Finishing the Project and
Realizing the Benefits
Chapter 15
Contemporary Project Management
Kloppenborg
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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter
Vignette
Celebrating Project Success - Trinmar
• Should Trinmar upgrade existing rigs or invest in
building new rigs?
• Facilitation of a portfolio optimization process to
establish strategic criteria
• Help Trinmar evaluate, prioritize and make final
decisions regarding each project
• Semi-formal meetings conducted describing
customer feedback, areas for improvement,
lessons learned, project results, and approval of
final project deliverables.
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter
Vignette
Celebrating Project Success - Trinmar
• A party with spouses, relatives, and everyone
involved with the project
• Personal recognition of everyone on the project
• Pictures with the CEO and awards of
accomplishment
Sincere joy and pride of the project
team in receiving recognition from the
CEO
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
At the end of this chapter…
• Describe how to determine when a project
should be terminated early.
• Describe the process for terminating a
project at its normal completion time.
• Secure customer feedback and
acceptance of the project.
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
At the end of this chapter…
• Describe the importance of project closing
activities and how to perform them.
• Create and present a transition plan for
the project including a plan for ongoing
support.
• Capture and share project lessons
learned.
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Introduction
• A project moves into the closing stage when its
customers accept the project deliverables
• A project can close as planned or be terminated
early
• Complete closing activities
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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Verify Scope
• Formal acceptance of project deliverables
• Proceed to closing and realizing stage
• Buyer provides the seller with a formal written
acceptance
• A project closeout checklist may itemize typical
project activities and/or deliverables
Verify scope – “the process of formalizing acceptance of
the completed project deliverables.” PMBOK® Guide
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Close Procurements
• Verify that proper methods were used for all
purchasing and that all contracts have been
successfully completed.
• Terminating projects early:
Terminations for
Mutual agreements
convenience of
buyer
Terminations for
default
Close procurements – “the process of completing each
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
PMBOK®
Guide
to a procurement.”
publicly accessible website,
in whole or in part.
Terminate Projects Early
• Mutual Agreements
– What deliverables or partial deliverables go to the
buyer
– What compensation goes to the seller
– Resolve outstanding issues
• Terminations for Default
– Problems with the project’s cost, schedule, or
performance
– Lost confidence in the contractor
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Terminate Projects Early
• Termination for Convenience of Buyer
– The buyer faces unexpected difficulties or changing
priorities
– Customer’s needs change
– Invoke a contract clause
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Heading Off Early Termination
• Find other stakeholders who can provide funds
to keep the project viable
• Look internally to find ways of continuing with
the project at lower cost
• PMs present the facts of project progress and
make recommendations for early termination if
they feel it is warranted
• Communicate quickly and honestly
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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Close Project
Finalize all activities needed to finish the project
• Write transition plan
• Knowledge management
• Create the closeout report
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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Write Transition Plan
• Charter/instruction manual for how the customer
should use the project deliverables
• Ensure all responsibilities are considered
• Provide appropriate documentation to users
• A transition plan helps to ensure:
– Quality problems are avoided during transition
– Project deliverables transition into operational role
– Needed maintenance, upgrades, and training take
place
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Knowledge Management
• Knowledge management should occur
throughout the project life
• Knowledge management is most apparent as a
project comes to a close
• Capture lessons learned
• Disseminate and use lessons learned
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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Project Customer Feedback Form
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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Capture Lessons Learned
•
•
•
•
•
What worked well?
Where might a different method may yield better results?
At milestones and at the end of a project
Ask participants to identify major project issues
Go through one top issue at a time to determine what
went wrong and how it might be avoided in future
projects.
• List significant successes and discuss what caused each
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Lessons Learned Project Closing
Document
Disseminate and Use Lessons Learned
• Establish a method for documenting and sharing
lessons learned
• Decide how to store lessons for easy access
• Have one person assigned to “own” the lessons
learned database
• Code each lesson by type of project, stage in
project life cycle, issue it concerns
• Sponsors only sign charters if lessons from other
recently completed projects are included
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Create the Closeout Report
•
•
•
•
•
Summary status of the project
Lessons learned
Review of project’s original justification
Ensure records are in a workable format
Store records for easy access
Did the project accomplish what it was originally
approved to do?
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Closeout Report Template
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Post Project Activities
•
•
•
•
Reassign workers
Celebrate success and reward participants
Provide ongoing support
Ensure project benefits are realized
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Reassign Workers
• PMs provide timely updates for personnel
records
• PMs make honest recommendations for team
members
• PMs help team members secure next
assignments
Helping good workers secure follow-on work is
one of the most important things a project
manager must do.
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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Celebrate Success and Reward
Participants
Challenge
Energize
Limit
Exert
Believe
Recognize
Acknowledge
Transition
Ease Stress
“the project is over; we
will limit any additional
work on this project.”
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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Provide Ongoing Support
• Training, change management, other services
• Project transition plans are a sort of charter for
the customer
– “instruction manual” on how the customer should use
the project deliverables once the project team has
completed its work
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Ensure Project Benefits are
Realized
• How well the customers are able to use the
deliverables
• Consider use by direct customers and other
stakeholders
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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Summary
• Some projects are terminated early either
because the customer is dissatisfied or wishes
to invest their time and money in a different way
• A variety of closeout procedures is required.
Workers reassigned
and rewarded
Documentation
completed and
distributed
Lessons learned
recorded
Money paid and
Success celebrated
accounted for
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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Transition Plan for Beech Acres
Knowledge Management Project
• Gaining Employee Buy-In
– Send informative email
– Training sessions
• Assigning KM Champions
– Functional managers of different units at BA
• Maintaining Data
– The KM librarian  the IT person who created the
database
– The KM is a living, dynamic system where all
knowledge regarding BA belongs
PM in Action Example
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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Transition Plan for Beech Acres
Knowledge Management Project
Measuring the usage of the system by
employees will show Beech Acres
management how successful the
project was
PM in Action Example
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.