project reviews were found to be missing it would mean that something had gone awry with the preparation and checking of the plan earlier in the project. If it’s sensible for the plan to be checked though, then why not the Business Case as well to ensure that the benefits section is clear and understandable for review staff to use? A bit confusing then, but for the exams just bear in mind that the Benefits Review Plan is ‘updated’.