Summary of the hand of project management | Remco van der Schoot
2.7. HOOFDSTUK 25 – PROJECT CLOSE-OUT (P.399-413)
Project closure is the last step in the project life cycle and key points include:
- Time at which the project reaches the closing process
- Time at which the project is closed formally
- Activities that should be conducted during the project closing process
- The main outputs of the closing process
2.7.1. OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT CLOSING PROCESS
The project closing process can be divided into three phases:
1. Closing assessment -> is the project ready for closing?
a. Analyzed of the project is ready to be closed and includes the following steps:
i. Analyze whether all project goals and objectives have been achieved or not
ii. Analyze whether all project deliverables are delivered according to the acceptance
criteria
iii. Risk and issues that have not been solved during the project life cycle must be
communicated to the project owner, customer, and user.
iv. Evaluate all the project claims5 and ensure that all of them are documented,
evaluated, responded to, and closed
v. Examine whether the project contracts are closed or ready to close financially, legally,
and technically
2. Closing preparation -> is the project ready for closing legally?
a. The project is closed legally, and the responsibility of the project deliverables are handed on to
the operational team and includes the following steps:
i. Formally hand over all project products
ii. Get customer acceptance and try to get owner, customer, and user satisfaction
iii. Complete all financial transactions and have the major stakeholders agree upon the
payments
iv. All necessary knowledge for the operational period is transferred to the operational
team and that they are ready for the operational period.
1. Is the organization ready for the business, process, structure, or behavior
change?
v. Close the project (main) contract(s) formally and legally
vi. Disband the team
3. Post review project -> evaluate the project; prepare the project end report and prepare the lessons
learned:
a. It is not an obligation, but is effective way for organizations to learn and includes the following
steps:
i. Evaluate project success; assess how successful the project was and what factors
contributed to success
1. Five dimensions of project success: efficiency, impact on team, impact on
customer, business success and preparation for future.
ii. Prepare lessons learned rapport to achieve improvement from the past experiences
iii. Prepare an end of project report
1. Analyses the project performance in distinct categories.
5
For example, if the project contractor sends drawings or other documents to the superintendent for approval,
based on the contract they should evaluate and approve it (or defer it) in 20 working days. But if the
superintendent takes 40 working days to respond and this delay causes an extra direct cost for the contractor,
the contractor can claim extra money for the delay.
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