18 | Closing the Project

Question 1

Accepted Deliverables?

Answer 1

Accepted deliverables are all deliverables that are completed, accepted, and formally signed-off. The
deliverables that have been formally signed-off or acknowledged by the sponsors or customers are
moved toward project closure.

Question 2

The Final Product, Service, or Result Transition?

Answer 2

The final product, service, or result transition is the process of transferring the final product that the project was authorized to produce. The final product is usually reviewed for completeness and accuracy before it can be transitioned to its recipients.

Question 3

Procurement Audits?

Answer 3

A procurement audit is a formal evaluation of the effectiveness of the procurement process itself.
The goal of the audit is to establish a record that may be used to shape procurement practices in other contracts for this project or for other projects. This audit considers the following elements of the procurement process:

• Make or Buy Analysis.
• Preparation of the procurement SOW and procurement documents.
• Selection of selected vendors.
• Adequacy of the procurement contract.
• Contract administration

Question 4

Procurement Audit Lessons Learned?

Answer 4

The lessons learned from a procurement audit can be invaluable information for future contracts. For example, the contract structure or payment terms that seemed appropriate at the start of the contract may have acted as disincentives to performance during the contract itself. By including as much anecdotal detail in the lessons learned as possible, you help others in the organization apply
the learning to their situations.

Question 5

Negotiated Settlements?

Answer 5

Negotiated settlements are undertaken to arrive at a final equitable settlement for all outstanding issues, claims, and disputes by negotiation. The parties may resort to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), which includes mediation and arbitration, if settlement cannot be achieved through direct negotiations held between the parties.

Question 6

Closed Procurements?

Answer 6

Closed procurements are usually a formal written document between the buyer and the seller stating that no considerations are pending from either party. This can be done whenever a procurement contract is satisfied and can happen on a rolling basis throughout the project. The
buyer receives what was expected and is satisfied; the seller receives the payment and other aspects as prescribed in the contract. The contract spells out the terms and conditions for contract acceptance and closure. These terms and conditions are usually included in the procurement management plan.

Question 7

What are the 2 special issues in contract closeout?

Answer 7

1. Incomplete contract closeout

2. Vendor staff evaluations

Question 8

Incomplete contract

closeout?

Answer 8

• Contracts may be terminated early due to vendor nonperformance or
through no fault of the vendor whatsoever.
• If a project is shut down prematurely due to issues within the customer or project organization, how does that impact contract closeout? In this situation, the contract itself will probably provide guidance as to how to deal with early termination.

• For example, the contract may have a clause that specifies that either side may withdraw from the contract with a 30-day written notice to the other side. During the 30-day notice period, the vendor may continue working on the project, tying up loose ends, taking receipt
of material ordered for the project, and so forth. Once the project has been terminated, the project manager should take whatever steps are necessary to provide the appropriate written notice as soon as possible, in order to start the termination clock.

• In addition, an explanatory call to the vendor in advance of the written notice is an expected courtesy. If the contract ties payment to specific deliverables, the procurement audit should verify that the deliverables were received as specified and that the invoices reflect
only those deliverables that were received. Issues of time, cost, and quality are still relevant.

• Be sure to evaluate these issues based on the version of the deliverable you are paying for, rather than for the final deliverable. For example, say the vendor was contracted to supply a beta version of the product in January and a final version in March. But the project was canceled in February.
• The product quality audit should be based on whether it met the specifications for a beta product, not for a final product

Question 9

Vendor staff

evaluations?

Answer 9

• In some cases, vendors will request that you participate in evaluating their staff members who are participating in your project.
• In other cases, you may wish to send letters of commendation to a vendor, in order to recognize the performance of some of their staff members.
• Your organization may have a policy that limits your participation in evaluating the ongoing performance of vendor staff. You should consult this policy before providing any sort of written performance evaluation.
• Most organizations allow letters of commendation that recognize the contribution of particular vendor staff members. This practice is highly motivating to the vendor staff.
• Usually, a copy is sent both to the staff member individually and to the vendor organization.

Question 10

Administrative Closure?

Answer 10

Administrative closure involves verifying and documenting project results to formalize project or
phase completion on all aspects. During the administrative closure process, the project team gathers
and updates project documentation and relevant records and reports. Project results are compared with customer and stakeholder expectations and requirements. A properly completed administrative closure process ensures that:

• The project or phase requirements were met and formal acceptance was granted.
• The project objectives were completely met.

After the administrative closure is complete, you should conduct a project evaluation whereby you will review the original proposed financial and operational benefits and determine whether or not they have been achieved over time. If they have not been achieved, you should evaluate and determine if further action is required.

Question 11

Project Records to Archive?

