Chapter 20: Closing A Project Flashcards
Purpose of closing a project process
Purpose is to provide a fixed point at which acceptance of the project product is confirmed, and to recognise that objectives set out in the original PID have been achieved.
What are the objectives of the closing a project process
- verify user acceptance of project product
- ensure the host site is able to support products when project is disbanded
- review performance of project against its baselines
- assess benefits that have been realised and update the benefits management approach to include post project benefits reviews
- ensure that provision has been made to address all open issues and risks, with follow on action recommendations
Context if closing a project
Closure activities should be planned as part of the stage plan for the final management stage
When closing, work is required to prepare input to the project board in order to obtain its authorisation to close the project.
Executive should notify corporate, management or the customer also
If project is being closed prematurely, closing a project process still has to be followed, but may have to be tailored to the actual project situation
Activities within closing a project process
Prepare planned closure
Prepare premature closure
Hand over products
Evaluate the project
Recommend project closure
Planned project closure
Before closure of the project can be recommended, the PM must ensure that the expected results have all been achieved and delivered
Prince2 recommends the following actions:
- update project plan with actuals from the final management stage
- request project status account from project support
- confirm the project has delivered what is defined in the project product description and acceptance criteria had been met
- seek approval to give notice to corporate, programme management or the customer that resources can be released
Prepare premature closure
If project closes prematurely, PM must ensure that work in progress isn’t abandoned, but that the project salvages anything of value created and checks that gaps left by cancellation of the project are raised to corporate, management and customer
Prince2 recommends the following actions:
- update issue register to record premature closure project
- update project plan with actual from final management stage
- request a product status account from project support
- agree means for recovering products that have been completed or are in progress
- seek approval to give notice to corporate, programme management or the customer that resources can be released early
Hand over products
Project products must be passed to an operational and maintenance environment prior to the project being closed. This may happen as single release at end of project, or project approach may include delivery where products are handed over in a number of releases.
When handing over products, benefits management approach may need to be updated to include post project benefits review of the performance of project product in operational use.
It isn’t a project activity to undertake benefits reviews post project, only to plan for such benefits reviews to occur. If the project is part of a programme, then the post project benefits reviews need to be covered by the programmes benefits management activities
Prince2 recommends the following actions regarding hand over products
In consultation with project management team, prepare follow on action recommends for the project product to include any uncompleted work, issues and risks
Check that benefits management approach includes post project activities to confirm benefits that cannot be measured until after project product has been in operational use for some time
Examine the PID to confirm how products are to be handed over to those who will maintain them in their operational life
Evaluate the project
Successful organisations learn from their experiences with projects. When evaluating the project, the objective is to assess how successful or unsuccessful it’s been
Prince2 recommends the following actions:
- review projects original intent as agreed in initiation stage and defined by PID
- Review the approved changes as defined by the current version of PID
- Prepare end report
- Review lessons log to identify lessons that can help future projects
Recommend project closure
After PM has confirmed project can close, a closure recommendation should be raised to project board
Prince2 recommends the following actions:
- use the communication management approach to identify any organisation or interested party who needs to know project closure
- close the projects issue register, risk register, quality register, daily log and lessons log
- make sure all project information is secured and archived
- prepare and send a draft project closure notification for review by project board stating that project has closed
Tailoring guidelines of end project report
Any element of the composition may be provided in a separate document or information source, which should be cross referenced
The composition may be adapted to suit the readership
E.g. confidential elements may be included in separate documents
Closing project using agile
When using agile, project closure is still likely to be a formal event. However, most of the information is already known and most of the work is already done due to iterative and incremental nature of the agile way of working.
E.g. benefits may already be realised
Closing project from supplier perspective
It should be decided when the project is completed from a supplier perspective, for example, this may be when the work is completed, after any maintained or warranty period has elapsed, or when the contract is fulfilled
