PRINCE2 topics covered in this chapter:
- Closing a Project process
- Directing a Project process – authorise project closure activity
Introduction
In many ways, the Final Delivery Stage is just like any other – and for a simple project, it will be the only delivery stage. On behalf of the Project Board, the Project Manager continues to oversee the authorisation, execution and acceptance of Work Packages. Quality is controlled, risks are managed, issues dealt with, and progress tracked. However, there’s one critical difference: a point is reached when the project is brought to a controlled finish.
A defining feature of projects is that they have defined start and end points. The latter is just as important as the former. Without an end marker a project would lose its management focus, drift into ‘business as usual’, and become part of the furniture. The pivotal control of customer acceptance would be weakened, with pressure being removed to hit delivery targets on schedule and within budget. Running an on-going operation with a project organisation is also an inefficient use of resources.
An early step-by-step review of customer acceptance criteria, and how these will be judged, avoids unfortunate disagreements at project end. Whilst these have been agreed from the outset, it’s useful insurance to confirm that customer and supplier are still shooting for the same goal posts.
Bringing about controlled closure requires careful preparation, and the necessary tasks are included within the Final Delivery Stage plan. These include completing customer hand-over, checking that all planned products are ticked off, releasing resources and evaluating project performance. PRINCE2 has a dedicated process for these activities and it runs in place of Managing a Stage Boundary. It’s called Closing a Project, and is used for both planned and premature closures.
Clearly, the decision to end a project is a vital control point for the Project Board. Before turning the lights out, it needs to ensure that what’s been promised has been delivered and the customer has signed-off formal acceptance. It also has a responsibility to confirm the final Business Case position, communicate the end result, and pass on lessons that will benefit others. The Directing a Project process supplies an activity to handle the last decision point: authorise project closure.
This chapter describes the Closing a Project process and the final part of Directing a Project.
It shouldn’t happen on a project (but did) …
In its closing stages, a venture lost its Project Manager. The Executive decided that a replacement was an unnecessary luxury. Instead, she published a project calendar to the team. She was confident that it nicely summarised the outstanding work and provided a realistic set of dates to hit.
Without anyone there to mediate, friction between customers and suppliers soon erupted. Amidst growing recriminations and finger pointing progress went into reverse. Faced with having to issue a fourth version of her project calendar, the Executive finally relented. A Project Manager was parachuted in. He wrestled back control, soothed tempers and got the work completed – albeit at greater cost than had originally been envisaged.
Even projects close to completion need careful management. In fact, the phase that achieves final customer sign-off can be the most challenging.
Closing a project
Source: © Crown Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. Material is reproduced with the permission of the Cabinet Office under delegated authority of the Controller of HMSO.
The Closing a Project process provides a set of activities for bringing a project to a controlled end. It’s used both for closing a project once it’s met its objectives, and in the scenario where an early termination has been agreed.
Objectives for closing a project
- Confirming that the project has delivered everything that’s been agreed; and that arrangements have been made to deal with any open issues, risks and actions.
- Ensuring that the customer is able to use and to support the products handed over once the project team disbands.
- Verifying that all benefits achieved to date have been recorded, and that a plan is in place to track future ones.
- Assessing performance against the original baseline and any subsequent revisions to this.
The process checks a project’s outputs are complete, assesses its performance, extracts final lessons, and tidies up loose ends. It consists of five activities:
- Prepare planned closure
- Prepare premature closure
- Hand over products
- Evaluate the project
- Recommend project closure.
These activities are included within the plan that’s developed for the final stage of delivery. Where the project is brought to an early halt, the process is still followed. However, PRINCE2 recognises that pragmatic tailoring of the approach is required to reflect the particular circumstances.
Figure 10.1 PRINCE2’s recommended path through Closing a Project activities
The main resulting products are an End Project Report (including lessons) and updated Project Plan and Benefits Review Plan, together with a closure recommendation.
Prepare planned closure
Remember the Project Product Description that was documented way back during the Initiation Stage? The Project Manager needs to be satisfied that this has been successfully delivered against. Everything that was promised has to be provided and the agreed acceptance criteria met. To assist in making this assessment, Project Support runs off a Product Status Account. This confirms (or otherwise) that all of the planned products have been delivered, met their quality criteria, and have gained the necessary approvals.
