247
13
Creativity and the Closing Process
INTRODUCTION
e closing process involves bringing a project to conclusion eciently
and eectively. It entails ensuring that all administrative, nancial, and
legal requirements have been addressed and closed. It also entails con-
ducting reviews and capturing lessons from the project.
BENEFITS
ere are many benets attributed to the closing process. It ensures that
the company or parent organization does not have any legal or nancial
issues outstanding, provides an ecient way to release resources and at the
same time nish work, and oers an opportunity to capture any lessons
experienced on the project that will be helpful to other future projects of
a similar nature.
CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE
Failure to perform this process has tremendous consequences, espe-
cially aer the completion of a project. ere can be legal and nan-
cial ramications if contractual requirements are not addressed or
payments related to accounts payable and receivable are not reconciled.
A loss of vital information could be lost if no eort is made to
capture the explicit and tribal knowledge acquired during the project.
248 • Creative, Ecient, and Eective Project Management
Finally,astheprojectwinds down, work could be incomplete as people
move on to other projects and the morale of the remaining ones
deteriorates.
DELIVERABLES
e closing process has several project management deliverables (see
Figure13.1), including:
• Contractual closure
• Financial closure
• Lessons learned
• Requirements verication and validation
• Reviews and audits
• Winding-down activities (e.g., release of resources)
Preparation
Verification
and
Production
Concentration
Illumination
Incubation
- Contractual Closure
- Financial Closure
- Lessons Learned
- Requirements Verification
and Validation
- Reviews and Audits
- Winding-Down Activities
(e.g., Release of Resources)
FIGURE 13.1
Closing process and deliverables.
Creativity and the Closing Process • 249
IDEAL STATE
Ideally, project managers have a high-spirited team that wants to remain
until all work is complete. It is especially useful that people who have n-
ished their responsibilities volunteer to help others with remaining work.
Resources are completely at the project managers’ discretion on how long
to keep and when to release them. In addition, all data and information
are readily available to compile nal statistics about performance. All
nancial and legal records are easily accessible, and project managers sim-
ply have to gather them from the repository and obtain the necessary sig-
natures from applicable stakeholders. Any reviews and audits come at the
right time and are unobtrusive with respect to the remaining activities of
the project. Everyone feels they have been fairly recognized for their con-
tributions. Finally, all stakeholders want to participate in a lessons-learned
session in the best interests of the project.
Of course, reality is considerably dierent as the case is with the other
processes. Several people begin leaving the project before they complete
their remaining responsibilities. Some may be so eager to depart that they
do a quick x that ends up causing problems in the long run. Unless the
project is managed perfectly (and few are), people are constantly pushed
to complete their work. Dierences frequently exist with contractors or
suppliers over whether the work was done and, if so, according to expecta-
tions. Not everyone is thrilled about a lessons-learned session because it
might get tempers up and accusations pouring out. If the project is large
enough, someone will likely complain that they did not receive the degree
of recognition that they thought they deserved. Finally, the customer
expresses dissatisfaction because the project costs too much, took too
long, and did not meet all expectations. Fortunately, a good many projects
do not experience such a dismal state of aairs, but some do so to one
degree or another.
CONTEXT
ere are several contextual factors that project managers oen face
during the closing process. Here are just a few: Usually in the clos-
ing process, the project is something akin to a mopping-up operation.
250 • Creative, Ecient, and Eective Project Management
Some remaining work occupies the attention of fewer people. Project
managers apply a managerial style that is a mixture of being facilitative
and directive. Relationships with key stakeholders are being addressed
to ensure that no outstanding issues remain. ey are also working
with other stakeholders to assess how well everything went and try-
ing to capture any useful information about the experience. Individual
and team recognition occurs. e whole focus is one of getting the
job doneandmoving on to a new project or returning to the home
organization.
CHALLENGES AND CONSTRAINTS
e biggest challenges and constraints for the project are remaining com-
mitted to the project as it comes to a conclusion, having the availability of
data and information to collect and compile to satisfy business and legal
documentation requirements, capturing lessons learned, meeting the
needs of performance reviews or audits, and maintaining objectivity and
independence to determine if a project is complete.
Some challenges and constraints confronting this process are shown in
Table13.1.
CREATIVE ABILITIES
Of all the creative abilities for this process, perhaps the most important
ones are related to data compilation and information generation. ese
abilities cover both automated (e.g., pulling data from dierent les)
and manual means (e.g., interviewing people). By compiling data and
generating information, decisions can be made regarding whether the
project is complete according to the original or revised vision, goals,
and objectives, and whether all technical, legal, and nancial require-
ments have been addressed, both from a macro and from a micro
perspective.
Some relevant creative abilities required for this process are shown in
Table13.2.
Creativity and the Closing Process • 251
TABLE13.1
Closing Process and Challenges and Constraints
Challenge and Constraint Example
Dominance of brain
thinking
Placing more emphasis on statistical collection than on
keeping the team motivated to the very end of the project
Faster, better, cheaper
philosophy
Pushing people to just complete remaining work as quickly
as possible at the expense of quality
Fear Failing to assure team members about their fate during the
latter phases of a project, thereby inhibiting some people
from contributing
Groupthink Having people who all think alike at a lessons-learned
session
Hierarchy Allowing senior management to dictate the content of
alessons-learned document
Inghting Allowing nger pointing to take over a lessons-learned
session
Insecurity Failing to address the fear that contributing to the completion
of remaining work translates into loss of employment
Lack of data and
information
Failing to have access to the source of data to generate cost
information about the project
Lack of sharing Failing to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experience
when conducting a lessons-learned session
Leaping to judgment Concluding that the product or service delivered meets the
customer’s requirements and standards without
verication and validation
Management’s lack of
responsiveness
Requesting statistical information and insights about the
performance of the project and not receiving any response
Poor communications Failing to communicate to key stakeholders the plan to
release people as a project winds down
Poor coordination Failing to coordinate with key stakeholders to approve key
documents required for completing a project
Silos Failing to bridge the dierences among multiple functional
areas when participating in a lessons-learned session
Specialization Failing to bridge the dierences among multiple
specializations when participating in a lessons-learned
session
Success Lacking the motivation to perform many of the activities in
the closing process aer the successful delivery of a
product or service
Team composition
imbalance
Having too many le brain-dominant people remaining,
thereby skewing the results of a lessons-learned session
Too many positive and
negative incentives
Lacking the motivation to cooperate as well as to share
knowledge, experiences, and data aer not receiving
anaward
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