CHAPTER SIX

PROJECT TERMINATION AND

CLOSURE
Chapter Outline
 Project Learning: Success/Failure
Determination
 Project Termination and its approaches
 Project closeout
 Tasks of project closure
Project Learning: Success/Failure Determination
 The lessons-learned document captures the
successes, challenges, and other information of a
project.
 Similar projects in the future can refer to what is
in the document and, consequently, operate
more efficiently and effectively.
 The lessons-learned document helps to identify
their own strengths and weaknesses.
 Project success criteria are the standards by
which the project will be judged at the end to
decide whether or not it has been successful in
the eyes of the stakeholders.
Project Learning: Success/Failure Determination
 Lessons Learned Database
 Categorized electronic project information
database
 Continuous Improvement Recommendations
 Project Management Process
 Forms
 Standards
Project Learning: Success/Failure Determination
Sample questions:
 What happened on the project that surprised you?
 What do you know now about the project that you wish you had
known earlier? How would this have changed the project?
 What skills or knowledge turned out to be the most important?
 How effectively did the team capture and communicate the voice
of the customer?
 How effective were the project’s quality control and assurance
activities?
 What is your level of comfort with regard to the product’s quality?
 To what extent was the project life cycle that was used an
effective means of driving the project and generating its
deliverables?
Project Learning: Success/Failure Determination
 Evaluating Project Success
 Project purpose
 Deliverables
 Measurable success indicators
 Quality
 Schedule
 Cost
 Schedule
 Is there a hard deadline, or does the schedule relate
to something else (budget, product launch date, etc.)?
 In the end, did you complete the project by the time
it was due?
Project Learning: Success/Failure Determination
 Sometimes clients come with a hard deadline, other
times they’re simply looking for the final product.
 Scope
 A list of features or just an idea, but the scope should
essentially be the driving force of the project
 What do you need to get done within the timeframe?
 Budget
 In the end, did you stick to the budget?
 Your team should always know where they stand in
terms of money spent.
Project Learning: Success/Failure Determination
 Team satisfaction
 This is one that often goes overlooked in project
management. work shouldn't feel only like an
obligation.
 Customer satisfaction
 Often figure out what the customer looking for in
order to make sure they’re happy with the end
product.
 How do you track client satisfaction? Ask them to
rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 every week or so, and
analyze and review your findings.
Project Learning: Success/Failure Determination
 Quality of work
 If you deliver a strong product, your client will
tell people about it, and that's where your next
project should come from.
 Planning for project termination includes
 Transferring responsibility
 Completion of project records
 Historic reports
 Post-project analysis
 Documenting results to reflect “as built” product or
installation
 Acceptance by sponsor/user
 Satisfying contractual requirements
 Releasing resources
 Reassignment of project office team members
 Disposition of functional personnel
 Disposition of materials
 Closing out work orders (financial closeout)
 Preparing for financial payments
 Project Termination and its approaches
 A project can be said to be terminated when
work on the substance of the project has ceased
or slowed to the point that further progress is no
longer possible
 There are four fundamentally different ways to
close out a project: extinction, addition,
integration, and starvation
 Termination by Extinction
 The project may end because it has been
successful and achieved its goals
 The project may also be stopped because it is
unsuccessful or has been superseded
 A special case of termination by extinction is
“termination by murder” which can range from
political assassination to accidental projecticide
 Two important characteristics of termination by
murder are the suddenness of project demise
and the lack of obvious signals that death is
imminent
 Termination by Extinction
 When a decision is made to terminate a project
by extinction, the most noticeable event is that all
activity on the substance of the project ceases
 Termination by Addition
 If a project is a major success, it may be
terminated by institutionalizing it as a formal part
of the parent organization
 Project personnel, property, and equipment are
often simply transferred from the dying project to
the newly born division
 The transition from project to division demands a
superior level of political sensitivity for successful
accomplishment
 Termination by Integration
 This method of terminating projects is the most
common way of dealing with successful projects,
and the most complex
 The property, equipment, material, personnel, and
functions of the project are distributed among
the existing elements of the parent organization
 Termination by Integration
 In general, the problems of integration are
inversely related to the level of experience that
the parent or client has had with:
 the technology being integrated
 the successful integration of other projects, regardless
of technology
 Termination by Integration
 A few of the more important aspects of the
transition from project to integrated operation
that must be considered:
 Personnel - where will the team go?
