Finishing the Project and

Realizing the Benefits

Chapter 15
Project Management
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.
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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

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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.

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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.

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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
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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

to a procurement.”
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PMBOK®
publicly accessible website, Guide
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
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to a publicly confidence
accessible website, in wholein the
or in part. contractor
 Terminate Projects Early
• Termination for Convenience of Buyer
– The buyer faces unexpected difficulties or
changing priorities
– Customer’s needs change
– Invoke a contract clause

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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
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place
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

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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
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Reserved. May not beprojects are
scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted
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included
 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?

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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Closeout Report Template

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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

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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
Challenge Participants
Energize
Limit
Exert “the project is over; we will
Believe limit any additional work on
Recognize this project.”
Acknowledge
Transition
Ease Stress
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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

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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
Workers reassigned
procedures is required.
and rewarded
Documentation
Lessons learned
completed and
recorded
distributed
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
to a publicly accessible website,regarding
PM in Action Example
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knowledge BA belongs
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

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to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.