Project management
Project termination: completion and review
Understand what is required for
effective project closure the
activities involved
Objectives
Understand the concepts of
project evaluation and
completion
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Project lifecycles
Feedforward
Define it information
Initiation and
Project completion definition
and review
Improving project
performance
Planning
Develop it Design it
Execution &
Control
Control,
closure &
Feedback continuous
Do it information improvemen
Closure t
Maylor (2010) Gardiner (2005)
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Learning from past projects;
ensuring everything is completed
and benefits gained;
challenges:
Introduction (1) • objective process while taking into account a
rich picture of project performance
• relating procedural conformance to project
performance
• long term improvement whilst being assessed
on short term measures (mainly financial)
• satisfying all relevant stakeholder groups
whilst looking ahead to the next project
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Introduction (2)
When is the project finished? Any reason not to review?
successful completion of the project’s
objectives
premature termination
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Early termination
Deciding to terminate a Summary of reasons:
project
A project is not required
Insufficient support from senior
management
Wrong project manager
Poor planning
Investment runs out
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Four ways to terminate a project (1)
Extinction: Integration
successful and achieved most common
goals output becomes a standard
unsuccessful or superceded part of operating systems
resources dispersed
Addition
institutionalised Starvation
resources transferred budget cuts
Completion and handover (1)
incentives to finish
project and all
activities to be
completed;
allow review
providing
Matters for Project
documentation of
Manager’s
the closure process
attention:
to:
facilitate future
support activities
closing down
project systems
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Completion and
handover (2)
Matters for Project Manager’s
attention (cont):
immediate review of all
activities
◦ starting point for improvement
appraisal and relocation (or
release) of staff and disposal of
assets
ensure all stakeholders are
satisfied
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CP – Closing a project
How much time and resource should be
put into completion?
implications of abandonment v. long,
drawn out process
Completion consider motivation to complete,
completion bonus and cost of ‘extras’.
Can be considered as a phase;
needs planning, time and resources.
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Closure plan
Closure begins in planning: Closure is ongoing:
What is commissioned Project reviews
What documentation is required Co-ordination with client
Activities and budget for closure Periodic removal/purging of
temporary items
Records management
Demobilisation
Gardiner (2005)
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Project review
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Conducting immediate project reviews
(also known ‘post-mortem’)
Provides rapid feedback and identifies short term needs (some individual
aspects are confidential):
aspects of performance to be repeated,
identify training and educational requirements,
assess utility of individuals for future projects;
documents case history (for longer term reviews)
reviewers – sponsor, manager, other PMs, consultants;
audit of management by the team
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Project Audits & Review
According to Larson:
90% of projects are not seriously audited or reviewed
Lessons learnt are not recorded
Opportunities are lost to learn
Knowledge retained by individuals rather than the organisation
Why might this be the case?
Project Audits & Review
Major goal is to improve Project audit and report
the way future projects are instruments for
are managed in the continuous
organisation change/improvement
Audit covers the whole
Status reports view a life cycle plus the project
narrow window of project in its organisational
environment
Project Audits & Review – Questions?
Reviews: Provides lessons for the future
Why the project was selected?
Include a review of expenditure
The team structure
In-process reviews re-confirm project
• Priority
• Costs/benefits and risks
Project Audits – 2 Types
In-process Audit Post-process Audit
Focus on project progress and More detailed than in-process
performance More long term
Have conditions changed? Were benefits claimed delivered?
Priorities?
Is project still relevant?
Criteria Audit Review
Financial Accounting systems ROI, cost variance
Time Conformance to plan Customer satisfaction
Quality Quality procedures Customer perceptions
Human resources Conformance to policy Team spirit,
motivation
Environmental Conformance to policy EI assessment
Planning Conformance to plan Cost, techniques used
Control Systems for control Basis for
improvement
Classification
Analysis of information gathered
Audit Report
General Recommendations
Form Lessons learned
Appendix – backup to report
Classification
Classification of the project
Allows readers of the report to be selective in the use
of the reports contents
Includes:
Project type – development, marketing, construction
Size – Capital value
Team – number of staff
Technology level – low, medium, new
Strategic or support
Other categories relevant to the organisation…..
Reviews and learning
Learning before doing learning by doing
– ensuring the knowledge and – learning from previous activities:
skills are there before needed by audit and review
the project:
lessons learnt
training,
education,
using consultants;
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Process improvement
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Benefits of project closure checklists:
Indicate closeout functions
and responsibilities, Reduce oversight of
reducing ambiguity and important factors
uncertainty
Inform other project teams
Aid inexperienced team
and members about
members
closeout activities
Archibald (1992) cited in Field and Keller
Long-term review
(also known as post-completion
review, post-project review)
whole-life costs;
benefits realised;
individual reflections.
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Why firms don’t carry out reviews
Used to allocate blame;
Rush to move on/escape.
Guidelines for constructive reviews
01 02 03 04 05 06
Focus on use factual allow for use problem- discourage Justify
process, not data; rehearsal of solving tools glib improvements
individuals; alternatives; and classification – costs of
techniques; quality
Reviewing project success
Four dimensions of success Levels of success
◦ efficiency - TCQ ◦ project management success - TCQ
◦ customer satisfaction ◦ project success
◦ business impact ◦ consistently delivering successful
projects
◦ business potential
Cooke-Davies (2001)
Shenhar, Levy & Dvir, (1997) cited in
Meredith & Mantel
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Critical Success Factors
In order of importance:
1. Project mission 6. Technical tasks
2. Top management support 7. Client acceptance
3. Project schedule/plan 8. Monitoring and feedback
4. Client consultation 9. Communication
5. Personnel 10. Trouble shooting
Factors vary according to the type of project
Pinto and Slevin (1988) cited in Meredith and Mantel
Ignore the project environment
Push a new technology to market too quickly
Don’t bother with fallback options
Some When finding problems, shoot the one most visible
Let new ideas starve to death
determinants Don’t bother conducting feasibility studies
of failure Never admit a project is a failure
Over-manage project managers and their teams
Never, never conduct post-failure reviews
Pinto and Kharbanda (1996) cited in Gardiner
Case study - Lessons Learned Report
Identify what went well and what did not go well and relate these to the
main areas of Project Management that you have studied
Identify the lessons learned
How could any issues be better managed in the future or good practices shared? In
making your recommendations consider the following:
What was the root cause or trigger?
Were there any warning indicators?
What actions should be taken in future?
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References and further reading
Chapter 16 of Maylor (2010)
Chapter 7 of Field and Keller (1998)
Cooke-Davies T. (2002) The “real” success factors on projects. International
Journal of Project Management. 20 (2002) 185-190
Meredith, J.R. and Mantel, S.J. Jr. (2006). Project Management: a managerial
approach. 6th ed. J.Wiley & Sons Inc.
Gardiner, P.D. (2005). Project Management: a strategic planning approach.
Palgrave McMillan
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