Planning ahead for your project’s closure

If you wait until the end of your project to start thinking in detail about its closure, it may be too late to gather all the necessary information and resources. Instead, start planning for your project’s completion at the same time you prepare your initial project plan by doing the following (see Chapter 1 for details of what goes into the project plan):

• Describe your project objectives completely and clearly and identify all relevant objective measures and specifications. If one of the project objectives is to change an existing situation, describe that situation before you perform the project so you have a comparative basis for assessment at the end of your project.

• Prepare a checklist of everything you must do before you can officially close your project. Here are some examples of closure items to include on your checklist:

  • Complete any unfinished project activities.
  • Complete all required deliverables (including product documentation, if applicable).
  • Obtain all necessary acceptances and approvals of project results, including those of the client(s).
  • Assess the extent to which the project results met expectations.
  • Perform all required administrative tasks.
  • Terminate all related contracts for goods and services.
  • Transition team members to their new assignments.
  • Ensure that all project documentation and deliverables are archived in the appropriate storage locations.

  For each item on the project closure checklist, specify who will perform it, when it will be done, and what resources will be required.

• Include closure activities in your project plan. In your project’s work breakdown structure (WBS), specify all activities you’ll have to perform to close out your project and then plan for sufficient time and resources to perform them (see Chapter 6 for more on the WBS).

Updating your initial closure plans when you’re ready to wind down the project

Encourage your team members to consider the closing-the-project stage of your project to be a separate assignment with its own objectives, tasks, and resource requirements (see Chapter 1 for more on the closing-the-project stage). As you complete the main project’s work, review and update the preliminary closure plans you developed in your initial project plan (see the preceding section for details on these preliminary plans).

Charging up your team for the sprint to the finish line

As team members work hard to fulfill project obligations, their focus often shifts from accomplishing the project’s overall objectives to completing their individual assignments. In addition, other audiences who were initially very interested in the project’s results may become involved with other priorities and activities as the project continues (which means they likely lose interest and enthusiasm for your project). However, successful project completion requires a coordinated effort by all key participants.

To reinforce your team’s focus and interest, do the following:

• Remind people of the value and importance of the project’s final results. Frequently discuss the benefits the organization will realize from your project’s final results as well as the individual benefits your team members will gain. People are more likely to work hard to successfully complete a project when they realize the benefits they’ll achieve by doing so.
• Call your team together and reaffirm your mutual commitment to bring the project to successful completion. Discuss why you feel the project is important and describe your personal commitment to completing it successfully. Encourage other people to make similar commitments. People overcome obstacles and perform difficult assignments more effectively when they’re committed to succeed.
• Monitor final activities closely and give each team member frequent feedback on performance. Set up frequent milestones and progress reporting times with team members. Staying in close communication with team members provides you and them up-to-date info on how close you are to final closure. This close contact also provides the opportunity to identify and deal with any issues and problems that may arise throughout the course of your project.
• Be accessible to all team members. Make yourself available when team members want to confer with you. Consider having lunch periodically with them and letting them see you around their office area. Being accessible affirms your interest in and the importance of their work.

For more tips on how to keep your team motivated, turn to Chapter 16.

Preparing for the evaluation throughout the project

Take steps in each stage of your project’s evolution (starting the project, organizing and preparing, carrying out the work, and closing the project) to lay the groundwork for your project retrospective (see Chapter 1 for more on the stages of a project):

• Starting the project:
  • Determine the benefits your project’s drivers wanted to realize when they authorized your project (see Chapter 4 for a discussion of drivers and the other types of project stakeholders).
  • If your project is designed to change an existing situation, take before measures to describe the existing situation so you have something to compare to the after measures you take when the project is completed.
• Organizing and preparing:
  • Identify additional project drivers you may have overlooked in the first stage of your project. Your project drivers’ expectations serve as the criteria for defining your project’s success, so you want to know who they are before you begin your project’s work.
  • Develop clear and detailed descriptions of all project objectives.
  • Include the activity “Conduct project retrospective” in your work breakdown structure (WBS) and allow time and resources to perform it (see Chapter 6 for a discussion of the WBS).
• Carrying out the work:
  • Tell team members that the project will have a project retrospective.
  • Encourage team members to record issues, problems, and successes throughout their project involvement in a project log. Review the log when proposing topics for discussion at the project retrospective meeting.
  • Maintain documentation of cost, labor-hour charges, and schedule performance reports throughout the project (see Chapter 14 for details on how to track and report this information).
• Closing the project:
  • If changing an existing situation was a project objective, take after measures of that situation’s key characteristics to see whether you successfully met that objective.
  • Obtain final cost, labor-hour, and schedule performance reports for the project.
  • Survey key stakeholders to determine how well they feel the project addressed their needs and their assessments of project team and project manager performance.