In preparation for closure, the Project Plan is also updated with actual progress from the Final Delivery Stage.
Prepare premature closure
When the Project Board calls for a project to be halted, anything of value is rescued. Wider impacts of early cancellation are considered too. This requires bringing work to a graceful conclusion, rather than simply abandoning ship.
As with a planned closure, a review of an up-to-date Product Status Account is a pretty good place to start. This confirms what’s already been constructed and what’s currently in play. Tactics are agreed for each deliverable that’s in progress. In some cases, it’s worthwhile putting in a little additional work to put a product into a known state, or even to complete it. The Project Board is engaged in the decision so the right balance is struck between getting value out of the sunk investment and engineering a timely stop.
The Project Manager agrees a plan for completing the outstanding work with the Project Board. This includes updating the Project Plan with actuals, and finalising logs and registers.
It’s possible that cancellation has implications that go beyond the project. For example, another initiative may be expecting to use the results. The relevant stakeholders are contacted, including those up the management line, so that they’re aware of the change of plan. This includes notification of the early release of resources.
Hand over products
A project isn’t complete until all the products destined for the customer are handed over, and in such a way that they’re useable and supportable. Hand-over can take place in one ‘big bang’ near the end, or as a series of phased deliveries. When a project is being halted early, a hand-over approach is agreed that’s consistent with the closure tactics signed off by the Project Board.
With all the excitement around getting products out of the door, it can be easy to overlook what happens once the customer receives them. This is a shame because all the hard work put in is undermined if the hand-over is mismanaged.
Here, first impressions count. If initial performance falters it’s then an uphill struggle to win round the doubters. Unfortunately, there’s no honeymoon period. However good testing and assurance procedures are, faults are most likely to emerge during the first use in anger.
This all underlines the importance of up-front planning for hand-over and the support organisation that’s needed. PRINCE2 encourages thought about this right from the Initiation Stage.
Add successful initial operation to the acceptance criteria that are negotiated from Pre-project. That way, there’s pressure to keep the experienced team in place until hand-over is judged to be a success.
The hand-over of products is backed up by records to confirm acceptance both from customer and support organisations. The transfer of ownership is recorded in the products’ Configuration Item Records.
This activity also provides a trigger for ensuring the Benefits Review Plan contains the latest information on benefits delivered to date, and those expected in the future. This might incorporate information gained from seeing the outputs put to practical use.
Finally, the project management team identifies any actions needed after project closure. It’s agreed how best to pass these on and to ensure that they’re actively owned.
Evaluate the project
The last steps before recommending closure are to assess how successful the project has been, and to determine what lessons should be drawn from the experience. Achievements can be viewed from a number of perspectives. However, these boil down to two fundamental questions:
- Has/will the project’s Business Case be achieved?
- Was the project delivered within the targets set for it?
These questions are considered in the context of the original baseline set during the Initiation Stage, and any subsequent revisions that were later approved as the project proceeded.
Important questions to ask during project evaluation
- To what extent are the benefits originally forecast in the Business Case now expected to be achieved? Has the timing of delivery changed?
- Did new benefits or dis-benefits appear?
- Were all of the planned products delivered? Were there any significant quality issues encountered (e.g. instances of substantial re-work)?
- How does actual performance compare with the baselined targets and tolerances?
- How well did individuals perform as a team?
- In the case of a premature close, what train of events led to the decision to stop?
- What follow-on actions need to be assigned?
The whole project management team is involved in the evaluation exercise, with additional input being sought from key stakeholders.
Once the performance of the project has been reviewed, a concluding set of lessons learned are captured. Building on the assessment that’s been made throughout, final consideration is given to what went well and not so well. This includes judging the effectiveness of management strategies, controls and techniques. The successes and failures, and their underlying causes are written up in a Lessons Report.
Finally, the results of the project evaluation are documented in an End Project Report, and this includes a summary of the lessons learned.
