When you complete your project deliverables you might think the project is finished we have several activities to perform before even called the project done the most important part of the closing process is getting the customer to agree that the project completed successfully set in the document the lessons learned during the project you can improve the performance of future projects by identifying what worked well when didn't how things could have been done better service to produce final documentation to close out report for your project finally it's time to close the contracts archive you project information were others can get to it and see you project team off to the next assignments in this chapter describes each of these activities in more detail
6-2 Gaining customer acceptance
Obtaining customer acceptance is absolutely essential because without acceptance is simply on the during initiating and planning you shouldn't documented your deliverables define success criteria that are both clear quantifiable you use the success criteria developed during planning to design acceptance tests which demonstrate whether the deliverables do at the supposed to you are sought with the customer and other stakeholders to document acceptance procedures for running your tests for example a software project might include features to speed up a business process to measure success you celibate test environment than the next production than one test cases to evaluate whether the software decreases processing time by the required amount after you successfully complete the acceptance tests hold a brief but important sign of meaning to get the signatures you need from the customer and any other stakeholders obtaining customer acceptance is a huge milestone and worthy of celebration but you have a few more steps before you can complete the closing process the rest of the videos in this chapter explain would still love to do
6-3 Documenting lessons learned
Learning lessons from what goes well in what could it nondebt is a great way to improve your performance in the future with those letters in here and you focus on repeating your successes and improving on your less than stellar performance in this video share with you several techniques you can use to coax this crucial info out of your team members then you document the lessons you identify to the benefit the future projects first scheduled time for regular lessons learned sessions don't wait until the end of the project to ask about lessons learned by then you team members have already forgotten while set aside time in the agenda of use that as meaning staff team members from lessons learned or scheduled dedicated meetings for the topic every few weeks fact keep lessons learned sessions positive and productive start with what went right as each person for a taper technique could help them in their work such as what saved you the most time recently or what was anomaly as challenges sounded how you do it then progress to lessons from the problems people faced pose questions about problems in a positive way for example how can we make the sales presentations more compelling or what would you do differently next time of team members to talk about themselves that way it's easier to prevent people from blaming others third give people the opportunity to be open and honest try scheduling meetings without managers to see if people will share information more freely consider including an anomalous method for submitting lessons learned such as a suggestion box this approach can be helpful for sensitive issues when people are afraid to admit mistakes for fear of losing their jobs for us document lessons learned I suggest you put them in your project notebook we can also celebrate repository so everyone in your company can learn what you already know for example a webpage with frequently asked questions tips and tricks or a knowledge base by making lessons learned an important part of your process to give your organisation and yourself the opportunity to learn and grow with each new project
6-4 Preparing a close-out report and archiving
Part of the closing prices is preparing a close report which is like a final status report because everybody is important because it sums up the project in a concise informative document what the project did how did it and how well it went the first item in a close report is the byline was the project a success you might think the answer is a simple yes or no instead summarise the qualitative results you achieved second include the final cost of the complete project to stakeholders typically care about this value depending on the stakeholders you might include cost from major portions of the project cost variances return on investment and other financial measures third document the delivery date for the entire project in key milestones if the project was significantly early or late include the variances from your original dates and the reasons that helped publicise ways to improve estimates of future projects for a summarise any significant changes for example if the project didn't deliver everything on the scope statement include the scope that was and wasn't delivered next consider including information you want share with others such as lessons learned are significant risks and issues and how you handle them through risks described how you handle them and the results you can also point out risks that occurred that one identified in the initial risk management plan to others don't miss them in the future finally and with a section about the effectiveness of your project management practices similar to lessons learned you can describe what worked well and how you would plan and manage differently in the future that way other projects can benefit from your experience it's important to archived detail about your project archiving information electronically makes it easier to find later around there's no need to store shelves after shelf of ring binders relief through page after page of super period close at report and cut your project information away in its archive your ready for closure
6-5 Closing contracts and accounts and transitioning
At the very end of the project you have a few hefty but important details to tie up first quality contracts he signed if you project include a contract with the customer signatures on the customer acceptance form are key to agreeing that the contract is complete depending on the contracts terms you might have a few other things to do such a support the project deliverables are performed follow-up in a few months if you sell contracts with vendor's contract is in front of the other parties did what they were supposed to do then you perform the steps to close those contracts as well pack and close the account to use to build a project costs of projects you keep the financial books open for a short time usually a few months after the project is complete that way it's easier process follow-on expenses such as support one way to prevent erroneous charges is to close all the accounting codes except for the ones related to the follow-up activities as project manager help your people transition to the next assignments the best way to do this is to give functional managers advance notice that there are people will be available than the managers can find new assignments and play in the transitions if you project has another group that picks up where your project team leaves off you have to perform that transition to for example a manufacturing group to build a product or the support team the industry's customers questions needs to know a lot of information from your finished project finally your project truly is complete and your assignment is project manager is over now it's time to move to your next project
You can also check the following articles:
Exploring Project Management
The Project Initiation Phase: How to Start a Project
The Project Planning Phase: How to Plan for the Project
Building a Project Schedule
Project Monitoring and Controlling: How to Run the Project
The Project Closing Phase: The Project Conclusion
There are many sources of information to learn more about Project management. Here are some books I recommend:
Successful Project Management: Applying Best Practices, Proven Methods, and Real-World Techniques with Microsoft Project by Bonnie Biafore
Project Planning and Control by James P. Lewis
Making Things Happen by Scott Berkun
Fast Forward MBA in Project Management
101 Project Management Problems and How to Solve Them: Practical Advice for Handling Real-World Project Challenges by Tom Kendrick.