 Manufacturing - is the training complete?
 Accounting/Finance - have the project’s account
been closed and audited?
 Engineering - are all drawings complete and on file?
 Information Systems/Software - has the new
system been thoroughly tested?
 Marketing - is the sales department aware of the
change?
 Termination by Starvation
 This type of project termination is a “slow
starvation by budget decrement”
 There are many reasons why senior management
does not wish to terminate an unsuccessful or
obsolete project:
 Politically dangerous to admit that one has
championed a failure
 Terminating a project that has not accomplished its
goals is an admission of failure
 Bad manners to enquire the status of the project
 When to Terminate a Project
 Some questions to ask when considering
termination:
 Has the project been obviated by technical advances?
 Is the output of the project still cost-effective?
 Is it time to integrate or add the project as a part of
regular operations?
 Are there better alternative uses for the funds, time
and personnel devoted to the project?
 Has a change in the environment altered the need for
the project’s output?
 When to Terminate a Project
 Fundamental reasons why some projects fail to
produce satisfactory answers to termination
questions:
 A project organization is not required
 Insufficient support from senior management
 Naming the wrong person as project manager
 Poor planning
 These and a few other reasons, are the base
cause of most project failures
 The specific causes derive from these
fundamental issues
 The Termination Process
 The termination process has two distinct parts
 First is the decision whether or not to terminate
 Second, if the decision is to terminate the project,
the decision must be carried out
 The Decision Process
 Decision-aiding models for the termination
decision fall into two generic categories:
 Models that base the decision on the degree to which
the project qualifies against a set of factors generally
held to be associated with successful projects
 Models that base the decision on the degree to which
the project meets the goals and objectives set for it
 Just as the decision criteria, constraints, weights,
and environmental data are unique to each
organization, so are the specifics of using any
decision model
 Project Closeout
 Involves gaining stakeholder and customer
acceptance of the final products and services.
 Even if projects are not completed, they should be
formally closed in order to reflect on what can be
learned to improve future projects.
 Outputs include project archives and lessons
learned , which are part of organizational process
assets
 Most projects also include a final report and
presentation to the sponsor or senior
management
 Project Closeout
 Closing out follow particular disciplines and
procedures with the objective of:
 Effectively bringing the project to closure according to
agreed-on contractual requirements
 Preparing for the transition of the project into the next
operational phase, such as from production to field
installation, field operation, or training
 Analyzing overall project performance with regard to
financial data, schedules, and technical efforts
 Closing the project office, and transferring or selling off
all resources originally assigned to the project, including
personnel
 Identifying and pursuing follow-on business
 Project Closeout
 The project closing is the last phase of all project
processes.
 The closing process consists of two sub-
processes:
 Contract closeout
 Administrative closure
 Obtain formal acceptance of the product of the
project from stakeholders & customers.
 The goal of closing is to get an official sign-off
from the stakeholders acknowledging acceptance
of the product and to file this with the project
documents.
 Project Closeout
 After delivering a successful project to the customers
& stakeholders the project must come to an end.
 For this the successful end has to be defined
1. Normal: The most common circumstance for
project closure is simply a completed project.
2. Premature: For a few projects, the project may be
completed early with some parts of the project
eliminated.
3. Perpetual: Some projects never seem to end. The
major characteristic of this kind of project is
constant “add-ons,” suggesting a poorly conceived
project scope.
 Project Closeout
4. Failed Project: Failed projects are usually easy to
identify and easy for a review group to close down.
However, every effort should be made to
communicate the technical (or other) reasons for
termination of the project;
5. Changed Priority: Organizations’ priorities often
change and strategy shifts directions. Projects in
process may need to be altered or canceled.
 On completion, the site must be cleared, all
temporary buildings, structures and fences have to
be removed, and access roads made good.
