Project closure is an important process in project management. A project provides no value to the organization if it is not closed in the planned procedures. It is as important as initiating it. It is an important process to learn and improve future projects by reflecting on what succeeded and what didn’t. People tend to get excited on completion of a project and the drive to jump on to the next project is usually high but it’s important to ensure that everything is completed as planned and all involved parties are in concur with the completion of the project ( Gray et al., 2008). This paper will focus on how to close out a project with the customer and developing a post-project evaluation and meeting agenda.
The project manager must focus on the following key areas during project closure:
Sponsor Acceptance.
This project manager meets with the project sponsor or the customer and discussing project closure around acceptance criteria as defined at the beginning. This is usually an easy process especially if the customer had been involved for the duration of the project. The process is important as it may reveal some issues that need to be addressed before full acceptance of project closure.
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Project Assessment
Before project closure, the project manager to conduct project assessment and get feedback from all the stakeholders. This gives room to improve in future projects. Using a checklist for this process can help the project manager to note important observations as he moves along the project cycle and gains relevant information for the assessment.
Complete Project History
Project management largely entails managing its files. Project files should be prepared from the start of the project as it may be difficult to create the project’s history at the end of the project. It’s the duty of the project manager to ensure all team members have relevant guidelines needed to handle project files as the project is in progress.
Success Celebration
Celebrating the success of a completed project is a foundation for the success of future projects. It assists stakeholders involved to move forward with post-project state and makes people happy about their completed work. A project that has been properly closed out can help a manager do better on other projects in the future if he applies learned lessons in project management practices ( Gray et al., 2008).
Developing a Post-Project Evaluation and Meeting Agenda
Post project evaluation is done after completion of a project. Its aim is to evaluate if the set goals were achieved, evaluate how the effectiveness of the project, acquire experience that can be applied in the future and ensure that the organization benefits maximally from the project. During planning for the evaluation, the manager should be aware of costs to be incurred and benefits expected from the review. He should ensure that resources allocated to the review process are consistent with the scope of the project and its output. He also should ensure that the benefits of the process are worth the input ( Anbari et al., 2008).
Post project evaluation involves gathering the project's data on the following: project results, problems encountered, resources spent, planned performance, unanticipated occurrences or changes, customer's satisfaction with the results, effectiveness of the project management processes, and management's satisfaction with the project results ( Anbari et al., 2008).
The project manager should prepare an agenda for the post-evaluation meeting specifying the times when discussions will start and stop. All expected attendants should be provided with a draft of the agenda and any related materials approximately a week earlier. This gives room for suggestions and revisions of the agenda before the meeting. The following topics should be considered in the agenda: specific outcomes of the meeting to be accomplished, statement of the meeting’s purpose, recognition of specific achievements, highlights of projects performance, discussion of problems and issues encountered and review of the customer and management reactions towards the project ( Anbari et al., 2008).
References
Anbari, F. T., Carayannis, E. G., & Voetsch, R. J. (2008). Post-project reviews as a key project management competence. Technovation , 28 (10), 633-643.
Gray, R. M., Cook, M. B., Natera, M. T., Inglis, M. M., & Dodge, M. L. (2008). Project Management: The. In Managerial Process”, McGraw-Hill .
