Project Initiation, Planning and Execution

MBA642

Project Initiation,

Planning and Execution

Workshop Week 12

Project Closeout

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Week 11 Review

• Understand what can go wrong with projects

• Monitoring is vital for project success

• Building an effective monitoring system

• Problems will occur: what is your plan?

• Understand the process

of closing out a project

• Identify the stages for

closing a project

• Examine the activities

associated with closing a

project

• Securing client

acceptance for a project

Week 12 Lecture Objectives

Close-out Phase

I. Complete outstanding tasks

II. Transferring assets to client

III. Embedding change and determining benefits

IV. Disbanding the team

V. Post-Implementation Review

Stage I

Complete Outstanding Tasks

• Planning the close-out

• Final tasks on the schedule

Planning the Close-Out

• Check list of what needs finishing

• Assigning resources to close-out tasks

• Holding more frequent team meetings

• Preparing for a diminishing team

• Resolving outstanding issues with suppliers and contractors

Final Tasks on the Schedule

• Concentrated focus on ‘loose ends’

• Reviewing ‘packages’ of work for final phase

• Review outstanding tasks

– To be completed by team

– To be completed by suppliers or contractors

– To handover to client to complete

Workshop Activity

• In small groups of 2 or 3, – Discuss the reasons why tasks

might be handed over to the client

to complete rather than the project

team? Provide examples.

– How could this be avoided?

• Share your results with the

class

Stage II

Transferring Assets to Client

• Planning for the transition

• User acceptance testing

• Training users

• Definite cut-over

• Recording the ‘as built’ design

• Ongoing maintenance

Planning the Transition

• Strategy for cut-over

• Planning the entire process

• Risks & contingencies

User Acceptance Testing

• Acceptance criteria

• Test Plan or Sign-Off Plan

– Who, what, when

• Test scripts and procedures

• Licenses received

• Test results or ‘Punch List’

• Corrective actions

• Formal acceptance by ‘users’

Training Users

• Training plan

– Who, what, when, where

• Training material and resources

– Manuals

– Fact sheets

– Procedures

• Train-the-Trainer

• Training performance

• Acceptance criteria

Definite Cut-Over

• Cut-over strategy – Pilot

– Stages

– Phased roll-out

– Switch on, turn off

• Cut-over plan – When, what, how

• Conversion of any existing data and resources

• Back-out plan – Risks

– Contingencies

– Reverting

Ongoing Maintenance

• Maintenance team identified

– Trained

– Prepared

– Resourced

• Handover

Workshop Activity

• In small groups of 2 or 3, – Discuss the major challenges for securing client

acceptance.

– How might you resolve this challenges?

• Share your results with the class

Stage III

Embedding Change

• Performance criteria

• Monitoring mechanisms

• Check results

• Take action

Performance Criteria

• Establishing ongoing performance criteria

• Who is responsible for

– Data collection

– Data analysis

– Data reporting

Checking Results • Initial testing of data collection methods

• Post-implementation reviews of data

• Analysis of results: achievements

Take Actions

• Corrective action to deal with

emerging problems

• Warranty period

• Fixes: who is responsible?

Take Actions

Corrective action to deal with emerging problems – Warranty period

– Fixes: who is responsible?

Workshop Activity

• In small groups of 2 or 3,

identify performance

monitoring mechanisms

that you would ‘embed’

with Kaplan moving to new

premises

• Share your results with the

class

Phase IV

Disbanding the Team

• Progressive shut-down

• Transitioning resources

• Close out contracts

• Archive documents

• Celebrations

Progressive Shut-down

• Work schedule for close-out activities

• Reducing reliance on resources

Transitioning Resources

• Redirect to another project

• Retrain for future role

• Return to permanent role

• Retrench – no longer required

• Terminate causal contracts

Close Out Contracts

• List of open contracts

• Completion tasks for ‘suppliers’

• Securing supplier sign-off

• Warranties installed, if appropriate

• Archiving contracts

Archiving Documentation

• Project documentation

– WBS

– Schedules

– Progress reports

– Change ordered

• Employment documentation

• Supplier contracts

• Indexing for easy retrieval

Celebrations

• Team

• Stakeholders

• Media

Workshop Activity

• In small groups of 2 or 3, and thinking about

Assessment 3, – List the activities that might be involved in closing out

that project

• Share your results with the class

Stage V

Post-Implementation Review

• Review of ‘As Is’ versus plan

• Review budget to actuals

• Record technical difficulties and challenges

• Review success and failures

• Client sign-off

– Contractual closure

• Sponsor sign-off

– Investor approval

Review ‘As Is’

• Formal ‘audit’ or informal review

• Functionality delivered versus plan

– Planned activity

– Corrective measures

– New functionality added

Budget vs Actual

• Budgeted spend

• Actual spend

• Identify variances to plan

– Acceptable (+/- 10%)

– Under plan (<10%)

– Over plan (>10%)

• Costs associated with corrective measures

• Costs associated with added functionality

• Analysis of variances

• Lessons learned

Technical Difficulties

• What happened

• When did it occur

• Why did it happen (cause-effect)

• Lessons

Successes

• What happened

• When did it occur

• Why did it happen (cause-effect)

• Lessons

Failures

• What happened

• When did it occur

• Why did it happen (cause-effect)

• Lessons

Sponsor Sign-Off

• Acceptance criteria

• Final report delivered

• Formal signatures received

• Final payments, if required

Client Sign-Off

• Acceptance criteria

• Final report delivered

• Formal contractual signatures received

• Final payments, if required

• Testimonials received, if appropriate

Summary

• Close out is a formal part of the

project life cycle

• Careful planning is required

• User acceptance is critical

• Learn from successes and failures