Closing a Project

Ending a project cleanly is easier said that done.  People are rolling off the project and getting pulled into the next thing... frankly, we all just want to move on.  So how do we make sure that this important part of every project gets the attention it needs?

At Covenant our projects are approached in phases.  We always start with a planning phase and we always end with a "Transition" phase.  (What happens in between depends on Agile vs. Waterfall.)  The Transition phase begins when the solution is turned over to the client for testing and validation.  It ends when the client accepts the solution and starts using it.

We all understand the value of User Acceptance Testing - the first part of this last phase - and we strive to ensure that things will go well when someone pulls the "go live switch."  However, after that things get a little fuzzy... we have good intentions of closing out neatly, but that does not appear as important as getting the next thing going.  "Hey, we finished the project on time!"  And that's, that.

Part of the problem is that we often don't clearly define what needs to be done.  Put together a budget summary?  Meet with the client?  Sure, that makes sense... but there is much more.  In fact, I've been focusing on this aspect of our own methodology lately, defining what a project audit should look like at the close of a project, and I was surprised at how many things needed to get done.

Below is my scorecard checklist - take a look and let me know if a) That is helpful to you, and b) If you do anything that I haven't covered.

Schedule	Did we finish within the approved schedule.
Budget	Did we finish within the approved budget.
Change Requests	All changes in scope, schedule, and budget are documented, approved and online.
Requirements	Finalized and uploaded
Technical Documents	Finalized and uploaded
Technical Audit	Has the architecture and technical design been finalized and reviewed?
Client Budget Summary	Summary sent to client showing original budget, revised budget (listing CR’s) actual cost.
Client Project Close Meeting	Review deliverables from SOW/Charter. Confirmed acceptance from Client.
Return Client Property	Return badges, confidential documents etc. to client
Conduct Lessons Learned	(This will be a topic for another day.)
Archive Project	We use Project Server for everything - the project is moved out of Project Server and into a SharePoint archive.
Provide Feedback	Written performance feedback on all team members sent to employees and managers.
Notify Client Manager	Our Client Managers work on surveys, white papers etc.
Turnover to Support
Project Summary	Sent to executives etc.
Team Recognition	Team celebration, individual recognition