 Contract Administration
 Summarize project contract closure activities such as
formally closing all contracts associated with the
completed project
 Aware of the legal implications of actions taken when
administering the contract
 Application of the appropriate project management
processes to the contractual relationship(s) and
integration of the outputs from these processes into the
overall management of the project
 Administrative closure
 Following activities must be address in the
project closure plan:
 Identifying tasks necessary to close the project
 Assigning individuals to carry out closure tasks
 Monitoring implementation
 Ending closure process
 Administrative closure
 Important tasks:
 Project accounts closure:
 Outside vendors
 Partners
 Information system professionals
 Temporary workers
 Outside vendors and professionals should be
evaluated for:
 Responsiveness
 Reliability
 Service quality
 Adherence to contract terms
 Administrative closure
 Obtaining delivery acceptance from the customer
 Stops scope creep
 Confirms delivery date and the end of the project
 Equipment and facility release
 Avoids inaccurate accounting
 Helps proper use of organizational resources
 Project personnel release
 Sometimes, team members develop psychological
link with the project and want to continue
indefinitely
 Administrative closure
 Acknowledgements and awards
 Acknowledge and reward individuals,
departments and centers that influenced the
project success
 Organizing a social event is appropriate to
hand out awards and announce the project
closure
 Sometimes, organizations use such events
to launch new services or systems that
benefits customers and employees
 Tasks of project closure
 When a project is moving toward its natural
conclusion, a number of activities are necessary to
close it out.
 The process of closing out a project is complex,
involving multiple activities that must occur across
a defined period.
 Tasks of project closure
 Finishing the Work
 A number of tasks still need to be completed or
polished, such as a final debug on a software package.
 People working on the project naturally tend to lose
focus - to begin thinking of new project assignments or
their pending release from the team.
 The challenge for the project manager is to keep the
team zeroed in on the final activities, particularly as the
main elements of the project dramatically wind down.
 An orderly process for completing final assignments
usually requires the use of a checklist as a control
device.
 Tasks of project closure
 Handing over the project
 Transferring the project to its intended user usually
involves a formal transfer of ownership of the project
to the customer, including any terms and conditions for
the transfer.
 Transfer does not just involve shifting ownership; it also
requires establishing training programs for users,
transferring and sharing technical designs and features,
making all drawings and engineering specifications
available, and so on.
 Depending on the complexity of the transfer process,
the handing-over steps can require meticulous planning
in their own right.
 Tasks of project closure
 Handing over the project
 Now it is common to refuse initial acceptance of a
project by customers until after a transition period in
which the project contractor must first demonstrate
the viability of the project.
 Build, operate, and transfer (Bot)
 Build, own, operate, and transfer (Boot) - A
modification on BOT alternative
 Although they serve to protect the client, they
expose the contractor to serious potential damages
in the event of project failure
 Tasks of project closure
 Gaining acceptance for the project
 “Client acceptance” represents the recognition that
simply transferring the project to the customer is not
sufficient to ensure the customer’s happiness with it,
use of it, and recognition of its benefits.
 Some customers will purposely withhold unconditional
acceptance of a project because they fear that after
granting it, they will lose the ability to ask for
modifications or corrections for obvious errors.
 When we start planning for the project’s development,
we need to also start planning for the project’s transfer
and use to ease the client’s transition to ownership.
 Tasks of project closure
 Harvesting the Benefits
 Projects are initiated to solve problems, capitalize on
opportunities, or serve some specific goal(s).
 The idea of harvesting project benefits suggests that
we be in a position to assess the value the project adds,
either to an external customer or to our own firm, or
both.
 Benefits come in many forms and relate to the project
being created.
 The bottom line for harvesting the benefits suggests
that the project organization should begin to realize a
positive outcome from the completion of the project
 Tasks of project closure
 Harvesting the Benefits
 It may be difficult to accurately assess the benefits from
a project, particularly in the short run.
 Develop an effective and meaningful measurement
system that identifies the goals, time frame, and
responsibilities involved in project use and value
assessment worked out in advance
 Tasks of project closure
 Reviewing how it all Went
 Some basic principles must be followed when
evaluating a project’s (and project team’s) performance.
 Post-project reviews strive to be as objective as
possible, and in many organizations project reviews are
conducted by using outsiders.
 Four principles cover proper post-project reviews:
 Objectivity - the need for an unbiased, critical
review of the project from the perspective of
someone without an agenda
 Internal consistency - A logical and well-
constructed procedure must be established and
followed when conducting reviews
 Tasks of project closure
 Reviewing how it all Went
 Replicability - A standardized review process
should yield similar findings regardless of who
conducts the evaluation
 Fairness - Members of the project team must
perceive that the review was conducted fairly,
without agendas, and intended to highlight both
successes and failures.
Chapter End

Course End