Ch. 14 – Project Audit & Closure
14–1
Major Tasks of Project Audit/Closure
1. Evaluate if the project delivered the expected
benefits to all stakeholders.
• Was the project managed well?
• Was the customer satisfied?
2. Assess what was done wrong and what
contributed to successes.
3. Identify changes to improve the delivery of
future projects.
14–2
Project Audit
• Step 1: Initiation and Staffing
• Step 2: Data Collection and Analysis
• Step 3: Reporting
Project Audit Report - Considerations
• Actual vs. planned: Does the work actually completed match
the planned level of completion?
• Schedule & nature of changes: Are significant schedule
changes likely? If so, indicate the nature of changes.
• Progress of specific tasks: What progress has been made on
tasks that could decide the success or failure of project?
• Potential of failure: What is the potential for project failure or
monetary loss?
• Lessons learned: What lessons learned from the project being
audited can be applied to other projects being undertaken by
organization?
• Data assumptions: What assumptions or limitations affect data
in audit?
Audit Life Cycle
Audit Initiation
Baseline Definition
Audit Database
Preliminary Analysis
Report Preparation
Termination
Audit Life Cycle - clarifications
• Audit Initiation: identify purpose and scope of audit and
determination of methodology. Team should have access to all
records and reports.
• Baseline - performance standards
• Database - accumulation of information
• Preliminary Analysis - compares gathered information to
standards and judges project performance
• Report preparation - preparing audit report and recommendations
for improvement
• Termination - review of audit process and recommendations for
improvement
• Project audit is not like a financial audit - A financial audit is
limited in scope and focuses of organization’s assets while a
project audit is broader in scope and either deals with whole,
partial, or individual component of project.
Project Closure and Review Deliverables
The major wrap-up task is
to ensure the project is
approved and accepted
by the customer.
Evaluation includes team,
individual team members,
and project manager
performance.
Retrospectives of lessons
learned are designed to
improve performance on
current and future projects.
FIGURE 14.1
14–7
Project Closure
• Types of Project Closure
1. Normal: The most common circumstance for project closure is
simply a completed project.
2. Premature: For a few projects, the project may be completed
early with some parts of the project eliminated.
3. Perpetual: Some projects never seem to end. The major
characteristic of this kind of project is constant “add-ons,”
suggesting a poorly conceived project scope.
4. Failed Project: Failed projects are usually easy to identify and
easy for a review group to close down. However, every effort
should be made to communicate the technical (or other)
reasons for termination of the project;
5. Changed Priority: Organizations’ priorities often change and
strategy shifts directions. Projects in process may need to be
altered or canceled.
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Project Closure
• Close-out Plan: Questions to be Asked
– What tasks are required to close the project?
– Who will be responsible for these tasks?
– When will closure begin and end?
– How will the project be delivered?
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Wrap-up Closure Checklist
TABLE 14.1
14–10
Implementing Closedown
1. Getting delivery acceptance from the
customer.
2. Shutting down resources and releasing to new
uses.
3. Reassigning project team members.
4. Closing accounts and paying all bills.
5. Evaluating the project team, project team
members, and the project manager.
6. Creating a final report.
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Creating the Final Report
1. Executive Summary
– Project goals met/unmet
– Stakeholder satisfaction
with project
– User reactions to quality
of deliverables
2. Analysis
– Project mission and
objective
– Procedures and
systems used
– Organization resources
used
3. Recommendations
– Technical improvements
– Corrective actions
4. Lessons Learned
– Reminders
– Retrospectives
5. Appendix
– Backup data
– Critical information
14–12
Project Performance Evaluations
• Evaluation of performance is essential to encourage
changes in behavior and to support individual career
development and continuous improvement through
organizational learning.
• Evaluation implies measurement against specific criteria.
• Reasons for Poor-Quality Project Performance
Evaluations:
• Evaluations of individuals
are left to supervisors of the
team member’s home
department.
