Project Closeout
Project Est and Budgeting
June 15, 2014 Project Closeout
Project Closure Phase is the last phase of the Project Life Cycle. The commencement of the Project Closure Phase is determined by the completion of all Project Objectives and acceptance of the end product by the customer. The Close Project process involves performing the project closure portion of the project management plan. A Stage End Assessment should be held at the end of every stage in the project. The Stage Manager and Project Team report their progress and recommendations to the Project Board to gain the Board's approval to either to proceed with the next stage, or to confirm that project has been satisfactorily completed. This assessment reviews the overall progress of the project and the plan for continuing the project. In the same way that a detailed schedule for the next stage of the project is developed in Project Initiation, a detailed schedule for the next stage of the project is developed in every other stage, except the last. The overall project schedule provides an overview of the activities in each stage. These activities need to be further defined for the next stage to the point where all necessary tasks have been identified. This should use the same approach as for developing the overall project schedule. That is, using a proven process, or developing the process if one does not exist. Once this has been done it is necessary to estimate the resources required for the next stage. This should cover all personnel resources required, both full and part time, and other types of resource such as office space and equipment. A time line and cost estimate for the stage can then be developed. The work carried out in the stage is collated into a consistent document that contains the work completed to date, plans for the Project as a whole, and plans for the next project stage. This process includes finalizing all activities completed across all Project Management Process Groups to formally close the project or a project phase, and transfer the completed or cancelled project as appropriate. The Close Project process also establishes the procedures to coordinate activities needed to verify and document the project deliverables, to coordinate and interact to formalize acceptance of those deliverables by the customer or sponsor, and to investigate and document the reasons for actions taken if a project is terminated before completion. The outcomes from the Project Review should be incorporated in a project report. Unless your organization demands otherwise, keep this short and succinct. Ensure it provides the measures of the relative success (time, budget, performance, delivery) but also very clearly the lessons learned. It is best to deal with unpleasant truths with care. For example, if the project team had little or no management support (assuming they positively asked for it – their own fault if they did not) then it may be best to report that with the benefit of hindsight it would be better to have had a formal management review of the project at its key stages. It always is anyway, but in some organizations you may have to push hard to get them. According to Wysocki,R.K., as the market is dynamic and ideas for innovation abound, the tendency for the client to request further changes to the product - scope creep (Wysocki,R.K., 2009) is likely to occur and it is likely to disturb the project time and cost.
The use of Gantt charts will be used in the coordination of activities of the project. We must fully understand the dependencies of activities of the project. According to (Andrew &Greene 2005) this makes it easy for project developers to develop the project as it provides information on how one has to work on the project. Gantt chart allows one to allocate the cost of the project, and the resources required to carry out the project. This makes it easy for the developer to estimate the overall cost of the project. More