Setting the stage for the evaluation meeting

A project retrospective is only as good as the results, expenditures, and performance information on which it’s based. The information must be complete, detailed, and accurate. Prepare for your project retrospective meeting by collecting information about the following:

• Project results
• Schedule performance
• Resource expenditures
• Problems that arose during the project
• Changes during the project to objectives, schedules, and budgets
• Unanticipated occurrences or changes in the environment during the project
• Customers’ satisfaction with the project results
• Management’s satisfaction with the project results
• Effectiveness of the project management processes
• Lessons learned

You can collect this information from the following sources:

• Progress reports
• Project logs
• Cost reports
• Schedule reports
• Project memos, correspondence, and meeting minutes
• Interviews and surveys of customers, managers, and team members

Prepare a detailed agenda for the project retrospective meeting that specifies the times when topic discussions will start and end. Consider including the following topics on your agenda:

• Statement of the meeting’s purpose
• Specific meeting outcomes to be accomplished
• Highlights of project performance, including the following:
  • Results, schedules, and resources
  • Approaches to project planning
  • Project tracking systems and procedures
  • Project communications
  • Project team practices and effectiveness
• Recognition and discussion of special achievements
• Review of customer and management reactions to the project
• Discussion of problems and issues
• Discussion of how to reflect experiences from this project in future efforts

Circulate a draft agenda, related background materials, and a list of attendees to all expected attendees at least one week before the meeting. This advance notice gives people time to suggest additions, deletions, and other changes to the agenda. Revise the agenda to address these suggestions and distribute the final agenda to all meeting participants at least one day before the meeting.

Conducting the evaluation meeting

A successful project retrospective meeting (which you can conduct in person, via videoconference, or through most other meeting methods) requires that you address the right topics. People need to share their experiences and thoughts openly and honestly about the project and the processes used to manage the project.

At the project retrospective meeting, explore the following issues:

• Did you accomplish all the project objectives?
• Did you meet the project schedule?
• Did you complete the project within budget?
• With regard to problems during the project:
  • Could you have anticipated and planned for them in advance? If so, how?
  • Did you handle them effectively and efficiently when they arose?
• Did you use the organization’s project management systems and procedures effectively?
• What went well? Consider and capture these as best practices.
• What did you learn from the project? Consider and capture these as lessons learned.

To ensure you get the most accurate information and the best recommendations for future actions, do the following before and during your project retrospective meeting:

• Invite the right people. Invite all the people who participated in your project at all points throughout its life. If the list of potential invitees is too long, consider meeting separately with select subgroups and then holding a general session at which everyone reviews the results of the smaller meetings and you solicit final comments and suggestions.

• Declare at the beginning of the meeting that it’s supposed to be a learning experience rather than a finger-pointing session. As the project manager, you run the project retrospective meeting. At its outset, you need to declare that the session is a time for self-examination and suggestions for ensuring the success of future projects. If people start to attack or criticize other participants, you can immediately bring the discussion back on track by asking the participants the following questions:

  • What can you do in the future to deal more effectively with such situations?
  • What can you do in the future to head off such situations before they arise?

  If people resist your attempts to redirect their conversations, you can mention actions that you, as project manager, can take in the future to head off or deal with similar situations more effectively and then ask people to share additional ideas.

• Encourage people to:
  • Identify what other people did well.
  • Examine their own performance and see how they could’ve handled situations differently.
• Consider holding the session away from your office. People often feel more comfortable critiquing existing practices and discussing new approaches when they’re away from their normal work environments.

Be sure to assign a person (other than yourself) to take notes during the project retrospective meeting. In addition to a list of attendees and highlights of information, the notes should list all the agreed-upon activities to implement the lessons learned from the meeting and the people responsible for those activities.

Following up on the evaluation

Often your busy schedule pulls you to new projects before you’ve had a chance to analyze and benefit from previous ones. However, even when people do take a few moments to review previous project experiences, they seldom incorporate the lessons learned in their future operating practices.

As soon as possible after your post-project evaluation meeting, you, as project manager, need to prepare and distribute a wrap-up report that’s based on the meeting minutes and that addresses the following topics:

• Practices to incorporate in future projects
• Steps to take to encourage these practices
• Practices to avoid in future projects
• Steps to take to discourage these practices

Consider this wrap-up report as you plan future projects to make sure you apply the lessons you learned.

Upon completion of this wrap-up report, distribute it to other project managers for their review. Sharing best practices and lessons learned with your peers benefits everyone involved.