• Typically measure team
performance only on time,
cost, and specifications.
14–13
Pre-Evaluation Conditions: Team
1. Are standards and goals for measuring performance clear,
challenging, and attainable? Lead to positive
consequences?
2. Are responsibilities and performance standards known
by all team members?
3. Are team rewards adequate? Management believes teams
are important?
4. Is there a career path for successful project managers
5. Does the team have discretionary authority to manage
short-term difficulties?
6. Is there a high level of trust within the organization culture?
7. Are there criteria beyond time, cost, and specifications?
14–14
Sample Team Evaluation and Feedback Survey
TABLE 14.2
14–15
Conducting Performance Reviews - Individuals
• Begin by asking the individual to evaluate his or
her own performance.
• Avoid drawing comparisons with other team members;
rather, assess the individual in terms of established
standards and expectations.
• Focus criticism on specific behaviors rather than
on the individual personally.
• Be consistent and fair in treatment of all team members.
• Treat the review as one point in an ongoing process.
14–16
Project Performance Evaluation: Individual
• Performance Assessment Responsibilities:
•
In Functional Organizations: The area manager may solicit the project
manager’s opinion of the individual’s performance on a specific project.
•
Balanced matrix: the project manager and the area manager jointly
evaluate an individual’s performance.
•
Project matrix and project organizations: the project manager is
responsible for appraising individual performance.
In some matrix organizations, project managers conduct the
performance reviews, while area managers are responsible for pay
reviews.
In other cases, performance reviews are part of the project closure
process, and pay reviews are the primary objective of the annual
performance appraisal. Other organizations avoid this dilemma by
allocating only group rewards for project work and providing annual
awards for individual performance.
•
•
14–17
Individual Performance Assessment
• Multirater appraisal (“360-degree feedback)
–Involves soliciting feedback concerning team
members’ performance from all of the people
that their work affects.
• Project managers, area managers, peers,
subordinates, and customers.
14–18
Retrospectives
• Lessons Learned
–An analysis carried out during and shortly after the
project life cycle to capture positive and negative
project learning—“what worked and what didn’t?”
• Goals of Retrospectives
–To reuse learned solutions
–To stop repetitive mistakes
A retrospective is a methodology that
analyzes a past project event to
determine what worked and what didn’t,
develops lessons learned, and creates an
action plan that ensures lessons learned
are used to improve management of
future projects.
14–19
Retrospectives (cont’d)
• Barriers to Organizational Learning
–Lack of post-project time for developing lessons
–No post-project direction or support for teams
–Lessons become blame sessions
–Lessons are not applied in other locations
–Organizational culture does not recognize
value of learning
14–20
The Value of Retrospective Analyses
• Making Retrospectives Effective:
–Use an independent facilitator to guide the project
team through the analysis project activities.
–Include a minimum of three in-process learning gates
(major milestones) during the life project cycle.
–Designate a team member as owner for each point in
the retrospective.
–Develop an easy-to-use learning repository to ensure
future utilization of retrospective lessons.
–Mandate use of retrospectives as part of the normal
process for all projects.
14–21
Characteristics of a Facilitator
1. No direct involvement or direct interest in the project.
2. Perceived as impartial and fair
3. Respect of senior management and other project
stakeholders.
4. Willingness to listen.
5. Independence and authority to report results without
fear of recriminations from special interests.
6. Perceived as having the best interests of the
organization in making decisions.
7. Broad-based experience in the organization or
industry.
14–22
Initiating the Retrospective Review
• Have automatic times or points when reviews will
take place. Avoid surprises.
• Conduct reviews carefully and with sensitivity
• Review staff must independent from the project.
• Review reports need to be used and accessible.
• Reviews support organizational culture
• Project closures should be planned and orderly.
• Certain “core conditions” must be in place to support
team and individual evaluation.
• Conduct individual and team evaluations separate
from pay or merit reviews.
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The Retrospectives Process
FIGURE 14.2
14–24