Answer 11

During administrative closure, it may be beneficial to archive selected project records such as:
• The project management plan with its subsidiary plans and supporting detail.
• Project performance records, audit reports, and financial records.
• Contract documentation as completed in closed procurements.
• Copies of all relevant communication, status reports, meeting minutes, and change requests.
• Relevant project databases.
• Staff evaluations.
• Lessons learned reports and the final project report.
• Formal acceptance documentation.

It may be helpful to construct a list of outstanding items that must be resolved, addressed, or completed before the customer will accept the final work results. Include the actions taken to resolve any outstanding issues and any time frames associated with completion

Question 12

Lessons Learned Reports?

Answer 12

Lessons learned reports are documents that capture salient and helpful information about the work done in a project; they identify both the project team’s strengths and areas for improvement. They can be formal or informal, depending on the organizational norms or requirements. The lessons learned reports can be built by contributions from the project team throughout the project, and edited into a clean document during closing. This minimizes the need for contributors to recall
details at the end of the project. Lessons learned reports will be beneficial to future project teams. Having this knowledge base enables project teams to capitalize on work that has already been done, avoid repeating mistakes, and benefit from ongoing organizational learning.

Question 13

What are the 7 considerations of lessons learned?

Answer 13

1. Scheduling lessons learned
2. Conflict management lessons learned
3. Vendor lessons learned
4. Customer lessons learned
5. Strategic lessons learned
6. Tactical lessons learned
7. Other aspects of lessons learned

Question 14

Scheduling lessons learned?

Answer 14

These include any relevant scheduling problems or issues. They also document the management strategies that were implemented to deal with schedule or resource constraints. Capture beneficial approaches to implement as new best practices.

Question 15

Conflict management lessons learned?

Answer 15

These include any issues that arose within the team or between the team and customers. They include documentation of the nature and source of the conflict and the impact that the conflict had on the project. The documentation should also specify how management intervened in response to the conflict.

Question 16

Vendor lessons learned?

Answer 16

New seller experience and performance should be documented and provided to the procurement department

Question 17

Customer lessons learned?

Answer 17

If a customer is excessively litigious or unreasonable to work with, that information should be conveyed to the sales and legal departments and documented in the lessons learned repository. If the customer experience is positive, then capture the potential for future sales or working together

Question 18

Strategic lessons learned?

Answer 18

Strategic lessons learned are those that typically impact some aspect of the organization’s project management methodology or significantly improve a template, form, or process. These address the questions: Can we reuse this project’s artifact to get more done with the same resources and deliver work sooner?

Question 19

Tactical lessons learned?

Answer 19

Tactical lessons learned are those that answer the question: If we were to do this type of project again, what should we stop, start, and continue so that we can execute the project flawlessly? They focus on developing recommendations, reviewing recommendations with other managers in other departments, developing implementation plans, and implementing those plans.

Question 20

Closure Meetings?

Answer 20

Closure meetings, or closeout meetings, are sessions held at the end of a project or phase; they involve discussing the work and reviewing lessons learned. Closure meetings include stakeholders, team members, project resources, and customers. They typically follow a formal agenda and may require official minutes to be recorded. Conducting closeout meetings is essential, and not all organizations or projects require closeout meetings in a formal manner. Some organizations require
the minutes from closure meetings to be completed in full, approved by management, and preserved in a specific manner. Some organizations require official closure meetings so that they can obtain the customers’ formal project acceptance, while others use them as an opportunity to discuss the project with the customers as a prelude to soliciting additional business. Other organizations use closeout meetings for internal purposes, for the edification of the staff and improvement of internal processes. From an organizational standpoint, good endings lead to good beginnings on subsequent projects.

Question 21

Auditing?

Answer 21

Auditing is an examination of a project’s goals and achievements, including adequacy, accuracy, efficiency, effectiveness, and the project’s compliance with applicable methodologies and regulations. It tends to be a formal, one-sided process that can be extremely demoralizing to team members.

Question 22

Debriefing?

Answer 22

Debriefing is a less formal, more cooperative means of discussing the positives and the negatives of the project, what worked, and what will be done differently next time. This discussion includes technology issues, people issues, vendor relationships, and organizational culture.

Question 23

Historical Information?

Answer 23

Historical information is an aggregate of lessons learned and other useful information collected from preceding projects. This information can be used as best practices in similar projects. Artifacts, such as plans, standards and procedures, estimations, metrics, and risks, are some of the historical information that can be referred to when managing pertinent projects. Historical information that describes successes, failures, and lessons learned is particularly important during planning and managing projects. The project manager is responsible for maintaining these artifacts that often prove useful when a significant amount of work is done by virtual teams or when it involves multicultural communication.