Project Management Basics Module 6 PDF

PROJECT MANAGEMENT BASICS MODULE 6 Module Overview Discuss and understand the project life cycle: Completion and Evaluation 2 CLOSING This process group relates to delivering a project to a successful close (i.e., on time and within budget). Good cl...

PROJECT MANAGEMENT BASICS MODULE 6 Module Overview Discuss and understand the project life cycle: Completion and Evaluation 2 CLOSING This process group relates to delivering a project to a successful close (i.e., on time and within budget). Good closure brings great reviews and can increase future word of mouth referrals. 3 CLOSING Project closure major deliverables are: 1. Wrapping up the project. The major wrap-up task is to ensure the project is approved and accepted by the customer. Other wrap-up activities include closing accounts, paying bills, reassigning equipment and personnel, finding new opportunities for project staff, closing facilities, and the final report. Checklists are used extensively to ensure tasks are not overlooked. In many organizations, the lion’s share of closure tasks is largely done by the project office in coordination with the project manager. The final report writing is usually assigned to one project office staff member, who assembles input from all stakeholders. In smaller organizations and projects, these closure activities are left to the project manager and team. 2. Project audit. Audits are post-project reviews of how successful the project was. They include causal analysis and thorough retrospectives which identify lessons learned. These post-project reviews should be held with the team and key stakeholders to catch any missing issues or gaps. 4 CLOSING 3. Evaluation of performance and management of the project. Evaluation includes team, individual team members, and project manager performance. Vendors and the customer may provide external input. Evaluation of the major players provides important information for the future. 5 TYPES OF PROJECT CLOSURE 6 TYPES OF PROJECT CLOSURE On some projects the end may not be as clear as would be hoped. Although the scope statement may define a clear ending for a project, the actual ending may or may not correspond. Fortunately, a majority of projects are blessed with a well-defined ending. Regular project reviews will identify projects having endings different from plans. The different types of closure are identified here: Normal Failed Project Premature Changed Priority Perpetual POST-IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION 8 POST-IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION The purpose of project evaluation is to assess how well the project team, team members, and project manager performed. Evaluation of performance is essential to encourage changes in behavior and to support individual career development and continuous improvement through organizational learning. Evaluation implies measurement against specific criteria. Experience corroborates that before commencement of a project, the stage must be set so expectations, standards, supportive organizational culture, and constraints are in place; if not, the effectiveness of the evaluation process will suffer. 9 POST-IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION 10 POST-IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION The major reasons cited by practitioners are twofold: 1. Evaluations of individuals are still left to supervisors of the team member’s home department. 2. Typical measures of team performance center on time, cost, and specifications. Most organizations do not go beyond these measures, although they are important and critical. Organizations should consider evaluating the team-building process, effectiveness of group decision and problem-solving processes, group cohesion, trust among team members, and quality of information exchanged. Measurement of customer and user satisfaction with project deliverables (i.e., the project results) is often missed completely. Yet, project success depends significantly on satisfying these two very important groups. The quality of the deliverables is the responsibility of the team. 11 POST-IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION Before an evaluation of the project team can be effective and useful, a minimum core of conditions needs to be in place before the project begins: 1. Do standards for measuring performance exist? (You can’t manage what you can’t measure.) Are the goals clear for the team and individuals? Challenging? Attainable? Lead to positive consequences? 2. Are individual and team responsibilities and performance standards known by all team members? 3. Are team rewards adequate? Do they send a clear signal that senior management believes that the synergy of teams is important? 4. Is a clear career path for successful project managers in place? 5. Is the team empowered to manage short-term difficulties? 6. Is there a relatively high level of trust emanating from the organizational culture? 7. Team evaluation should go beyond time, cost, and specifications. Are there criteria beyond the constraint criteria? 12 POST-IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION Individual, Team Member, and Project Manager Performance Reviews Organizations vary in the extent to which their project managers are actively involved in the appraisal process of team members. In organizations where projects are managed within a functional organization, the team member’s area manager, not the project manager, is responsible for assessing performance. The area manager may solicit the project manager’s opinion of the individual’s performance on a specific project; this will be factored into the individual’s overall performance. In a balanced matrix, the project manager and the area manager jointly evaluate an individual’s performance. In project matrix and project organizations in which the lion’s share of the individual’s work is project related, the project manager is responsible for appraising individual performance. One process that appears to be gaining wider acceptance is the multirater appraisal or “360-degree feedback,” which involves soliciting feedback concerning team members’ performance from all the people their work affects. This would include not only project and area managers, but also peers, subordinates, and even customers. 13 POST-IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION The goals of project closure are to complete the project and to improve performance of future projects. Implementing closure and review has three major closure deliverables: wrap-up, audit, and performance evaluation. Wrap-up activities put the project “to bed” and include completing the final project deliverable, closing accounts, finding new opportunities for project staff, closing facilities, and creating the final report. Project audits assess the overall success of the project. Retrospectives are used to identify lessons learned and improve future performance. Individual and team evaluations assess performance and opportunities for improvement. A project should not be considered closed until all three activities have been completed. The culture of the organization and the project team will play a major factor in the efficacy of these activities. 14 POST-IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION During this phase, the final products, services, and other outcomes are delivered to the client. Ties to other organizations, such as the host and suppliers, are ended and the project team is disbanded. It is common for a final report to be prepared that summarizes the project’s accomplishment, future actions required, if any, and ongoing maintenance arrangements. Accounting adjustments may be made and unnecessary assets may need to be disposed of as well. Workers are often reassigned at this point so having effective performance evaluations done during the execution phase will enable the organization to reassign workers in the most productive way. 15 QUESTIONS? 16 THANK YOU! See you on our next class 17