End project report – table of contents
The End Project Report summarises the project’s performance against its agreed baseline(s). It’s prepared by the Project Manager during the Final Delivery Stage, and typically includes the following sections:
| Section | Typical contents |
| Executive Summary | A short (one page) summary of the performance of the project against the objectives that were set for it; highlighting the top lessons learned and any important actions needed beyond project closure |
| Background | The reason for the project, its primary objectives and a brief narrative of project events. An account of any changes that were approved to the baseline agreed during initiation |
| Product Delivery | A table of the major planned products, confirming delivery (as appropriate) and with notes of any significant deviations from agreed requirements. A detailed log of all products and references to quality management records can be attached as an appendix |
| Project Benefits | A description of the extent to which the Business Case is expected to be met, summarising the benefits delivered to date and the prospects for future benefits delivery after closure |
| Project Performance | An account of the actual performance against the targets and tolerances set for it; including resources, timescales, quality and scope |
| Lessons Summary | A summary of the principle lessons learned, with a reference to the full Lessons Report |
| Follow-up Actions | A list of the actions needed, with the action owners, once the project has closed |
Recommend project closure
When the Project Manager believes that the project is ready to be shut down, a recommendation for closure is drafted for submission to the Project Board. Consideration is also given to who will be told about the completion of work. This extends to those wider stakeholders who will benefit from hearing a ‘good news’ story.
Finally, the last loose ends are tidied up, with all of the registers and logs being closed.
Directing a project – the final act
Source: © Crown Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. Material is reproduced with the permission of the Cabinet Office under delegated authority from the Controller of HMSO.
During the Final Delivery Stage, the Project Board continues to direct a project as it has during previous delivery stages. Ad hoc direction is provided and exceptions are dealt with where necessary. Whilst there’s no next stage to approve, there’s one additional, final responsibility: to authorise project closure. This is the last activity undertaken by the Project Board before it disbands.
Authorise project closure
Before giving closure approval, the Project Board satisfies itself that all of the project objectives and delivery commitments have been met. The review includes ensuring that:
- the End Project Report provides an accurate picture of performance data and what’s been delivered;
- the Benefits Review Plan and Business Case accurately reflect the final benefits position;
- ownership of follow-on actions has been accepted.
The Project Board may enlist assistance from Project Assurance to confirm the accuracy of the information presented. Importantly, it’s verified that formal customer acceptance has been obtained, including from those taking on support and maintenance responsibilities.
Thought is given to the most appropriate audience for the recommendations contained within the Lessons Report, and the best way of communicating with them.
Simply lodging a Lessons Report in the organisation’s vaults or circulating it via email won’t create much of an impact. Go the extra mile, and offer to give a pithy presentation to those that could benefit from what you’ve learned.
The Project Board then signs-off the End Project Report and final version of the Business Case. In consultation with the corporate or programme management team, the Benefits Review Plan is approved and handed over to those is responsible for tracking benefits post-project.
The final act of the Project Board is to issue a notification of project closure. It then disbands.
Summary
PRINCE2’s Closing a Project process provides the structure for bringing a project to its conclusion – whether this is the end point originally envisaged or an earlier stop. For a planned closure to go ahead the Project Product Description must have been delivered against and the agreed acceptance criteria met. Importance is placed on a smooth and meaningful hand-over. This extends to demonstrating that outputs are useable in their intended environment and adequately supported. In the spirit of sharing experience, project performance is reviewed and lessons identified.
PRINCE2 process-in-a-box – closing a project
Purpose summary: to demonstrate that a project can be closed because there’s formal acceptance it has met its delivery objectives, or it’s in a suitable state for early closure
Triggers:
A stage review confirms that the Final Delivery Stage is near to completion – or –
The Project Board decides to close the project prematurely
Activities |
Key management products |
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End result: A recommendation to close the project is issued to the Project Board
The Project Board reviews the basis on which the Project Manager is recommending closure, and confirms that owners have been found for benefits review activities and any other actions required post-project. It wraps up its role with a notification of project closure.
Despite tackling the final days in detail, PRINCE2 stays silent on the topic of the traditional end of project celebration. Fortunately, most seem capable of meeting to swap war stories over a few light refreshments without a prompt from the PRINCE2 manual.