Completing a Project
| Lead Advocacy Group: Program Management Even with clear completion criteria, teams and stakeholders sometimes find it challenging to conclude a project. Typically, these challenges to extend a project come from overt external influences and from internal pride in workmanship, including the desire to broaden a solution within the current project scope (e.g., "it works OK, but it would be much better if we just added..."); to stabilize a solution beyond the previously agreed-to acceptance criteria; and to handle the ongoing issues that surface after deployment. When a team is ready to close down a project, this process involves two activities: ramping down a team and closing out a project. Ramping Down a TeamRarely does a project need all of its team members until the end. Team members should be rolled off a project as they complete their planned worksome might be needed only to build a solution, some are needed to stabilize a solution, and even fewer are needed to deploy a solution. Sometimes members of a project team are transitioned to an operations team for ongoing maintenance and support of a solution. Sometimes team members are transitioned to the project team that handles the next release of a solution. Just as team members are not casually added to the team, so they should not be casually rolled off a project. Closing Down a ProjectProperly closing down a project is key to harvesting lessons learned, making sure all project collateral is properly archived, tying up any loose ends, and setting the stage for follow-on activities. Activities associated with project closeout include these:
Surveying Customer SatisfactionBy this point in a project, it is hoped that customers are satisfied. However, this is not always the case. Although customers were involved to help deliver the best solution possible within project constraints, it does not necessarily mean that they are satisfied with the outcome, how a project was conducted, and so forth. Accordingly, it is a best practice to conduct a customer satisfaction survey to root out areas of dissatisfaction. The survey often takes the form of interviews and/or questionnaires. Typically, this feedback is a good source for future process improvements. Conducting Project ReviewsA project review is a good, informal way at the end of a project for the team to reflect on the processes and outcomes of delivering a solution. As part of that reflection, the team should review what went well (and why it went well), what could of gone better (and how to make it better next time), and what lessons learned or best practices can be gleaned from a project. It goes beyond a normal checkpoint review in that it looks back on the whole project. Once a team has had a chance to get together, it is a best practice to repeat the session, but this time to invite key stakeholders to elicit their perspectives. It is often productive to start using the information the team came up with during the first session. Preparing a Closeout Report (Deliverable)The final deliverable of any project is a project closeout report. This report documents final project and solution status. It provides evidence that all customer acceptance criteria have been satisfied, including user and operations acceptance information. Typically, it summarizes and calls out noteworthy feedback from stakeholder and user satisfaction surveys. It often outlines follow-on activities. It might include deferred change requests and deferred scope. Other elements included in the report are dependent on whether this project is part of a larger program with multiple releases or is a stand-alone project. Administratively Closing a ProjectThe last step of closing out a project is administrative closure. As the name implies, administrative closure concludes and finalizes any remaining governance activities, including the following:
|
EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 137