Processes in Project Management: Phase 5 — Project Closure
Bringing the Project Management Life-Cycle to a successful end
In the fifth and final Phase of the project’s life-cycle, the Project Closure Phase, the Project Teams have now completed their work on producing the deliverables, and the teams and the Project Manager can now hand the finished product/s over to the Product Owner and Project Sponsor. In the closure phase, they will conduct a number of tasks in order to bring the project to its successful completion.
Processes in Phase 5: Project Closure
1. Review the Activities Checklist
Project Teams review their checklists and ensure that the finished product is ready to be handed over. They will review the costings of the work, the quality data and ensure that they have met all the necessary targets, before handing over their completed work to the Project Manager.
In preparing to deliver and then close the completed the project with the Product Owner and Project Sponsor, the Project Manager then reviews the Project Charter, the Schedule and the Management Plans, ensuring that all the checklist items have been completed, milestones and targets achieved and that the finished product have been completed and meets the required specifications.
2. Prepare Final Budget Report
The Project Manager assesses the final project budget and creates the final budget for the Product Owner and Project Sponsor. The final budget report is a detailed breakdown off all the work completed, including the appropriate job numbers, finance codes, descriptions of each work task and the project’s final total amount.
3. Deliver Deliverables to Product Owner and Project Sponsor
The finished product/s, the deliverables, are then collected and collated by the Project Manager and submitted to the Product Owner and Project Sponsor, who will then review the deliverables and ensure that they are satisfied with the work that the Project Teams and Project Manager have created. Presuming that the Owner and Sponsor are satisfied that the agreed specifications laid out in the Project Charter, they will then formally approve and accept the deliverables, usually through a signed document that states that the project has been satisfactorily completed and that they accept the outputs of the project.
4. Close Vendor Contracts
With the deliverables now handed over to the Product Owner, the Project Manager/ Team Managers then set about the process of closing any contracts that may have been established with external vendors and suppliers. For example, if a particular piece of machinery was hired for use during the duration of the project, the rental contract will be closed, and the resource returned to the supplier. Similarly, if any staff were out-sourced from employment agencies, those contracts will now be finalized and closed.
5. Reallocate Overage Resources
If in the Execution Phase of the project resources were accumulated that are no longer required (“overage”), for instance unused funds, equipment that was purchased but is no longer of any use now that the project has been completed, or staff that have been “on loan” from other departments, these will now be released and reallocated.
6. Conduct Reflection and Review Session
Within both the smaller sub-Teams and the larger Project Teams, it is important to reflect on and review the project. This involves conducting meetings where each team member can discuss what they learned during the project, what they might have done differently, what did and didn’t work, and how they feel the overall project performed.
The Project Manager will also conduct an overall Project Review Meeting, with representatives from the Project Teams, the Product Owner, Project Sponsor and other key stakeholders, and executive management where applicable. The meeting will usually address the following key questions:
- Was the overall goal of the project achieved to everyone’s satisfaction?
- What is the Product Owner and Sponsor feedback on the finished product?
- Was the project completed on budget, or over/ under?
- Were the deliverables handed over in the timeframe that was set out in the Project Schedule?
- Were the risk mitigation strategies set out in the Risk Management Plan used correctly, and were they successful?
- Were the project’s quality targets met in accordance with the Quality Management Plan?
- Did the overall Project Management Plan work?
- What might be done differently in the future in order to improve the Project Management Process?
Conducting a review meeting is an important step in continuing to manage stakeholder engagement and foster open communication.
7. Product Owner and Project Sponsor Conduct Post-Implementation Assessment
Just as the Project Manager and their Project Teams conduct project reviews in the Closure Phase, so too will the Product Owner and Sponsor assess the outcomes and deliverables of the project, the final cost and timeline, and how well the finished product of the project fits with the vision of the original business case and Project Proposal that were developed back in the Initiation Phase.
8. Recognition of the Team’s Work
The project now completed, it is time to recognize the achievements of everyone involved in the successful implementation and execution of the project. This may involve an informal celebration, for instance a lunch break party or a staff get-together one evening, or a formal recognition of the Project Team’s achievements, for instance certificates, company-wide email announcements that recognize and celebrate the Project Manager and Project Teams’ great work, a press statement from the communications team, pay bonuses or any other means of recognizing and appreciating all the work that has gone into completing the project.
9. Complete all Project Documentation
The Project Manager should then collect and collate all of the documentation that was produced in delivery of the project, including but not limited to;
- The Project Charter
- The Project Scope Statement
- The Work Breakdown Structure
- The Project Schedule (including Gantt charts or other project scheduling documents)
- The Project Management Plan (which includes the Risk and Quality Management Plans)
- Project notebooks, files and spreadsheets
- Contracts and procurement agreements
- Correspondence
- Minutes from meetings
- The Project Status Reports
- The signed acceptance document from the Product Owner/ Project Sponsor.
By collecting all these materials together safely, the Project Manager not only ensures that they can be easily accessed and located again in the future should the need arise, but can maintain a full record of the Project and all the aims, methodologies and strategies that were implemented in order to see the project successfully through the Five Phases of the Project Management Life-Cycle.
Good luck, and may all your future projects run smoothly.
©️ Jupiter Grant 2020
Enjoyed the article? Appreciated the series? I'd love it if you left a tip, or buy me a coffee here: https://ko-fi.com/jupitergrant
About the Creator
Jupiter Grant
Writer, Poet, Narrator, Audiobook Producer, Freelancer.
As you may have guessed, Jupiter Grant is my nom de plume. I’m a purveyor of fiction, poetry, pop culture, and whatever else takes my fancy on any given day.
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.